Trade or sign him? Rangers have massive K’Andre Miller decision to make
You would’ve thought by this stage that the New York Rangers had an easy decision to make with K’Andre Miller. But instead, the Rangers are going to sweat out their call with Miller, whether they re-sign him this offseason, or move on from him.
He’s a big, athletic 25-year-old defenseman, who was a first-round draft pick and has already played 368 NHL games, largely in a shutdown role. That alone screams “re-sign him to a long-term contract.”
But then there’s the flatlining growth curve and declining production the past two seasons. And you question whether he’s the type of player the Rangers should lock down for the next seven seasons or so and trust to figure it out entering his prime years.
Keep Miller and the Rangers could reap the rewards of an emerging stud top-four defenseman moving forward. Or sink under the weight of unfulfilled promise and an expensive contract.
Trade him and the Blueshirts might get a haul from a team eager to get their hands on Miller. But there’s a chance he blossoms into a two-way star and makes Chris Drury and Co. look bad for the next decade, as the Rangers struggle to replace what they had in the first place.
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It’s not going to be an easy call this summer. Miller is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights coming off a $3.872 AAV deal; and he and his agent may just want to hit a financial home run just two years out from unrestricted free agency.
“I would trade K’Andre,” ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski told Forever Blueshirts on the RINK RAP podcast. “I think the issue with K’Andre is that I don’t think the growth has been there in the way I’d like it to be at this point in his career. Now, you can blame that on the state of the Rangers blue line, partners … I would move him at this point.”
Everyone has an opinion. Let’s see how the Forever Blueshirts staff breaks it down.
Debating whether Rangers should sign or trade K’Andre Miller
In a perfect world, I’d love to see Miller get to play next season under a different coaching staff and defensive system before committing to an expensive long-term contract with him. Probably the only way to do that is take him to arbitration on a one-year deal this summer. The arbitration process is an ugly one, though, and who knows the damage it could cause in Miller’s relationship with the team.
But it would provide the Rangers more data to explore and understand if his two-year regression in production, expected goals, high-danger chances against, etc. are a reversable trend or not. Right now, the argument can be made that Miller just didn’t fit well in the man-to-man defensive scheme deployed these past two seasons.
That could partly explain why he lost his man so often. But is that an excuse for his often egregious miscues with the puck in his own end? His 97 giveaways this season nearly tripled
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his total from 2023-24. Anomaly or trend? As for his offensive numbers, Miller gets more defensive zone starts than any other Rangers defenseman. But with his natural ability, 30-40 points per season shouldn’t be out of the question, especially if he gets paired with Adam Fox moving forward. After saying all that, I’d talk to teams to find out what I could get for Miller, then see what kind of money and term he is seeking. My first preference is to sign Miller to a fair but not outrageous contract unless completely blown away by a trade offer.