Do Rangers have Miller-sized hole in middle after Trocheck trade?
The New York Rangers helped their defense corps and prospect pipeline last week when they traded veteran center Vincent Trocheck to the Utah Mammoth for defenseman Sean Durzi, 20-year-old center Cole Beaudoin, and a third-round pick in next year’s NHL Draft.
Durzi should team with another offseason acquisition, Marcus Pettersson, to give the Rangers an improved second defense pair. They have high hopes that Beaudoin, the 24th player taken in the 2024 draft, turns into a solid middle-six NHL center soon — though it’s not likely to happen this season. The third-rounder is a lottery ticket.
The problem the Rangers have is that they’re going to scramble to fill Trocheck’s shoes — er, skates — this season.
Mika Zibanejad is the unquestioned No. 1 center. He led the Rangers last season with 34 goals and 78 points , plays in all situations, and shows no signs of slowing down at age 33.
Noah Laba finished his rookie season centering the fourth line, but with Trocheck’s departure and the addition of Joe Veleno via free agency, he’ll be counted on to be the 3C in 2026-27. Veleno, a 2018 first-round pick (No, 30 overall) who’s never produced much offense, is penciled in as the fourth-line center.
The Rangers need Laba to improve on his first-year offensive totals (nine goals, 24 points in 74 games), though his two-way play and face-off acumen is legit.
Rangers need rebound from captain J.T. Miller to make playoffs
But the biggest question down the middle is how much captain J.T. Miller has left in the tank.
Miller’s offensive dropoff last season was one of the major reasons the Rangers finished 23rd in the NHL in goals scored (235) and were shut out a League-leading 10 times (including seven at home).
After being named captain in training camp, Miller struggled offensively all season while battling injuries. His production dropped precipitously, and he couldn’t rally his teammates when the Blueshirts sank to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. He scored three goals in his first 17 games, then went 14 games without one from Jan. 28 through March 25.
The 33-year-old showed his frustrations on his face and often struggled to contain his emotions on the ice and during postgame media scrums. “It was a challenging year,” he said on breakup day in April.
Despite an expected goal share of 51.78 percent, per Natural Stat Trick, Miller finished with just 17 goals and tied for fourth on the Rangers with 53 points in 68 games. It was his least productive full season since 2018-19 with the Tampa Bay Lightning (47 points) and a far cry from his 37-goal, 103-point season with the Vancouver Canucks in 2023-24.
His defensive play was no better. Miller was a team-worst minus-30, and the Rangers were outscored 50-35 with him on the ice at 5-on-5. He did score five game-winning goals, including three in overtime. But to say that his play was a major factor in the Rangers’ poor showing last season is an understatement. Night after night, Miller was often seen losing his assignment, then watching as opponents put the puck in the net.
The season wasn’t a total loss for Miller, who played a useful role as a bottom-six forward in Team USA’s run to the gold medal at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. He also won the Rod Gilbert Mr. Ranger Award, which recognizes Rangers “who best honors Rod’s legacy by exemplifying leadership qualities both on and off the ice and making a significant humanitarian contribution to his community.”
But when it came to his on-ice play, 2025-26 was a season to forget. Even still, he’s averaged a point per game from the 2021-22 season through 2025-26 (407 points in 382 games), so expectations remain high for Miller. With Trocheck out of the picture, it’s imperative Miller regains top form.
The good news is that one of Miller’s linemates could be Pavel Dorofeyev, who was acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights on June 26 and then signed to a seven-year contract with an AAV of $11 million. Dorofeyev scored 35 and 37 goals the past two seasons and is being counted on to boost the offense.
Former Rangers defenseman Keith Yandle expects Miller to be a solid fit as Dorofeyev’s center.
“I think J.T. Miller — I would imagine [Dorofeyev] is going to play with Miller, right? The Zibanejad line (with Alexis Lafreniere and Gabe Perreault) was good last year. I would imagine he’s going to play with J.T. Miller,” Yandle said this week on the Spittin’ Chicklets podcast. “I played with J.T. Miller (from 2015-16), and at the beginning of his career, he was like a pass-first guy. And I still think he has that in him. I think he’s going to be able to find [Dorofeyev] the puck as good as anyone.”
Miller isn’t going anywhere: He has four seasons remaining on a contract that carries an average annual value of $8 million, contains a no-movement clause this season and a 15-team no-trade clause for the final three seasons.
Coach Mike Sullivan and general manager Chris Drury hope that better health and a possible dose of Dorofeyev helps Miller return to being the player the Rangers envisioned when they acquired him from Vancouver on Jan. 31, 2025. Injuries or not, Miller can’t have another season like 2025-26 if the Rangers hope to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since winning the Presidents’ Trophy in 2023-24.
