Jim Rutherford shares shocking unknown details of the J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson feud
Photo credit: NHL.com
Jim Rutherford, the President of Hockey Operations of the Vancouver has truly opened up on the feud between J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson this past season.
This past season has been tough for J.T. Miller has he first started this year with the struggling Vancouver Canucks, along with having to deal to with a reported feud with his fellow teammate Elias Pettersson. Something that led to him being traded to the New York Rangers in January.
However, Jim Rutherford the Canucks President of Hockey Operations, has really opened up and shared some unknown details of the Miller trade, along with share more details of the feud between the two forwards.
Jim Rutherford shares more details on the feud between Elias Pettersson & J.T. Miller
During a recent interview with Stephen Brunt, Rutherford revealed the difficulty of dealing with the two players and how it started to affect the locker room.
Rutherford then continued to share that in his 40-year career as an executive in the National Hockey League, nothing has compared to how difficult this past season was with the Vancouver Canucks.
"No." Rutherford said when asked if he's ever dealt with something more difficult in his career as an executive. "The challenge in Carolina with moving an NHL franchise in a five-month period to a place that wasn't expecting us was a major, major challenge. It wasn't the challenge we had here."
He added, "You can talk many different ways about the whole thing. I don't point the finger at Miller, I don't point the finger at Pettersson. There was a lot of things going on there around that that affected other people. The fact of the matter is, we won out division the year before, with those two players and we knew there were issues, but there was no reason to make a change when you can win your division, when the coach and the General Manager and everybody figures out a way to keep it on the rails.
But then, for whatever reason, the very first week of this past season, it went way off the rails and everybody worked hard on it and it got to the point where we all knew that something had to change."
He added, "You can talk many different ways about the whole thing. I don't point the finger at Miller, I don't point the finger at Pettersson. There was a lot of things going on there around that that affected other people. The fact of the matter is, we won out division the year before, with those two players and we knew there were issues, but there was no reason to make a change when you can win your division, when the coach and the General Manager and everybody figures out a way to keep it on the rails.
But then, for whatever reason, the very first week of this past season, it went way off the rails and everybody worked hard on it and it got to the point where we all knew that something had to change."
This ultimately led J.T. Miller being traded to the New York Rangers, as reports confirmed that he wanted a fresh start elsewhere.
| POLL | ||
MAI 16 | 974 ANSWERS Jim Rutherford shares shocking unknown details of the J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson feud Do you think J.T. Miller made the right move to ask for a trade out of the Vancouver Canucks organization? | ||
| Yes | 876 | 89.9 % |
| No | 98 | 10.1 % |
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