Rangers reportedly open to moving restricted free agent defenseman K’Andre Miller this summer
The New York Rangers have been busy since their season ended without a trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2021. They’re fired the coach who led them to the Presidents’ Trophy a year earlier, hired a two-time Cup winner from a Metropolitan Division rival as his replacement and brought in one of their own former coaches as his assistant.
Now there’s a question about whether defenseman K’Andre Miller will be back when the Rangers report for training camp in September.
According to Elite Prospects’ Cam Robinson, the Rangers have informed teams that the 25-year-old restricted free agent is available for a move. Robinson says the Rangers seem more than willing to move on from Miller rather than extend him.
There’s no doubt that Miller has the wheels and the skills to be an impact player. But he’s never had the kind of breakout season the Rangers and their fans were hoping for. He struggled badly at times this season, finishing with 27 points (seven goals, 20 assists) in 74 games. He also finished with an even plus-minus rating, the first time in his five NHL seasons that he wasn’t a plus player.
It’s the second straight season his points total has dropped after he had a career-high 43 points (nine goals, 34 assists) in 2022-23.
Miller is coming off a two-year contract that has an average annual value of $3,872,000, according to PuckPedia. He also had surgery last month to repair an upper-body injury sustained toward the end of the season. A League source told the New York Post that Miller tried to rehab the undisclosed injury but ultimately decided surgery was his best option – he’s expected to be back around the start of next season.
Inconsistencies in Miller’s defensive game have always been a concern, and he made an abundance of costly turnovers this season. But his physical tools are undeniable, and he’s still a long way from reaching his ceiling.
“Kind of hard to talk about my future here, obviously,” Miller said at the Rangers’ breakup day in April. “I have a great agent that is going to help me throughout this summer’s process. I love being a New York Ranger. I think this has been some of the best years of my life. These last five years have been unforgettable in about every aspect you can think of.”
Rangers reportedly willing to move on from K’Andre Miller
But Miller’s name has been floating around the rumor mill since the Rangers ended perhaps their most disappointing season ever, becoming the fourth team in NHL history to miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs one year after winning the Presidents’ Trophy. Miller was at his worst during a 4-15-0 collapse at the end of 2024 that largely sank the Rangers’ playoff hopes.
Miller could also file for, and go to, arbitration for a two-year contract that would bring him into unrestricted free agency at age 27.
“I think throughout this team, there were a lot of ups and downs throughout the year, and I was obviously a big part of that,” he said in April. “Yeah, didn’t love how I started my season this year, and I was listening to a lot of the noise and just not really playing my game I wanted to play. I thought it was a hard season for me to kind of get a grip of how I wanted to play. Like I said, there was a lot of noise at the beginning, but I thought I did a good job of just staying true to myself and showing up every day with a smile on my face and a willingness to get better.”
Robinson says interested teams are weighing their options – whether to trade for Miller or try to get him via offer sheet.
Miller could be an offer-sheet target because the Rangers don’t have a ton of wiggle room against the salary cap, which will rise to $95.5 million for the 2025-26 season. According to PuckPedia, they have less than $8.5 million in cap space available and must sign RFA forwards Will Cuylle and Matt Rempe, among others. That could hamstring the Rangers if they decide to keep Miller; the Edmonton Oilers lost two RFAs, forward Dylan Holloway and defenseman Philip Broberg, to the St. Louis Blues via offer sheet last summer, partly because they didn’t have the necessary cap room.
Miller was the Rangers’ first-round pick (No. 22) in the 2018 NHL Draft. He has 132 points (36 goals, 96 assists) in 368 games, averaging 21:57 of ice time, and was named to the NHL’s All-Rookie team in 2020-21.
The Rangers won’t give Miller away. But it wouldn’t be a surprise if his first time stepping on the ice at Madison Square Garden next season comes with him wearing another uniform.
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