Elliotte Friedman reports that the Vancouver Canucks turned down a trade offer from the New York Rangers involving J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad.
“You’ll remember that when Miller took his mental health break, the Rangers, who covet the player, were in Vancouver. From what I understand, they approached the Canucks to discuss what something could look like, and Zibanejad was included in the conversation. I don’t know that Zibanejad, who has a no-move clause, was ever approached. I asked at the time and did not receive a clear answer. I also think it was actually a bigger deal, and one of the issues is that Vancouver adores Braden Schneider, who the Rangers do not want to trade. This would be the second time New York has rejected a Vancouver attempt for him.”
There has been rumblings about a talks involving Miller and Zibanejad, but the timeline Friedman gives here is a bit surprising. The Rangers won in Vancouver to make a 3-game winning streak and improve their record to 12-4-1. The Rangers lost their next 2 games in Calgary and Edmonton and 2 days later news of GM Chris Drury’s memo–which said they are open for business naming Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider specifically–was reported. That means that Drury was thinking about dramatic moves earlier than when news of the memo got out.