Canucks send Miller to Rangers for Chytil, Mancini, first-round pick
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The Vancouver Canucks have traded forward J.T. Miller, along with Erik Brannstrom, and Jackson Dorrington to the New York Rangers in exchange for Filip Chytil and defenceman Victor Mancini. The Canucks are also getting a top-13 protected first-round pick in 2025. If the pick lands in that range, it will convert to an unprotected pick in 2026.
Miller, 31, tallied nine goals and 35 points in 40 games with the Canucks this season.
According to multiple reports, there had been growing tension between Miller, who has seen his ice time reduced in recent weeks, and teammate Elias Pettersson.
Johnston reported in mid-January that there was a sense around the NHL that Miller would be the more likely of the two players to be moved before the deadline.
The 6-foot-1 centre is on the second season of a seven-year, $56 million contract with an annual cap hit of $8 million. He is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2029-30 campaign.
Miller had a career-high 37 goals and 103 points last season to help lead the Canucks to a 50-23-9 record and a Pacific Division title.
Drafted 15th overall by the New York Rangers in 2011, Miller has 247 goals and 674 points in 839 career games split between the Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Canucks.
The East Palestine, Ohio, native represented Team North America to a fifth-place finish at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto.
Brannstrom, 25, has three goals and five assists in 28 games this season, his first with the Canucks. The Eksjo, Sweden native spent the first six seasons of his career with the Ottawa Senators and has totalled 10 goals and 77 points in 294 career games.
He was originally selected 15th overall by the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 NHL Draft.
Dorrington, 20, was selected in the sixth round (176th overall) by the Canucks in 2022. The blueliner has two goals and eight assists in 23 games at Northeastern University.
Canucks acquire Chytil, Mancini, first-round pick
Chytil, a 25-year-old from Czechia, has 11 goals and nine assists in 41 games with the Rangers this season, his eighth in New York.
Selected 21st overall by the Rangers in 2017, Chytil is currently in the second season of a four-year, $17.75 million contract, featuring an average value of $4.44 million.
The 22-year-old Mancini has one goal and four assists in 15 games with the Rangers in 2024-25, his rookie season in the NHL. He also has three goals and seven assists in 23 AHL games.
Selected by the Rangers in the fifth round of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, the Michigan native is on his entry-level contract.