By now, you’ve heard about the rift between Vancouver Canucks stars JT Miller and Elias Pettersson. Quinn Hughes and Rick Tocchet faced questions about the topic head-on earlier this season, ex-teammates and coaches have talked about it, and now you can add Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford to that list.
In a conversation with The Globe and Mail’s Gary Mason, Rutherford spoke candidly about the subject.
“I felt like for a long time that there was a solution here because everybody has worked on it, including the parties involved,” Rutherford said. “But it only gets resolved for a short period of time and then it festers again and so it certainly appears like there’s not a good solution that would keep this group together.”
Rutherford later agrees that the Miller and Pettersson drama has impacted the entire team.
“When you don’t have chemistry, it’s hard to be that consistent team because there’s too much going on in the room for everybody to concentrate on what they’re supposed to do.”
Both Pettersson and Miller’s names have been out there in trade rumours, with multiple reports suggesting the Canucks nearly traded Pettersson to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday. Ultimately, the Canes elected to acquire pending UFA Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche, along with former Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall from the Chicago Blackhawks in a rare NHL blockbuster deal.
When it comes to finding a solution for the Canucks’ current situation, Rutherford recognizes that the Canucks can’t just blow it up and start over as long as they have Quinn Hughes on the team.
“If we’re going to completely start over that means he goes. And we’d like to figure out a way that he’s here forever,” Rutherford said of the Canucks’ captain, who leads the team in points by a wide margin. Hughes has been otherworldly once again this season, and finds himself at the front of the Norris Trophy conversation and firmly in the NHL’s Hart Trophy conversation as well, despite all the noise.
No matter how good Hughes has been, one thing seems to have become clear: if the Canucks are to contend for a Stanley Cup, it won’t be with a roster that features both Miller and Pettersson.
