Is Pettersson or Miller more valuable to the Vancouver Canucks?

Can’t we all just get along?

That would make things so much easier for the Vancouver Canucks, who now appear to be at least entertaining the thought of a seismic roster shakeup in the wake of the reported rift between J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson. Whether a deal for either player comes together remains to be seen, but reports suggest the Canucks are listening to their trade options on both players.

This is a potential outcome that probably seemed unfathomable last spring, when the Canucks were just one win away from the Western Conference Final. Vancouver has a solid core of Miller, Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, Thatcher Demko and Brock Boeser all in their primes and seemed poised to contend for championships for the foreseeable future. That could still be a reality, but it hinges on a positive resolution to the Pettersson/Miller drama, which won’t be easy to navigate.

The ideal solution is the situation gets resolved internally and the Canucks keep both players, though if that’s not possible, Vancouver management must ask itself which player is more valuable to the team moving forward.

There’s a seemingly easy case to be made that it’s Pettersson. He possesses elite talent and Pettersson also is a much better two-way player. He can impact the game at both ends of the ice when he’s playing at a high level. I’m not sure too many players are going to have an opportunity at a Selke Trophy as long as Aleksander Barkov is around, but Pettersson has the potential to be in the tier below the Panthers captain if he’s at his best. There are very few players that can net you 100 points and still be strong in their own end.

Sportsnet’s Adam Vingan did a great job of illustrating what Pettersson brings to the table in the defensive zone in this piece from right before Pettersson got injured. At the time, Pettersson had 164 blocked passes. He also ranked just outside the top 10 in puck battles won. Even when Pettersson is going through a scoring slump, he can still be a really positive influence on the game.

The other thing to consider here is age. Pettersson is five years younger than Miller and just entering his prime. Miller will be 32 in March and it would be much easier for the Canucks to build around Pettersson and Hughes going forward, while using the assets and potential cap space from a Miller trade to re-stock the roster.

With all that said, there is an argument to be made for Vancouver to keep Miller. He’s actually been the better offensive player by a decent margin during the previous three campaigns. Miller and Pettersson both have played exactly 242 games over that stretch, with Miller recording 284 points to Pettersson’s 259. That includes 99- and 103-point years for Miller, whose game is a little more consistent than Pettersson’s. There aren’t as many highs and lows with Miller and Pettersson has disappeared for significant stretches. For instance, Pettersson had a six-game pointless drought in December and managed just four points in October. Let’s not forget last year’s post-season as well, where Pettersson really struggled and Miller averaged close to a point per game.

Miller also is much more of physical player, a style that can be more conducive to winning in the playoffs. He’s had back-to-back seasons with at least 200 hits and Miller can bring a lot of energy to his teammates and the arena when he starts throwing his weight around shift after shift. He also comes much cheaper than Pettersson, as Miller makes $3.6 million less per season. If the Canucks traded Pettersson and kept Miller, they’d likely be sitting with more cap space to add to the roster when the dust settled on the deal.

One other concern the Canucks have to consider is if they move one of them, how will that impact the other? Dealing Miller or Pettersson will be an immediate blow to the team’s centre depth. Sure, they’ll likely want a centre back in return, but it’s very unlikely Vancouver will be getting a better player than it is giving up. That means whoever stays is going to have more difficult matchups and the opposition can target them with a top defensive pair frequently.

On the flipside, it could mean more ice time and more opportunities. Pettersson recently got a taste of what life would look like without Miller, and he thrived. Pettersson had 15 points in 10 games with Miller out of the lineup on a leave of absence, and had just two in seven games before he got hurt following Miller’s return.

Any way you slice it, moving either of them is an unenviable task for general manager Patrik Allvin. It’s hard to win a trade when you are giving up the best player in the deal, something the Canucks would almost certainly be doing. If it were up to me, I’d do everything I could to keep them both in the fold, but would begrudgingly trade Miller if the two simply couldn’t co-exist.

This has all the makings of a trade that player, team and organization will eventually come to regret.