Winners and Losers of J.T. Miller for Filip Chytil Rangers-Canucks Trade

Sometimes a rumor is just a rumor. And other times it's a precursor of fact.

Friday night was evidence of the latter as the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks finally pulled off a long-discussed deal that sent disgruntled center J.T. Miller to Broadway as the highest-profile piece of a transaction involving four other players and a draft pick.

It's a return to Madison Square Garden for the 31-year-old Miller, who was picked 15th overall by the Rangers in 2011 and spent parts of six seasons there before he was traded to Tampa Bay in February 2018, then subsequently moved to Vancouver in June 2019.

It's the latest in a flurry of activity kicked off by the blockbuster that sent winger Mikko Rantanen to Carolina as part of a three-team deal with Colorado and Chicago on January 24.

The B/R hockey team took a deep dive and came up with a definitive list of winners and losers on the Miller trade. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the app comments.

It's a little early for a full-fledged victory lap.

Still, it was a pretty good night for GM Chris Drury.

The Rangers haven't exactly performed to expectations while running up a .520 points percentage through 50 games, a season after they'd won the Metropolitan Division and earned their first Presidents' Trophy since 2015.

But acquiring a player coming off a 103-point season–not to mention a 20-year-old prospect and a former first-round pick with nearly 300 games played that came along with him–makes the team better and deeper and instantly boosts their playoff hopes.

Considering the primary cost for Miller was Filip Chytil, a good, young player but one who's had recurring issues with concussions, and given that New York held on to defenseman Ryan Lindgren, there's plenty of reason for Drury to celebrate.

Let's just say the Canucks weren't in a position of strength.

The rift between Miller and Elias Pettersson was enough for GM Patrik Allvin and hockey operations boss Jim Rutherford to ponder the market for each player, and for Rutherford to tell The Globe and Mail that there was "not a good solution" to keep the group together.

So it's no surprise, then, that the haul they were able to get in return for Miller isn't exactly what one might expect for a player who's coming off a 100-plus-point season and signed through 2029-30.

Chytil has maxed out at 22 goals and 45 points across parts of seven seasons since he was drafted 21st overall in 2017, while complementary part Victor Mancini has five points and a minus-3 rating through 15 games in his first season since he was drafted in 2022.

And given Miller's likely impact on the Rangers, it's unlikely the first-round pick now owned by Vancouver this summer will result in a sure-fire impact player given that the draft is not considered as deep as others in recent years.

The Rangers don't have a recent history of handling youth too well.

And it's presumably no different here given that they're acquiring a 31-year-old center in exchange for a 25-year-old center who was drafted in the first round, a defensive prospect who's just 22, and a first-round pick in the upcoming 2025 draft.

It's not the sort of haul that'll get statues erected for either Allvin or Rutherford, but there is a risk for Drury if Chytil blossoms in British Columbia, if Mancini turns into a long-term serviceable NHL'er, or if the first-rounder becomes something more than a name on a list.

And lest we forget, the deal comes just a few weeks after the Rangers sent former second-overall pick Kaapo Kakko, a 23-year-old winger, to Seattle and watched him produce more points in his first 20 games with the Kraken (15) than he did in 30 games in New York (14).

All of a sudden, it's not so bad to be J.T. Miller.

He'll make $8 million annually from now through 2029-30, he's coming off a 103-point season in which he played in the All-Star Game, and now that the deal has gone through he's returning to a team and a market he knows quite well.

The Ohio native was drafted by the Rangers in 2011, played minor-league hockey with the franchise's affiliate in Connecticut for two seasons, and scored his first two NHL goals in his first game at Madison Square Garden exactly 12 years ago this week.

He joins a team with a perennial MVP candidate in Artemi Panarin, former Norris and Vezina Trophy winners in Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin, and a host of talented complementary players like Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. And upon arrival, he makes them better.

Sure, British Columbia is beautiful. But there are worse things than playing on Broadway.

Maybe it makes the Canucks better. Maybe it doesn't.

But either way, you've got to think Elias Pettersson is smiling just a bit.

The issues with Miller weren't going to go away until someone was moved, and the Swedish forward was on record saying his preference was to remain in Vancouver.

So the Canucks brass dispatched Miller instead, brought in a few pieces in his place, and essentially gave Pettersson the on-ice keys to the franchise with which he signed an eight-year, $92.8 million contract extension last March.

Sure, there's some pressure to show the 55-point pace he's on through 44 games was due in part to the Miller conflict, but, c'mon, what's better than watching an enemy pack his bags?

For the New Jersey Devils, he's the one that got away. Again.

GM Tom Fitzgerald was rumored to be on the hunt for Miller for several weeks, but Drury's eventual trigger-pull on Friday took another high-profile target off the wish list.

The Devils had 63 points through 53 games and seem safe as far as the playoff chase goes, but watching the Rangers get a 103-point player just days after another Metropolitan rival, Carolina, snatched Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall in the same deal, doesn't exactly stoke Garden State optimism once the tournament gets started.

Fitzgerald has done a stellar job remaking his roster over the past few seasons and he may yet find a willing partner for an eventual deadline move, but it's a bit harder to imagine at this point now that Miller is out of play.