Canucks GM Patrik Allvin says “anything can happen” with J.T. Miller and looks to mine quality in the later rounds of the draft

Patrik Allvin met with the media in Montreal on the eve of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.

The Vancouver Canucks’ general manager talked for nine minutes and though he said a lot of words, as per usual, he didn’t give us very much. Let’s get into some of the quotes that he gave in the midst of us seeing reports of a distance between the J.T. Miller camp and the team on an extension as well as what Allvin had to say about the team’s approach for the draft.

Reports suggest that the Canucks and Miller’s camp are decently far apart when it comes to money and term on a new contract. Allvin commented on the situation.

“We had good talks, good conversations with his agents,” said Allvin. “I guess anything can happen, but we’ll wait and see here.”

Allvin also mentioned that there is no deadline on when they want to make a decision on extending or trading Miller. I guess anything can happen but it sure looks like Miller may have played his last game as a Canuck if the two sides aren’t close on an extension. Miller has massive value this week and we are continuing to hear insiders talk about the Miller trade talks heating up.

Allvin later commented on the Canucks being without a second-round pick and wanting to see what happens on day one of the draft before evaluating if the team believes they should trade into the second round to get a guy they like.

“There’s obviously a few teams that have multiple second-round picks and it’ll be interesting to see who the players are that are picked tomorrow,” said Allvin. “If our staff believes there are good ones early in the second round, we might have to look at it.”

He was asked about mining value late in the draft and believes that hitting on your late-round picks is how the good teams separate themselves from the pack.

”It’s important if we’re going to be a better club here moving forward. We need to hit outside the first round — that’s a difference-maker,” said Allvin. “Good teams are able to find players in the later parts of the draft. Because of the uncertainty with some of the players who haven’t been playing as much over the last couple of years, hopefully, we’ll be able to find something in the mid to late rounds. They’ll take some time and eventually become a Canucks player.”

We all remember the 2019 draft, where the Canucks didn’t select a single defenceman with their nine picks. We know the prospect pool needs defencemen but Allvin didn’t say as much. He wants to go in the direction of the best player available and look to find future Canucks instead of just finding future defencemen for the Canucks.

“I think if you look at our pool, we can address a bit of everything,” said Allvin. “There is not just one particular position that we’re looking to address, with the six picks that we have as of today. I think best player available. We’ll see where that takes us.”

We are all set for the next couple of days being an absolute barrage of news and can’t wait to cover it all here at CanucksArmy.

I’ve been here in Montreal since Monday night and will continue to cover the draft live in person here and am looking forward to some fireworks on the draft floor at the Bell Centre. Be sure to follow along on Twitter and Instagram for more updates and we will have all the latest news broken down here at CanucksArmy as quickly as it happens.

Round one of the NHL Entry Draft begins at 4 pm PST with rounds two to seven of the draft kicking off Friday morning at 8 am PST. The Canucks currently possess the 15th pick in the draft as well as a pick in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh rounds.