J.T. Miller: Underrated
It took me a decade to fully appreciate the third line winger-turned-top center's game
The first time I watched J.T. Miller live was from the Bell Centre press box during the 2013-14 season. He was a sophomore winger playing for the New York Rangers and I was a one-and-done social media staffer for the Montreal Canadiens.
In February 2018, Miller was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning as a secondary piece in the Ryan McDonagh blockbuster. He’d established himself as a middle-six winger who could play alongside scorers and checkers. I saw him against the Maple Leafs whenever TBL visited Scotiabank Arena, though I focused more squarely on teammates Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos et al.
In June 2019, after a record-breaking regular season ended in playoff disappointment for Tampa, Miller was flipped to the Vancouver Canucks as a salary dump. I didn’t see any of him that season, having traded my Maple Leafs analyst job for an assistant coach position with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.
Since then, I’d mostly been out of the loop as Miller went from a complementary winger to the most divisive top-line center in the league. Miller has scored 80+ points in each of the past three seasons despite inconsistent underlying statistics. He’s more than earned his 7x$8M contract (signed in September 2022) thus far. There’s still plenty of time for that deal to age badly.
But Miller is playing really well right now, and his most notable attributes don’t always erode with time.
Competitiveness
During a recent episode of the Hockey PDOcast, I predicted that the Canucks will most likely match the Suter-Miller-Boeser line against the Edmonton Oilers’ McDavid unit. Not because Miller is a great shutdown center (he isn’t), but because his in-your-face attitude might make McDavid uncomfortable.
Clip 1: On the opening faceoff, Miller misses the puck but doesn’t miss McDavid with a crosscheck
Clip 2: Miller loses his stick after running into the ref, but refocuses quickly, sprints into the battle and then sets up a scoring chance
Clip 3: Miller fearlessly goes 1v3 against McDavid, Ekholm and Bouchard, and plays them to a draw
In previous seasons I’d heard whispers about Miller not being the best teammate when the Canucks struggled to win games. Paradoxically, him being a bad loser may be exactly what VAN needs to advance in the playoffs.
Foresight
Miller’s other intangible asset is his ability to read ahead of the play.
Look at how many one-touch passes he completes in the clips below.
Bad players get the puck and then immediately make it someone else’s problem.
Average players scan, make their first touch, then try to make the best play available.
Elite passers like Miller see the best play in their mind’s eye, then work backwards to realize that play as the puck arrives.
Retrievals
Miller’s foresight is a fickle gift. If he and his teammates are a fraction of a second early or late, the passing play falls apart.
However, Miller’s knack for establishing body position and getting off the wall allow him to be more than a fair-weather offensive creator, unlike his teammate Elias Pettersson.
Having already scanned the ice, Miller positions himself to get difficult pucks off the wall and into the middle. He thrives in 1v1 retrieval situation by showing his back to the opposing player, managing his speed, initiating contact if need be and cutting sharply to escape.
Dual Threat
Miller’s most obvious skill is his finishing ability. VAN9 is a career 14.9% shooter (!) and hasn’t dipped below 10% in a full season since 2013-14 (!!).
And yet Miller’s shooting motion doesn’t look like anything special. His technique certainly doesn’t have the flourish of a Matthews, Bedard or Kucherov. Instead, it’s simplicity itself.
VAN9 catches the puck with minimal motion and zips the puck with a compact follow-through. His quiet release reminds me of James van Riemsdyk’s.
Despite being an elite finisher, Miller remains a generous playmaker. Or maybe it’s his incisive passing that allows him to maintain a high shooting percentage.
With his shooting threat clearly established, he frequently makes a late adjustment to set up a teammate near the weak-side dot or the back post.
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