In the third of our five-part series examining significant milestones attainable for key Canucks next season we look at JT Miller, who continues to rocket up the franchise scoring ranks:
JT Miller
Despite playing just 364 games in his five seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, JT Miller already sits 14th in franchise scoring. And if the 31-year-old comes close to replicating the 103-point season he posted in 2023-24, Miller could become just the seventh player in franchise history to reach 500 points.
Since being acquired from Tampa Bay on the second day of the 2019 National Hockey League Draft, Miller has crushed it in his time in Vancouver racking up 402 points.
He will start into next season just five points behind Don Lever for 13th in franchise scoring and seven behind Alex Edler who sits in 12th. Miller is 18 points shy of Bo Horvat, who currently holds down the 10th spot at 420. There is every reason to believe the East Palestine, OH native will move into the top seven in franchise history before next season is through. After that, Miller will trail only franchise icons Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Markus Naslund, Trevor Linden and Thomas Gradin. Pavel Bure sits seventh on the all-time list at 478 points which should be well within Miller’s reach as long as he stays healthy next season.
Miller’s first game of the season will be the 800th game of his career so he’ll reach a significant milestone on opening night. His 36th game of the season will be his 400th in Canuck colours. And when he reaches 61 points next season, Miller will become part of the 700-point club with plenty of productive years still ahead.
Known for his passionate style of play, Miller’s on ice vision is often underappreciated. In the past three NHL seasons, only eight players – and seven forwards – have set up more goals than Miller has. He already sits 12th all time among Canucks with 259 assists and needs two more to match Todd Bertuzzi in the franchise record books and it won’t be long before he passes Andrei Boudrias (267) and moves into the top 10. If Miller sets up 60 goals for the third time in the past four seasons, he’ll catch Alex Edler who sits seventh on the list. Complicating matters somewhat is that Miller is also chasing Quinn Hughes who begins the season with 290 career assists.
With 25 game-winning goals in Vancouver, Miller sits 11th in that category. He added nine to his collection last season and if were to do that again, he’d leap to fourth all time for the franchise.
Another category to watch closely next season is overtime goals. Miller starts the season tied with Brendan Morrison with nine. Those two trail only Daniel Sedin who netted 16 in his career. It stands to reason that Miller, who has scored at least one OT goal in each of his five years with the Canucks, will settle a game in overtime somewhere along the line. And when he does, he’ll be solo second.
Miller has been a point per game producer in the playoffs scoring nine time and adding 21 assists in 30 post-season games. He is currently 15th on the franchise all-time scoring list three points behind Markus Naslund and Stan Smyl. Another 10 playoff points would Miller up the list into a share of seventh with Jyrki Lumme.
Miller is the leader among active playoff scorers as a Canuck.
