NEW YORK \u2014 Exactly one year has passed since the New York Rangers acquired J.T. Miller from the Vancouver Canucks. Since then, the Rangers have gone 37-41-9 and announced they\u2019re entering a \u201cretool.\u201d The Canucks are 33-43-9 and have essentially announced the same thing. Both are in last place in their conferences.<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh Penguins, meanwhile, are 40-26-15 and in playoff position. They essentially formed a three-team trade with the Rangers and Canucks, sending Marcus Pettersson and Drew O\u2019Connor to Vancouver shortly after the Miller trade went final.<\/p>\n
A year later, and Kyle Dubas\u2019 club looks like the sole winner of the Jan. 31, 2025, trades. He used his pick (No. 11) to select 18-year-old rookie Ben Kindel, who looks like the Penguins\u2019 second-line center of the future, and traded the Rangers\u2019 pick (No. 12) to Philadelphia for picks No. 22 and 31. Those became Bill Zonnon (No. 22) and Will Horcoff (No. 24), whom Dubas selected after trading up with the No. 31 and 59 picks. The Penguins\u2019 draft-day haul already has benefitted them this season and likely will even more in the future.<\/p>\n
In total, here\u2019s where each team stood after Jan. 31, 2025:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rangers received: J.T. Miller, Erik Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m and Jackson Dorrington from Vancouver<\/p>\n
\u2022 Canucks received: Filip Chytil and Victor Mancini from New York; Marcus Pettersson and Drew O\u2019Connor from Pittsburgh<\/p>\n
\u2022 Penguins received: Conditional 2025 first-round pick (top-13 protected) from Vancouver via New York; Vincent Desharnais, Danton Heinen and Melvin Fernstr\u00f6m from Vancouver<\/p>\n
The draft lottery gave the Rangers the No. 12 pick in 2025. Because it was a top-13 pick, they could have chosen to keep it and given Pittsburgh their unprotected 2026 first-round pick. President and general manager Chris Drury decided against doing that, which, in retrospect, was wise. The Rangers have the fourth-worst point percentage in the NHL. As tough as it is to lose a No. 12 pick, surrendering a potential top-five selection to a division rival would\u2019ve been significantly worse.<\/p>\n
Vancouver was dealing from a position of weakness when it traded Miller. The standout forward, who had a 103-point season in 2023-24, was in the midst of a rift with teammate Elias Pettersson that had leaked into public, which Jim Rutherford confirmed in an interview with The Globe and Mail. Rutherford said there was \u201cnot a good solution that would keep this group together.\u201d Miller also has a full no-movement clause, so he had control over his situation. The Canucks were low on leverage, and Drury pounced.<\/p>\n
Chytil, Vancouver\u2019s primary return in terms of win-now help, has struggled to stay healthy. He suffered a season-ending concussion after 15 games with the Canucks in 2024-25, and he\u2019s missed all but 10 games this year because of another concussion resulting from a Tom Wilson hit. He\u2019s back in the Vancouver lineup, but his history with head injuries remains a concern. Mancini, meanwhile, took an unlikely path to the pros<\/a> and helped AHL Abbotsford to a Calder Cup title last season, but his ceiling is most likely a third-pair defenseman in the NHL.<\/p>\n The most valuable piece the Canucks received in the trade was the first-round pick, which they promptly flipped. Rutherford extended both Marcus Pettersson and O\u2019Connor within a month of the trade. Given the team\u2019s failure to contend this season and eventual decision to trade superstar Quinn Hughes, Rutherford likely would have been better off building for the future with the Rangers\u2019 first-round pick. Of course, there was no guarantee it would be as high as No. 12 at the time of the trade.<\/p>\n Dubas used the No. 12 pick wisely, turning it into Zonnon and Horcoff. The Athletic\u2019s Corey Pronman ranked the two forwards sixth and third<\/a>, respectively, in his August rankings of Penguins prospects. Since then, Horcoff has had a monster season at Michigan and is among the NCAA leaders in goals (19). The Penguins view Zonnon as a potential middle-six forward, possibly at center.<\/p>\n The Rangers saw Miller\u2019s acquisition cost as worthwhile given his pedigree and his edge. Drury clearly viewed him as a culture setter and named him captain heading into 2025 training camp. The two other pieces in the deal were marginal: Drury traded Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m for Nicolas Aub\u00e9-Kubel, who is no longer with the organization, and Dorrington is a fringe prospect. In August, Pronman listed Dorrington, a 21-year-old defenseman, as a player with a chance to someday appear in NHL games<\/a> but didn\u2019t include him in his Rangers rankings.<\/p>\n In the end, the Rangers\u2019 decision-making revolved around Miller, not the supplemental pieces. A year removed, the biggest issue might\u2019ve been less the cost and more the timing. The Rangers\u2019 core of forwards was already aging \u2014 Vincent Trocheck, Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin were all in their early 30s at the time of the Miller trade \u2014 and the team was more than Miller away from being a true contender. That\u2019s become even more apparent this season as the Rangers have tailspun to the bottom of the standings.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way that most teams would look at adding a guy like J.T. Miller is to fortify a Cup run,\u201d said one Eastern Conference executive who was granted anonymity so they could speak freely about opposing teams. \u201cThe Rangers are trying to win all the time, and he\u2019s a guy you\u2019d want to have. But that\u2019s a pretty depleted roster compared to the Presidents\u2019 Trophy New York Rangers from (2023-24).\u201d<\/p>\n Added one Eastern-based NHL scout: \u201cRight now, I\u2019m sure both (New York and Vancouver) would have liked for the results to have panned out better.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller has not had a strong season for the Rangers by his standards, especially offensively. He has 14 goals and 35 points in 46 games, and only 20 of those points have come at five-on-five. He\u2019s battled injuries over the course of the season. He will turn 33 in March and is under contract through 2029-30 at $8 million average annual value. New York has ample cap space to make that number work, but it certainly will need more production from Miller if this retool has any chance of being quick.<\/p>\n That\u2019s far from assured.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the short term, you\u2019d probably say (the trade) has not turned out great,\u201d the executive said. \u201cA year or two from now \u2014 the way the league goes if you do the right additions and with (star goalie Igor Shesterkin) and where they\u2019re at \u2014 who knows, maybe they\u2019re challenging for the division, and maybe they\u2019re going on a run.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it hasn\u2019t worked out this year. That\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Exactly one year has passed since the New York Rangers acquired J.T. 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