In his January letter to fans announcing a retool of his team’s roster, New York Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury expressed a desire to “target players that bring tenacity, skill, speed, and a winning pedigree with a focus on obtaining young players, draft picks, and cap space to allow us flexibility moving forward.”
Twenty-six-year-old defenseman K’Andre Miller is skilled. He’s got speed. And he’s shown he can play a key role on a winner. After averaging a team-high 23:55 of ice time per game for the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2026 playoffs, he’s set to skate in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday. In 13 games this postseason, Miller has registered eight points, all assists, and leads the league in plus-minus (plus-14). If he keeps up his strong play and the Hurricanes win four more games to capture the Stanley Cup, he could be in Conn Smythe Trophy discussions.
Miller has emerged as the exact type of player the Rangers are looking for in their self-declared retool, especially with coach Mike Sullivan identifying puck-moving defenders as a team need. It makes the team’s decision to trade him last summer all the more worthy of scrutiny.
Last July, with Miller needing a new contract as a restricted free agent, New York dealt him to Carolina for a 2026 first-round pick (No. 26, via Dallas), a second-round pick and defenseman Scott Morrow, who is 23 and had six points in 29 NHL games during the 2025-26 regular season. As part of the deal, Miller signed an eight-year, extension annually worth $7.5 million with the Hurricanes.
Miller enjoyed a strong season with Carolina even before his stellar playoffs, putting up 37 points in 72 games and averaging 22:24 of ice time. His point-per-game rate (0.51) is his best since a breakout 2022-23 season with the Rangers (43 points in 79 games). Per colleague Dom Luszczyszyn’s model, his regular season Net Rating (6.8) would have ranked second among Rangers defensemen, behind only Adam Fox. As it was, Vladislav Gavrikov — signed to a seven-year, $7 million AAV deal with some of the cap flexibility gained by trading Miller — was the next-closest New York defenseman with a Net Rating of 0.9.
Before this season, Miller had struggled to find defensive consistency in 2024-25, particularly when playing alongside then-captain Jacob Trouba early in the year. His metrics defending zone entries took a hit, and fans keyed in on puck management lapses. During his breakup day interview he said he thought “it was a hard season for me to get a grip of how I wanted to play.”
Miller’s trajectory toward the end of his Rangers’ tenure makes it fair to wonder if he could have found his current level in New York. But that in itself is an issue: Why was a talented, relatively young defenseman unable to find consistency with the Rangers yet able to blossom right after leaving? All of it raises important questions about the Rangers’ talent evaluation, their decision-making process, and their ability to develop young players.
The coaches who worked most closely with Miller are gone; Drury fired Peter Laviolette and assistant Phil Housley, who handled the defensemen, after the 2024-25 season. Would Miller have bounced back under Sullivan’s staff? Or was this simply an example of a player who needed a fresh start?
Miller isn’t the only player in this Stanley Cup Final highlighting a developmental miss by the Rangers. Vegas Golden Knights forward Brett Howden, who couldn’t find his footing in New York and ultimately needed a change of scenery, is tied for this year’s playoff lead in goals (10) and also proved instrumental in Vegas’ 2023 Cup win. The Rangers got a fourth-round selection for him in a 2021 trade. The result turned out better than it could have — New York used the pick to draft Noah Laba, who had an encouraging rookie season this past year — but Howden’s progression with the Golden Knights underscores similar concerns to Miller’s arc.
Last summer, New York used some of the cap flexibility gained by trading Miller to sign Gavrikov to a seven-year, $7 million AAV deal. The team, looking to turn the corner after a tumultuous 2024-25 season, viewed the former Los Angeles Kings blueliner — four years older than Miller — as someone who could bring reliable defense as a partner for the offensively dynamic Fox. (Miller, for what it’s worth, had elite metrics with Fox in 2024-25: The pair’s 64.69 percent expected goal rate ranked fourth league-wide among duos that played at least 100 minutes together, per Natural Stat Trick.)
Nearly a year later, the Miller trade looks like one made by a team that mistook the timeline it was playing on. Gavrikov provided the level of production that the Rangers paid for — he had a career-high 14 goals and played 23:44 a night — but showed his limitations during stretches when Fox was hurt. New York got older by signing the 30-year-old (and also by extending Will Borgen during the 2024-25 season) rather than trusting Miller to unlock more from his game.
Contending teams consistently make moves like this, trading potential for certainty in trying to get over the top. But the Rangers proved far from contenders this season. Instead, they finished with the third-worst record in the league, announced a retool and traded franchise cornerstone Artemi Panarin at the trade deadline.
Behind Fox and Gavrikov, the team’s defensive group has plenty of question marks. Borgen and Braden Schneider struggled at points with added responsibility this season, and younger depth additions — Morrow (acquired in the Miller deal), Urho Vaakanainen (acquired in the Jacob Trouba trade) and Vincent Iorio (claimed on waivers) — failed to receive consistent NHL ice time.
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes posted the best record in the Eastern Conference and then mowed through their playoff competition, going 12-1 to meet Vegas in the Final. Miller in particular caught the attention of a certain league legend after Game 4.
“Defensively, K’Andre Miller is playing as well as I’ve ever seen a defenseman play in the Stanley Cup playoffs,” Wayne Gretzky said on the TNT telecast. “Nobody can get around him. He’s like a brick wall.”
Skill. Youth. Speed. Winning pedigree. All traits the Rangers are seeking. All traits belonging to K’Andre Miller, whom they traded away.
