Canucks President Jim Rutherford blatantly blames Elias Pettersson & J.T. Miller for Vancouver's collapse
Photo credit: X.com
There's no question that the feud between Elias Pettersson and JT Miller left a dark cloud surrounding the Canucks' organization all season long.
Vancouver Canucks' President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford spoke to reporters in his end-of-season media availability on Monday and blames Elias Pettersson and JT Miller for disastrous season.
Thomas Drance took to X and addressed some of Rutherford's comments from Monday.
"We had a very disappointing season that we feel bad about.
We started the season, as a lot of people would view the Canucks as a contending team, we ran into an unfortunate incident early in the season that hurt the chemistry of our team." - Jim Rutherford. #Canucks
Ben Steiner of the Daily Faceoff writes that although it was well known that the Canucks' two leading forwards had a rocky relationship early in the 2024-25 season, Rutherford says that JT Miller made efforts to mend the locker room chemistry in an attempt to keep the team firmly in the Stanley Cup Playoff race.
«J.T. tried hard to help fix the situation. A lot of people in our organization worked on it, and we had hoped that it could get back to where it was a year ago, because the same two players played a year ago, both had good years, and the team won the division." -Rutherford
Noah Strang also posted on X earlier today...
"I do think that in a lot of ways J.T. tried hard to help fix the situation," says Jim Rutherford.
Says the hope was the Miller-Petey relationship could return to what it was last year, but that didn't happen.
Says the hope was the Miller-Petey relationship could return to what it was last year, but that didn't happen.
Steiner also writes that the Canucks then eventually approached Miller to find out which teams he'd be open to joining and arranged a trade with the Rangers on January 31. In return, they received center Filip Chytil, defenseman Victor Mancini, and a 2025 first-round draft pick. The Canucks then traded that pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a deal that brought them defenseman Marcus Pettersson and left winger Drew O'Connor.
«I think a lot of things were personal. I don't believe that it was just down to two people. It filtered into the whole team, or most of the team, and affected the chemistry." -Rutherford
Pettersson saw only a modest uptick in his offensive performance in Vancouver, finishing the season with 15 goals and 45 points over 64 games.
Rutherford remains optimistic that Pettersson can bounce back and get back to his superstar form next season. Canucks' fans can only hope at the moment.
At 26 years old, Pettersson is now the highest-paid player on the Canucks, having signed an eight-year, $92.8 million contract in March 2024, which carries an annual cap hit of $11.6 million.
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