Miller's agent: 'Realistic path' for extension with Canucks
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After an off-season full of rumours surrounding his future, it appears J.T. Miller could be staying with the Vancouver Canucks long-term.
Miller's agent, Brian Bartlett, told The Athletic that he sees a path forward in extension talks with the Canucks ahead of Miller reaching unrestricted free agency next summer.
“I do think there’s a realistic path for an extension with the Canucks,” said Bartlett, who reiterated Miller has not requested a trade. “J.T. loves it in Vancouver. He feels like the team is improving, he loved his role there, his family likes the city.
“He would be on board with an extension. The part that we can’t answer is at what value or level the team places on him. From our end, from J.T.’s end, there’s a path forward on an extension but it takes two to tango, I guess.”
Miller, signed at a cap hit of $5.2 million, is coming off a career year in which he posted 32 goals and 99 points in 80 games. The 29-year-old winger, who was acquired by the Canucks from the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2019, has 169 goals and 454 points in 637 career games.
Responding to reports of trade talk surrounding Miller, Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford told the Vancouver Province last month that as much as the team would like to keep Miller, re-signing him to a long-term deal may not make sense for Vancouver.
Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin responded to Bartlett's latest comments by stating he he believes the team has made a fair offer to Miller, given the team's long-term cap outlook,
“As I said before, I think J.T. was our best player last year and he’s a really good player in the league, a top player,” Allvin told The Athletic. “We made an offer to him where we felt it’s fair from our side and the bigger picture in order to be competitive and in order to have a good team, that’s where our offer came into him. We met in Montreal as well, I met his camp, and we’re talking so that’s where it is.
“We still have time from now until the trade deadline to figure things out. I hope we’re continuing to talk in a positive way, we’ll see where it ends.”
The Canucks currently have $60.8 million in salary committed towards their 2023-24 roster, per CapFriendly, after re-signing Brock Boeser on a three-year deal earlier this off-season and adding Ilya Mikheyev on a four-year contract in free agency last week.