K'Andre Miller Scouting Report
The Player
Quick Hits from NaturalStatTrick
K’Andre Miller is a 6’5”, 23 year old defenseman who posted 9 goals and 34 assists for 43 total points while averaging 22 minutes across 79 games.
At 5-on-5, he contributed 7 goals and 24 assists while maintaining at 51.79 CF% and a 50.38 GF%.
Miller has been in the league only 3 short years but has accumulated 27 playoff games across the last 2 years with the New York Rangers.
Diving Deeper with HockeyViz
K’Andre Miller had trouble differentiating himself from the pack of other defenseman on the New York Rangers. His xGA/60 impact was basically the same but he did improve the offense a bit. His increased presence around the net, coupled with high-volume point shooting from Jacob Trouba, suggest a player that is facilitating play well.
His penalty killing numbers are very good and his portion of ice is routinely shooting well below expected. He isn’t responsible for guarding the primary trigger location of many of the metro teams (Ovechkin, Laine most specifically) but you can’t necessarily ask for better results close to the net.
K’Andre Miller was, more or less, stapled to Jacob Trouba. This duo formed a formidable and physical matchup pairing.
On a team that featured Adam Fox, and without playing with him for any significant portion, K’Andre Miller was the teams de-facto number 2 defenseman. His important outweighed his partner and really underscores his coach’s trust in him to take the most difficult assignments.
Team Adjusted Data with Evolving Hockey
After being algorithmically stripped of his teammates and deployment context, we can see that K’Andre Miller performed very well in 2022-2023. He offensively “broke-out” this year by generated a strong shot-differential and finishing well. His shot suppression, despite tough matchups, shows a player that is certainly capable of handling himself in his own zone.
The Microstats with the All Three Zones Project
K’Andre Miller is not a particularly prolific at driving zone-exits. It appears that Jacob Trouba did more of the heavy lifting in terms of both retrieving and exiting but it’s still worth noting that Miller is above league average in this regard.
It’s also worth mentioning that a defenseman as talented as Adam Fox still did not post sterling results in this regard. There may be some systems issues that can better explaining this group’s performance in zone-exiting. It could just be that forwards are asked to carry more of the burden.
Where he may not be an excellent puck-mover, K’Andre Miller is a very aggressive entry defender. He broke up plays early while maintaining a league average Carry Against%. For a defenseman who is 23, his aggression is only going to be honed into a further point as he continues to soak matchups.
Here, we get a picture of what K’Andre Miller is outside of the very specific previous contexts. He is an excellent entry defender. His game is raw and undefined outside of that. He isn’t a puck-move or carrier through the neutral zone and doesn’t necessarily produce offense through specific or sustainable methods. That being said, he still posted more than 40 points. He’ll need to further grow his offensive game to continue to post results like he did in 2022-2023 but, again, he’s 23.
The Contract via CapFriendly
K’Andre Miller is currently without a contract. He’s an RFA without arbitration rights.
The Fit
The Checkboxes
Primary Considerations
Aggressive Blueline Protection
Plays Left Side
Better than Team Defense
K’Andre Miller checks these boxes across the board. He looks like the up-and-coming picture of aggressive entry-defense.
Secondary Considerations
Veteran Savvy (bonus to Playoff or Stanley Cup Experience)
Surviving Tough Minutes
Penalty Killing
Short Term Contract Flexibility
While K’Andre Miller doesn’t possess veteran savvy, he crushes all of the other considerations. His 27 playoff games puts him about even with Zach Werenski (29 games) despite this being his third full season in the NHL. The sky is the limit for K’Andre Miller.
Motive to Move
NYR have not yet signed this important player to an extension. That should tell you that there is some measure of though about it. The team has $11 million in projected available cap space, according to CapFriendly.com, and has 5 full No Move Clauses already on their roster (Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejard, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck and Jacob Trouba). Elsewhere on the roster, they have Adam Fox making $9.5 million and Filip CHytil with a recently signed $4.427 million AAV extension.
The Rangers will have to sign K’Andre Miller and Alexis Lafreniere to new deals this offseason, while maintaining flexibility for new deals from Ryan Lindgren and Kappo Kakko this upcoming offseason. EvolvingHockey’s contract projections put him as getting a 7 year, $6.29 million AAV contract. That would eat up more than half of the Rangers remaining cap and leave little room for returning Patrick Kane or Vlad Tarasenko.
I can’t see a world where K’Andre Miller wouldn’t be priority #1. The Rangers will do everything they can to get this guy signed and make the picture fit around that, but the right offer may have them think otherwise. They could be at risk of an offer sheet.
TL;DR
If the Blue Jackets can pry K’Andre Miller from the New York Rangers, they should. He would come at significant cost but he may be the next great shutdown defenseman.