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Tampering Scandal Brewing As Canucks And Rangers Come Under Fire Regarding JT Miller Trade

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Daniel Lucente
February 7, 2025  (12:12)
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JT Miller seen celebrating a goal with his New York rangers teammates
Photo credit: YouTube

JT Miller was recently traded by the Canucks to the Rangers, and now there are rumblings that there may have been tampering involved in the deal.

According to a report from 'The Athletic' correspondent Peter Baugh, New York Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck and his wife Hillary were instrumental in the team's trading of star forward JT Miller from the Vancouver Canucks.

What's even more interesting is that Miller's wife, Natalie, was also said to be quite instrumental in the move.

A little less than a month ago, Hillary Trocheck surprised Natalie Miller for her birthday, flying across North America for a surprise visit in Vancouver. Both their husbands, Vincent Trocheck and J.T. Miller, were on hockey road trips for the Rangers and Canucks, respectively, and the wives reached out.

«The two of them, they were pushing us: 'Oh you guys have got to get this trade done!'» Vincent Trocheck said. «We're like, 'We don't have any say.'»


Trocheck and Miller have been lifelong friends who have long hoped to play on the same team. Meanwhile, their wives are also close, with rumors that they may have helped push the trade over the finish line.

Trocheck even went so far as to say that he'd personally spoken to Miller on behalf of the Rangers in order to gauge his interest in coming to New York, a move that seems to, at best, border on tampering if we are going to be perfectly honest.

«I don't think at the start of the year we were thinking about playing with each other, but when the opportunity came it's something that, for our families, is really special,» Miller said. «For us to be here together, trying to work together for a common goal, it's a really cool feeling.»

Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury said the Rangers' front office did «a lot of homework» on Miller before making the deal. During that process, he talked to Trocheck, who has emerged as a key voice in the Rangers dressing room and a potential option to fill the team's vacant captaincy.

«(Drury) came to me whenever he thought it might be a possibility that J.T. would be traded,» Trocheck said. «Just asked if it was something that J.T. would be willing to do, come to New York. That was just the start of the process. And then talking to J.T., seeing if New York was somewhere he wanted to be was the next step.»

Trocheck sensed that «originally he didn't really want to leave Vancouver. His family had made a home there.» But Miller clearly warmed to the idea of getting traded and acknowledged «it got a little ugly (in Vancouver) at the end.» He called it a team effort between his camp and the Canucks to find him a different place to play.

«It was something we've always dreamed of, playing together,» Trocheck said. «Obviously the logistics of it, he's closer to home: his family can come up any time, he's got friends here outside of hockey. All of that put together, once he kind of processed it, then he wanted to come.»


For what it's worth, back in January, the Canucks put out a league-wide memo cautioning about tampering violations. Could it have been regarding Trocheck and the Rangers? We'll see if Gary Bettman and the league investigate this further.

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Tampering Scandal Brewing As Canucks And Rangers Come Under Fire Regarding JT Miller Trade

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