Canucks JT Miller Out Indefinitely For Personal Reasons

The Vancouver Canucks have been dealt an unfortunate blow with the news that forward JT Miller will be away from the team indefinitely, citing personal reasons.

On Tuesday, the Canucks released a statement but did not get into details about the reason for Miller taking some time away from the team.

"Vancouver Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin announced today that forward JT Miller will be taking an indefinite leave of absence from the team for personal reasons," the statement reads. "'Right now, our sole focus is making sure that JT knows the entire organization is here to support him,' said Allvin. ‘Out of respect to JT we will have no further comment at this time.’"

Of course, first and foremost, let's all hope for the best for Miller and his family.

Interestingly, this news comes after Miller was benched by head coach Rick Tocchett for the final 14:40 in a loss against the Nashville Predators on Sunday, per The Athletic, and it also comes as the Canucks are kind of in a strange spot: they're in second place in the Pacific Division, but they've also kind of underachieved.

Losing Miller — who is second on the team in points (16) behind only reigning Norris Trophy winner and Canucks captain Quinn Hughes (18) — is going to be a storm that the rest of the lineup needs to weather.

Someone will have to step up in a big way. The Canucks need a lot more from the likes of Elias Pettersson, Jake DeBrusk, and Brock Boeser, and with Miller out of the lineup now, we're going to see a massive drop in production for the Canucks if one or more of these guys don't pick up the slack.

The Canucks will have their first big test without Miller on Tuesday night against one of his old teams, the New York Rangers.