Canucks President Admits That There Are Issues Between Elias Pettersson And JT Miller

It has been a tough year for the Vancouver Canucks, who had a pretty solid run into the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. But this year, the team has underperformed.

At times, that has been rumored to be largely due to a rift between star forwards JT Miller and Elias Pettersson (the Canucks oddly enough have two players named Elias Pettersson, and we're talking about the one that's not a rookie).

The team has tried to dance around those rumors for obvious reasons, with both players downplaying issues when asked about them. Now, though, president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford has come clean.

Vancouver; we have a problem…

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Rutherford talked about the issues and how the team has tried but ultimately failed to fix them.

"I felt like for a long time that there was a solution here because everybody has worked on it, including the parties involved," Rutherford told Globe and Mail's Gary Mason.

"But it only gets resolved for a short period of time and then it festers again and so it certainly appears like there’s not a good solution that would keep this group together."

So, there really was a fire after all of that smoke.

The Vacouver Canucks president of hockey ops Jim Rutherford confirmed that there's a rift between stars JT Miller and Elias Pettersson. (Bob Frid-Imagn Images)

"We’re talking about two of our top players," Rutherford said. "Certainly, our two best forwards. It can really be tough on a franchise — not only present but into the future — when you’re planning on peaking this team into a contending team and then you find out that’s not going to happen. Or at least it’s not going to happen with the group we have now. Then you have to put together a new plan."

But here's the new problem: according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, one of the big potential trade partners for the Canucks was the Carolina Hurricanes.

However, last week they pulled the trigger on a blockbuster deal with Colorado and Chicago that netted them Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall.

Maybe they've got room to make more moves… but probably not.

Plus, I'm not sure how many teams will want to make a midseason deal for either guy knowing they have the potential to throw team chemistry that out of whack.

Not saying it'd happen, but for the price, why risk it?

Rutherford and Canucks GM Patrik Allvin have their work cut out for them if they want to stay in the playoff hunt. Vancouver is currently one point out of the Western Conference's second wild card spot.