Canucks: Should J.T. Miller start playing at centre more often?

The Vancouver Canucks swept their two-game series against the Toronto Maple Leafs all without Elias Pettersson. In his absence, Marc Michaelis has stepped into the lineup while J.T. Miller has moved from left wing to centre.

Now, this isn’t much of a surprise considering Miller has played centre in the past with the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning. In those two games against the Maple Leafs, Miller looked pretty solid down the middle. He looked better on the defensive side and created some good scoring chances.

After the Canucks’ 3-2 win over the Leafs on Saturday, Miller himself said he looked very comfortable and engaged at the centre position.

Brock Boeser even acknowledged Miller’s play down the middle and even cracked a joke at it.

At centre, Miller has looked like the player the Canucks had last year. He was providing offence and helping out on defence with his two-way game.

It was like shifting to centre was a spark for Miller who has had an up-and-down season. Per Puckbase.com Miller has a 55.6% faceoff percentage. The one question that remains now is if he should stay in that position or not.

Should Miller be kept at centre?

With Miller showing chemistry with Brock Boeser and Nils Hoglander, should he stay at centre instead of moving back to the wing (even when Pettersson comes back)? That question has surfaced on social media quite a bit from Canucks fans.

At the time of this writing, not much has been said about Pettersson’s status other than the fact that he is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

When Pettersson comes back, Miller could be moved back to the wing and the “Lotto Line” could get back together.

However, the idea of Miller staying at centre is intriguing. Yes, it has only been two games but he has fit in nicely there. Some fans have suggested for Pettersson to play on the third line as a centre. Personally, I’m not too big on that idea. It doesn’t feel right to have your best player and franchise cornerstone on the third line. A more interesting idea is to have Pettersson play on the wing with Horvat (Pettersson has played the wing during his SHL days).

For now, Miller should stay with Hoglander and Boeser because they have looked good with the puck together. There is the option of having Pettersson on the wing on the second line with Bo Horvat. There are some options you could have at the right-wing for the second line. Adam Gaudette would probably be my first choice.

Miller looks more confident down the middle and staying there for the time being could help his game and the Canucks.

I wrote a while back that Miller needs to be more consistent and there was something “off” about him. Maybe playing him as a centre in the top six is the key to getting him back on track because so far it seems to be working.