On Tuesday morning, the Vancouver Canucks announced that JT Miller would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from the team for personal reasons. General manager Patrik Allvin made the announcement ahead of the club’s morning skate for tonight’s game against the New York Rangers.
“Right now, our sole focus is making sure that JT knows the entire organization is here to support him,” said Allvin. “Out of respect to JT, we will have no further comment at this time.”
Naturally, the Canucks’ announcement left room for plenty of speculation, which is why it was great to see that The Province’s Patrick Johnston was quickly able to provide some answers. Here’s what Johnston reported in a post on the social media platform BlueSky:
“Been told that J.T. Miller’s personal leave is not related to substance or alcohol abuse or anything at all like that. It’s about giving the player a chance to re-set himself mentally. We know he is obsessed with competing at 100 per cent and we can see he hasn’t been. That’s been weighing on him.”-Patrick Johnston
Shortly thereafter, Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie and Dhali — The Team reported the same, saying that Miller’s absence is “about a player who needs a re-set. Needs time and space.”
Miller’s play has been a hot-button topic in Vancouver as of late, and had a bright spotlight shone on it after Rick Tocchet’s decision to bench the All-Star forward during the third period of the Canucks’ loss to the Nashville Predators on Sunday night. It’s also believed that Miller has been playing through multiple injuries this season.
After tonight, the Canucks don’t play again until Saturday in Ottawa to kick off a six game road trip out East, but according to Johnston, Miller won’t be joining the Canucks on this trip. Read Johnston’s full story by clicking here!
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