For what feels like forever, Vancouver Canucks forward J.T. Miller has been involved in trade rumours.
Radio, podcasts and blogs (like this one) kept creating content on Miller trade rumours and speculation. But talks about the Canucks making trades have been quiet for weeks.
Miller himself spoke about the trade rumours from his offseason home in Pittsburgh about being the subject of trade rumours, his 99-point season and more on the latest episode of Dropping The Fights Podcast hosted by former NHL enforcer (and All-Star) John Scott and Tim Dubya.
You can listen to the full interview here.
Scott and Dubya asked some good questions and it was a pretty lighthearted interview. It is worth the listen.
Miller on the trade rumours and contract extension talks
To no one’s surprise, Miller revealed that he and the Canucks are still far apart in terms of contract talks. He spoke about how he wants to stay in Vancouver but will understand if things don’t work out.
“It’s a new fit for our management, it’s new for us,” he said. “They were there for, you know, three months. They have a lot of decisions to make on a lot of players. So far to this point with the negotiations, we’re not as close as we’d like to be. So I’m not 100% sure Everybody has a vision. As I said from day one, I want to be there but, that being said, if it’s not meant to be, I understand that too. Trust me, I’d like to have a deal done in Vancouver and I want to be there but, at the same time, I have to respect everybody’s vision and if that doesn’t line up, it is what it is.”
Miller was also asked if there were talks after the Canucks season ended. It turns out, there was.
“Well, what we do a lot of talking about the season and why we aren’t in the playoffs and you know, the future,” he said. “We definitely, were under the impression we were going to negotiate a little bit for an extension this summer. We did that pretty early on and like I said, it just didn’t really go the way…or everybody, but obviously not for me. Patrik (Allvin) and Jim (Rutherford), they haven’t been here long (and) they have a lot of hard decisions to make. Then they had to draft right away and free agency. It’s been a kind of a crazy thing.”
Miller also scoffed at the constant rumours on the internet.
“Everything that on the internet that, the media drove themselves crazy all summer,” said Miller. ” I mean, there was nothing real on the internet all summer. There was every time a team pops up, you know, every time somebody said something 99% of that was not real. It’s a rumour mill and when you play in Vancouver, it’s nonstop. I was traded to the Penguins 20 times this summer. I don’t know if you heard about it. There’s a lot of BS going on with the internet and all that.”