VANCOUVER — It has been so long since Ryan Miller was a backup goalie that he has forgotten what it’s like to be the most popular guy on the team.

The Vancouver Canucks’ starter didn’t get any more popular with the draft-day trade of backup goalie Eddie Lack, who had more fans on the West Coast than a single detached home.

General manager Jim Benning’s trade went over like an oil spill but at least provided some clarity with regard to the National Hockey League team’s goalkeeping. It also put more pressure on Miller, who turned 35 in July, to play like an elite netminder after his solid-but-unspectacular first season in Vancouver was undermined in February by a serious knee sprain.

“Eddie’s popularity is well-founded,” Miller said Monday in his first interview after the Canucks’ summer changes. “He is a nice person who engaged with the fans, and he played good hockey and was improving. That’s where that popularity comes in.

“In Buffalo, I had to come in after Dominik Hasek and I had to come in after Marty Biron, who was a very likable, talkative guy. Really, what it comes down to is you just have to go out and play good hockey. That’s always been my concern.”

To that end, Miller has been working quietly in Richmond with goaltending instructor Alex Auld rather than skating and scrimmaging with teammates at Britannia Arena. Miller has been under the radar at the Olympic Oval.

He said his right knee is fine and he spent the entire summer working on ice in Los Angeles, where he and his actress wife, Noureen DeWulf, spend the off-season.

“My knee reacted pretty well to rehabilitation,” Miller said. “I was on the ice by the end of May and … I didn’t think there was any need to get off because I missed two months (while injured). Training went well. I’m working on a few things with Alex Auld out in Richmond.

“It’s a different approach for me. Britannia was great for me last year just to get to know the guys. This year, I know them. This was a chance to quietly work on stuff before it gets crazy and we get time limits on how much we can be on the ice.”

Like every other Canuck, Miller keenly tracked Benning’s off-season moves — the departures of Lack and Kevin Bieksa, Nick Bonino, Zack Kassian, Brad Richardson and Shawn Matthias and the acquisitions of Brandon Sutter, Brandon Prust and Matt Bartkowski.

Miller knows Frankie Corrado will be on the Canucks this season and Jake Virtanen could be. Beyond the displeasure over the Lack trade, Miller is aware most people figure the Canucks won’t match the surprising 101 points they had during the first season of the Benning-Trevor Linden-Willie Desjardins regime.

“I think last year, a lot of people looked at us and said: ‘We don’t know how they’re going to do. We’re not going to pay much mind to them,’ “ Miller said. “It seems that’s how it’s shaping up this year, too. That seems to be the outside opinion.

“I hope people in Vancouver have some faith that we want to go out and perform and we believe in our team. We’ve got a great top line, and it will be interesting to see how the second and third lines shake out. On defence, our top pairing is solid. All the guys are solid. I just want to see how they pair everybody up. But if you look at last year, the same questions were being asked. That’s the nature of sports. It’s a pastime. People want to talk hockey and project. For us, we show up and want to do a good job every night.”

Training-camp testing is Thursday at Rogers Arena before the Canucks travel to Prince George for practices Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It will be a different dynamic in net with Miller and newly promoted backup Jacob Markstrom, who shares Lack’s Swedish nationality but not his overt amiability or steady rise in hockey. Coming off a brilliant season in the American Hockey League, Markstrom, 25, is years removed from being called the best goalie in the world not in the NHL.

Setting aside the hysteria, the biggest short-term risk in trading Lack is not that Miller will fail the Canucks but that Markstrom will.

Unwilling to re-sign Lack to a starting-goalie salary, Benning traded the 27-year-old for third- and seventh-round draft picks.

“With Eddie, the two of us talked that we both had to have a strong season last year and have each other’s back for us to make the playoffs,” Miller said. “I think we executed on that. We supported each other, and when I was injured, Eddie did a great job.

“When you get down to it with Jim, it’s really about how he wants to stage players coming in and how he wants to stage contracts. Eddie is a great goalie, but I think it really came down to Jim having to make a decision that projects out more than just one or two years.

“I like Jacob’s attitude. He came in (to the NHL) as a kid with a big reputation, and that reputation took a hit. But his attitude is to keep improving, keep figuring out how to use his size and adapt to the game over here. Taking his team to the American Hockey League final and playing at the level he did shows what a good attitude can do.”

A sense of humour and Twitter account will go a long way, too.

imacintyre@vancouversun.com

Twitter.com/imacvansun