Canucks’ Rick Tocchet admits things were ‘uncomfortable’ between Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller

The 2024-25 season will be one Vancouver Canucks fans will want to forget, as will many members of the team.

One of the most notable sagas from the tumultuous season that will be most remembered is the off-ice soap opera starring forwards Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller.

During his end-of-season media availability on Friday, head coach Rick Tocchet stated that there was definite tension between the budding stars – who were reportedly getting on each other frequently during the season.

“You guys know that there’s some stuff there before even when I got here,” Tocchet said. “What level? I don’t know. … You never think the smoldering is going to turn up. Did it get uncomfortable? Yeah. A lot of meetings, a lot of things could have something been different.”

While some members of the Canucks organization tried to shrug off the notion that there were problems in the moment, saying that it was all stirred up by the media, Tocchet admitted it was a problem during a key point in their season.

“I hear people on the sidelines, ‘If I was coaching…they got to go to dinner and they got to fight it out.’ I mean, you don’t think we’ve tried all that stuff? It just didn’t work out. … I know everybody’s looking for a bad guy. I don’t know if there’s a there’s a bad guy in the thing. It just didn’t work out.”

Things became so out of control that even Canucks president of the hockey operations, Jim Rutherford, said there was “no good solution” to the problems between the two players. The saga came to an end when Miller was traded to the New York Rangers in late January.

The Canucks were effectively eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention earlier this week, marking the fourth time in the last five seasons that the team has missed the postseason. It certainly was a massive drop-off from the 2023-24 campaign, which saw the Canucks finish with the best record in the Western Conference, coming one win shy of the conference finals.

There has been ongoing speculation about Tocchet’s future with the organization, with some believing he might be on his way out. He didn’t confirm or deny any remarks about his future on Friday.

“Of course you want to be back here, but there’s a process you have to go through.”