Vancouver Canucks overpay Tampa Bay Lightning for JT Miller

The Vancouver Canucks are trying to start competing for a spot in the playoffs by acquiring J.T. Miller from the Tampa Bay Lightning, but the price they paid was simply too much.

The Vancouver Canucks made a splash in their own city in day two of the 2019 NHL Draft, acquiring forward J.T. Miller from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for goalie Marek Mazanec, a conditional 2020 first round pick, and a 2019 third round pick (Hugo Alnefelt).

The condition on the first round pick is if the Canucks do not make the playoffs in 2019-20, the 1st round pick will move to the 2021 draft.

Miller was acquired by the Lightning from the New York Rangers alongside Ryan McDonagh at the 2018 NHL Trade Deadline, and in his 94 games with the Lightning, Miller scored 23 goals and 42 assists for 65 points as a member of Tampa Bay’s top six. Miller makes $5.25M against the cap for four more seasons.

Vancouver Canucks Trade Grade: C

It’s obvious that Vancouver is trying to start competing for a playoff spot next year, but this trade is a huge risk to bet on their current group making a jump from healthily out of the playoffs too all the sudden a playoff team just from the addition of one top six winger.

Miller is a versatile forward by being able to play all three forward positions, has the ability to hover around 50 points a season, as well as a solid two-way skill set. The slight against Vancouver in this trade actually has nothing to do with Miller as a player at all, he’ll fit in great with the Canucks alongside the likes of Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvat, but it’s the price they had to pay that makes this such a strange deal.

The first round pick is conditional on the Canucks making the playoffs next season, but Miller just isn’t that kind of player that pushes a team like the Canucks over the top into being a playoff team. They are still multiple pieces away from being a surefire playoff team. They can still make the playoffs next season, it just won’t be because they traded for Miller alone. They need to make more moves, but now they don’t have their first round pick in order to do so.

A positive of this move the Canucks is that Miller is locked up under contract for a long time on a great value contract. If they were able to work out a lower price to pay for Miller, they could be pushing for an A grade in this trade, but alas, this is just too much to pay for where Vancouver is right now.

Tampa Bay Lightning Trade Grade: A

The Tampa Bay Lightning made out like bandits in this trade with the Canucks, not only clearing the salary cap space that they need, but also acquiring a future first round pick in the same move for a player they didn’t really much use for anymore.

Miller was a great fit with the Lightning during his time there, but is coming off a mediocre year with just 13 goals, even while playing in the top six on the stacked Lightning team from last season. If there was going to be a player moved this offseason to make cap space, it was going to be him.

With the trade, the Lightning have $10,626,669 left in cap space for the rest of the offseason, but that’s without putting Ryan Callahan on injured reserve for an extra $5.8M in cap space. That room will almost all be spent on signing their restricted free agents like Brayden Point and Cedric Paquette.

If you really had a to reach for a negative here for the Lightning, you could complain that Tampa is going to have to find a replacement for Miller by just straight up trading him for picks, but that shouldn’t be an issue at all with the young players the Lightning have in the system.