Canucks’ Tocchet Talks Pettersson & Miller Rift: Knocks Pettersson

Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet opened up Friday about the reported rift between former teammates Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller, admitting tensions did reach a boiling point last season. He noted the organization tried to figure things out, but the tension and discomfort were too great to overcome.

Not long after, he talked about the player the organization still has on the team in Pettersson, choosing not to shy away from criticizing the forward and saying his preparation wasn’t good enough.

Tocchet said it was a hard topic to address because he’s a huge fan of J.T. Miller and that Pettersson is a great player. He didn’t assume it would ever escalate to the extent it did. “Did it get uncomfortable? Yeah,” Tocchet acknowledged while speaking to reporters. He explained that the Canucks made multiple attempts to bring the two star players together, but “It just didn’t work out.” He said there was no bad guy, but the situation had to be resolved, and at that time, “It just couldn’t work.”

The Canucks Tried Everything

“You don’t think we tried that?” Tocchet said sarcastically, responding to criticism from podcasts and pundits suggesting the team didn’t do enough to mend the relationship. “A lot of meetings, a lot of things [were tried].”

According to Tocchet, the Canucks coaching staff and management did everything they could to encourage communication and collaboration between Pettersson and Miller. However, the history between them had become too complicated to repair.