Confirmed with Link: JT Miller to Take Indefinite Leave of Absence for Personal Reasons

[tantalum]

He’s a volatile and moody player at the best of times. I can see if something stressful is happening in his life that it would be difficult to deal with while keeping your head in the game.

Deal with what you need to JT. No hurry.

 

[bossram]

I wonder why the team doesn't just say that he's injured and want him to take his time to heal fully. There would be zero speculation in that case. Everyone can tell that he is injured. The concern is that the mental aspect is bad enough that it could be weeks so they couldn't just lean on the injury aspect?

Yeah. If the primary reason is to let him recover from a nagging injury, it seems obvious to just say so. No one would question it. Put him on IR. No problem.

"Leave of absence for personal reasons" seems, as I've said in other posts in this thread, that it is an off-ice issue.

 

[TruGr1t]

i'll refrain from speculating but miller has been removed from the roster and is not on ir. there's not a lot of cba reasons that's allowed

But he's also not entered the league's mental health programs, apparently. Removing him from the roster is also awfully freaking weird. Most of this stuff is usually handled through the PA pretty typically, but it seems the league or PA aren't involved at all.

 

[sting101]

^^^^
players on leave of absence from their NHL club will continue to be paid and count against the salary cap. However, they will have "nonroster" status and will not count against the team's roster limit

 

[tyhee]

I think that’s reasonable, but I think the only thing arguing against this line of thinking is how blunt he was in his post game interview. I don’t think he would have thrown JT under the bus with the “I played the guys who I thought would help us win” comment. If he knew JT was dealing with something, you probably answer that in a different way.

So Tocc put Miller on blast when he JT clearly has some off-ice things going on? Not a great look.

My take is different.

Clearly Tocchet was going to be asked about Miller. Given that he was not using his team's top forward for the last 14 minutes with his team was down a goal, he really didn't say much. He didn't criticize Miller's play and he didn't criticize Miller's effort. He didn't go into why he thought others were more likely to help the team win.

If you had a player who had some issue that meant he wasn't playing effectively but that the player didn't want made public, what would you say when asked about the benching? There is no good way to deal with it. Even a "I won't comment about that" would encourage speculation more than saying he just went with the guys he thought most likely to help win the game.

It may be that there was a better answer, but Tocchet was in a tough position. He could have done much worse.

 

[BluesyShoes]

It definitely does seem like an odd decision, though, to do it this way instead of just saying 'he's been playing hurt since the start of the season and we've just made the decision to shut him down for a few weeks to heal up'. As soon as the words 'personal reasons' are used for anything, it's like a bat signal for toxic fans to come out of the woodwork and act like total assholes.

My take is that we are going to start seeing a lot more of this from this organization. Just blanket zero info on certain issues, including chronic injuries, and chalking them up to "personal reasons."

The moment "injury" is said, the media doesn't leave the player alone about it anytime their play drops off. I think this organization is progressive in viewing player health as a personal issue that shouldn't be public, especially with chronic injuries.

This "personal reasons" label gives a bit more protection and privacy to the player from the media's direct questioning. Yeah the tin foil hats are going to go wild at first, but once we see these absences for "personal reasons" get normalized, that will likely calm down. It also creates a murkiness around the players so that if they do take leave for more scandalous reasons, the team won't have to signal anything to the media.

 

[tyhee]

But he's also not entered the league's mental health programs, apparently. Removing him from the roster is also awfully freaking weird. Most of this stuff is usually handled through the PA pretty typically, but it seems the league or PA aren't involved at all

Puckpedia is now showing Miller on IR.

 

[Rick Rocket]

I think I saw him on one of those "Going Home" video shorts a short while back. I dunno, not trying to guess but I got a bit of a stressed vibe. Hopefully JT takes as much time as he needs, his family is healthy, and he takes care of himself and what is important to him.

 

[Phrasing]

Hope whatever he’s struggling with in his personal life remains personal to him and he can find what he needs.

 

[Raistlin]

It definitely does seem like an odd decision, though, to do it this way instead of just saying 'he's been playing hurt since the start of the season and we've just made the decision to shut him down for a few weeks to heal up'. As soon as the words 'personal reasons' are used for anything, it's like a bat signal for toxic fans to come out of the woodwork and act like total assholes.

I made the mistake of reading twitter comments when the news came out.... calling it a cesspool is an understatement. no sane person should spend any amount of time in that environment of non-information and come out not regretting the time wasted.

 

[iFan]

For one, and there is more than one, Dhaliwal down-plays the situation and implies that in spite of this major announcement by Allvin and the Canucks, that Miller could be out only 4 days just because he got benched for one period of one game. You don't make major announcements like this about a player that needs what amounts to little more than a maintenance day.

If Miller needs a "reset" warranting a major announcement by the Canucks and extended time off because he's butthurt like Dhaliwal suggests, then trade him immediately. He's mentally weak and not the type of player we need.

But that's not J.T. Miller and we all know it. He is a warrior.

That’s actually very responsible of him to do in this market…

 

[Vector]

Puckpedia is now showing Miller on IR.

Puckpedia is wrong. I don't see it anywhere where he was removed from the roster either. At least officially.

 

[Nucker101]

I think I saw him on one of those "Going Home" video shorts a short while back. I dunno, not trying to guess but I got a bit of a stressed vibe. Hopefully JT takes as much time as he needs, his family is healthy, and he takes care of himself and what is important to him.

FWIW Those are shot during the off-season, and I could be wrong but the feature they did on JT was last year. This year it was Garland, Bains and Boeser.

 

[LordBacon]

I made the mistake of reading twitter comments when the news came out.... calling it a cesspool is an understatement. no sane person should spend any amount of time in that environment of non-information and come out not regretting the time wasted.

Social media really changed people,
or maybe revealed them for who they are.

 

[lawrence]

indefinite part scares me. I hope everything is ok, and i hope he takes whatever time he needs out. He's played sooooooo f in hard for us the last 6 years, he needs his space when he needs it. He deserves it.

 

[Raistlin]

Social media really changed people,
or maybe revealed them for who they are.

without being political, comparing to what is out there. I praise our mods for doing their job, to guide the discourse to some semblance of coherence.

 

[tantalum]

That would be extreme for what is being framed as a reset.

I think realistically, he's probably gone for a couple of weeks to do exactly that (and heal his shoulder). On a personal note, I hope everything is okay and he can comeback in a healthy state of mind.

If we aren't making a trade, I'd like to give a younger guy like Raty a chance at playing a top-6 center role to start.

If they were sure it would be a relatively short amount of time I imagine they would go the IR/LTIR route with whatever injuries he has. Or if it was similar to Forbort they would be saying the general timeframe.

They didn’t do any of that. I wouldn’t expect him back anytime soon. I hope he returns soon but not counting on it.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

what happens when a player goes on personal leave like this? if it doesn’t involve players’ assistance, IR, or LTIR does he still get paid? does he still take up cap?