When Chris Drury made the trade last season for JT Miller to re-join the New York Rangers, the logic was simple, if mildly flawed. Miller is a fiery personality who doesn’t accept losing, and the Rangers were doing plenty of losing. Additionally, Miller came at the cost of an oft-injured third line center, a bottom pair defenseman, and a first round draft pick. Miller’s contract didn’t look disastrous, either, with the potential to even be a steal if he kept playing at an 80+ point a season rate.
When speaking about the trade right after it happened, I thought the light package and that the Rangers were sorely missing a guy who could truly, comfortably reach 80+ points (besides Artemi Panarin) as reasons I liked the trade. However, I did think about the potential for Miller to get hurt or rub players the wrong way.
Unfortunately for Drury and the Rangers, the JT Miller 2.0 experience has gone worse than anyone could have imagined.
While somehow making the United States Olympic team (if rumors are to believed, his methods to make the team weren’t pretty), every other aspect of Miller’s season has been disastrous. After being named Captain in the offseason–It’s a very good idea to take the worst locker room in hockey, and make the most volatile personality in hockey the leader within that room!–Miller immediately started getting hurt, and getting hurt, and getting hurt, and, well, you get the point.
When “healthy”, Miller’s play has been subpar at best. The Rangers would be awfully lucky to get 60 points out of Miller, with even a 50 point season possibly out of reach. Miller looks weak on the puck, slow, and worst of all, uninterested. There have been various times this season that he has failed to hustle in key situations. Remember, he’s the captain.
I understood the logic of naming him captain at the time. He wouldn’t have been my pick, but the idea that he would be a strong personality who wouldn’t accept the BS of last season’s team was at least defensible. Adding on that Mike Sullivan loves the guy, it made sense.
All Miller has done to return the favor is provide a lot of quotes saying the Rangers are playing unacceptably, then going out the next night and playing unacceptably. When Miller’s even in the lineup, he does not represent what I want to see in a New York Ranger. If he represents what Drury or Sullivan wants to see in a New York Ranger, the Rangers will be terrible for a long, long time.
Perhaps the worst part of all of this is that no one will want to trade for this version of Miller. Maybe he can get healthy and be sold with some retention, but odds are Miller is going to be a Ranger for the long haul. Short of stripping his captaincy, there isn’t much the Rangers can do about his presence, either.
Chris Drury hitched the Rangers wagons to JT Miller last season. Now, we’re watching a slow-motion crash. The JT Miller disaster isn’t going to rectify itself magically. This either ends in an ugly divorce or continuing mediocrity.
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