It came a day later than most expected, but the Canucks made their draft weekend splash.



Early on Day 2 of the draft, Vancouver traded a conditional 2020 first-round pick, a 2019 third-round pick and Marek Mazanec to the Tampa Bay Lightning for 26-year-old forward JT Miller. The conditional first is lottery protected meaning that if the Canucks miss the playoffs next year, Tampa Bay will instead get Vancouver’s 2021 first round pick unprotected.



In essence, this trade is a declarative statement that management believes this team is ready to turn the corner. There’s no denying that the Canucks needed to expedite the rebuild at some point (that’s the whole idea behind Project Petey), but whether they did so too aggressively is another matter that we’ll explore in this piece.



Starting with the player himself, there’s a lot to like about Miller’s game and how he’d stylistically fit into the team’s top-six.