Canucks: J.T. Miller finishes as team scoring leader, hit impressive feat

J.T. Miller reached an impressive feat this season while finishing out as the Vancouver Canucks’ 2019-20 scoring leader.

Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning was widely criticized for giving up a first-round pick as part of the package for Tampa Bay Lightning forward J.T. Miller, but the blockbuster move paid massive dividends immediately.

Miller formed a dynamic top scoring line with young phenoms Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser; the three players combined for 183 points on the season. Vancouver also finished with the eighth-most goals for at 228.

The 27-year-old Miller also finished the season as Vancouver’s scoring leader, having set career bests in goals (27) and points (72). It’s not being talked about much, but Miller also set an impressive feat during the 2019-20 season.

Miller also became the first Canuck to hit 70 points in a season since 2014-15, when Daniel and Henrik Sedin finished with 76 and 73, respectively.

In the previous four seasons, the Canucks were simply unable to generate a whole lot of offence. Daniel was their leading scorer with 61 points in 2015-16, Bo Horvat with 52 points in 2016-17, Boeser and Daniel with 55 apiece in 2017-18 and Pettersson with 66 in 2018-19.

Miller was on his way to being over a point-per-game player for the first time in his career prior to the season suspension. But the Canucks organization and fans are still more than pleased with what he brought to the table in 2019-20.

20-something goals and 50 to 60 points would have done nicely, but Miller easily exceeded expectations in his first year with Vancouver. Needless to say, he and Benning certainly proved the doubters wrong.

And so, Miller and the Canucks now await the resumption of play. They’ll face the Minnesota Wild in a best-of-five qualifying round to determine who goes to the round of 16.

But no matter what happens from here, Canuck fans have to be encouraged with Miller’s production this season, and he’ll be an instrumental part of their hopeful success going forward.