J.T. Miller is going back to where it all began.
On Friday, the New York Rangers acquired the star forward from the Vancouver Canucks along with defenseman Erik Brannstrom and defenseman prospect Jackson Dorrington. In return, the Canucks acquire forward Filip Chytil, defenseman Victor Mancini and a protected first-round pick.
New York initially selected Miller, 31, with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft. In 341 games with the Blueshirts, he scored 72 goals and 100 assists for 172 points. His best full season in New York came in 2018-19, when he scored 22 goals and 34 assists in 82 games.
The Rangers traded Miller to the Tampa Bay Lightning alongside then-captain Ryan McDonagh at the 2018 trade deadline. The Lightning then traded Miller to the Canucks at the 2019 NHL Draft for a 2020 first-round pick. Now, six years later, he's back in Manhattan.
Miller has transformed into one of the league's top scorers in Vancouver, recording 152 goals and 285 assists in 404 games. However, he was recently part of an exhausting saga concerning his relationship with teammate Elias Petterson, and the situation became so untenable that the Canucks had the trade at least one of them. Miller is the first to go, and it remains to be seen what happens to Petterson in the near future.
Chytil, 25, was the No. 21 overall pick by the Rangers in the 2017 NHL Draft. His career in New York has had its ups and downs, as he's scored just 75 goals and 89 assists in 378 games.
Mancini, 22, made his NHL debut this season and has a goal and four assists in 15 games
