The 2025 NHL trade deadline is just three weeks away, so it's about to get even clearer which teams are going to be sellers and which will be buyers. Meanwhile, two teams, the Vancouver Canucks and the New York Rangers are rumored to be in discussion about a potential swap of players, involving forwards JT Miller and Lafreniere.
“Mika Zibanejad will not be part of the bounty going to Vancouver in a potential deal for Miller…It is believed that Alexis Lafrenière’s name has been prominent in the discussion,” wrote Larry Brooks of the New York Post.
Rangers, Canucks still discussing JT Miller trade

Moving someone like Zibanejad is going to be easier said than done. For one, he has a no-move clause, which means he has to waive his NMC first before the Rangers could send him somewhere else. Zibanejad also is under contract until the end of the 2029-30 NHL season. It is also worth mentioning that a discussed Zibanejad-Miller trade has already been turned down, as reported by Josh Yohe of The Athletic.
Lafreniere, on the other hand, has no NMC or no-trade clauses on his deal up to the end of the 2024-25 campaign. However, he will have modified NTC from the 2025-26 to the 2031-32 season, with eight teams on his no-trade list. Lafreniere comes with just a cap hit of $2.325 million in the current season but that number will rise to $7.45 million once his seven-year, $52.15 million extension deal kicks in in the 2025-26 campaign. Lafreniere, who turned just 23 years old last October, entered Sunday's game against the Montreal Canadiens with 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 points on the season.
As for Miller, the Canucks star has a live contract until the conclusion of the 2029-30 season. He has a cap hit of $8 million and an NMC until the 2026-27 campaign. He will have a modified NTC to go with an NMC from 2027-28 to 2029-30.
Miller is no stranger to the Rangers, as he played for the organization during his first five-plus seasons in the NHL before New York traded him to the Tampa Bay Lightning ahead of the trade deadline in 2018. So far in the 2024-25 season, the 31-year-old has eight goals to go with 23 assists for 31 points through 35 games with the Canucks.