On Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman suggested that if the Vancouver Canucks wanted to trade for Mika Zibanejad from the New York Rangers, "they could have done it already."
On Tuesday morning, a report from The Athletic's Josh Yohe confirmed that to be the case, saying that the Rangers made an offer for J.T. Miller.
"Earlier this season, the Rangers offered struggling centre Mika Zibanejad to Vancouver in return for Miller," said Yohe. "The Canucks turned down the offer."
If the Rangers want Miller, it will take a lot more than Zibanejad
There have been multiple reports that Rangers general manager Chris Drury badly wants to acquire Miller, believing he would be a fit as a top-line centre in New York and as a fiery leader in a Rangers room that has been too placid this season.
According to Yohe's report, Drury wanted Miller bad enough to offer one of his own star players in Zibanejad, though it's unclear if it was a straight one-for-one deal or if other pieces would have been included.
The Canucks didn't bite.
It's understandable why Zibanejad wouldn't move the needle for the Canucks. While he once had 41 goals in 57 games and is two seasons removed from putting up 91 points, he's struggling this season. He has 8 goals and 24 points in 39 games, putting him on pace for just 17 goals and 51 points, which would be some of the lowest totals in his career.
On top of that Zibanejad has given up a lot defensively. According to Natural Stat Trick, Zibanejad has been on the ice for the highest rate of shots against at 5-on-5 on the Rangers, the highest rate of expected goals against, and the second-highest rate of goals against.
Add on that he's making $500,000 more per year than Miller and the idea of a one-for-one trade starts to sound pretty ludicrous.
Just because the Canucks are listening doesn't mean a trade is coming
Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin didn't close the door on the idea of trading Elias Pettersson in an interview last week and Friedman's Saturday report indicated the Canucks are gauging the market on both Pettersson and Miller.
"The Canucks are definitely, definitely looking at the market for both players and you should be prepared for all outcomes and there's really three of them: neither gets dealt, one of them gets dealt, or both get dealt. That's on the table and I don't want to predict the likelihood of any particular scenario but I think all three of those outcomes are possible," said Friedman.
Friedman has sometimes been criticized for using a lot of words to say nothing and this certainly sounds like one of those moments. Yes, those are the three options: no trade, one gets traded, or both get traded. But there's an underlying meaning there: the Canucks are willing to trade both players if the offer is right; they're also perfectly happy keeping both players if the offers aren't good enough.
Clearly, the Rangers offer that included Zibanejad, either as the centrepiece or the sole piece of a trade, wasn't good enough. But it's apparently in the right vein, as Friedman reported that the Canucks would be looking for a centre in a trade rather than a defenceman.
"I think if the Canucks do make a trade, they're going to need a centre in return," said Friedman. "I know the Canucks fans right now are concerned about the defence with Hughes and Hronek injured but I believe the team has prioritized centre in the return more than the blueline because obviously they'd be trading a centre if one or both was to go."
Friedman was also clear that neither player has asked for a trade out of Vancouver.
Is this all much ado about nothing?
Trade rumours always seem to swirl around the Canucks perhaps because the fanbase in Vancouver is so engaged in the team that trade rumours immediately translate to attention and clicks. But, more often than not, those rumours amount to nothing.
Brock Boeser has been in trade rumours for years. Conor Garland was supposedly going to get traded at the beginning of last season. Miller was in the trade rumour mill two seasons ago, while last season Friedman was lobbing trade rumour bombs in Pettersson's direction.
In other words, all of this noise about a potential Miller and/or Pettersson trade could be just that: noise.
But it's noise that the Canucks themselves are making no effort to quiet. In fact, Allvin himself kept the possibility of a Pettersson trade open.
Will either player get traded? The odds are against it, as the Canucks are still sitting smack dab in the middle of the playoff mix in the Western Conference and whatever rift there might be between the two players can be quickly patched over with a playoff push.
At the very least, it seems that Mika Zibanejad won't be making his way across the continent to play for the Canucks any time soon.
