KAndre Miller is coming on fast: Inside his evolution from scouting conundrum to Rangers defensive stalwart – The Athletic

The play KAndre Miller made late in the first period of Wednesdays meaningless Rangers-Canadiens game was not surprising.

Not to the Rangers teammates and coaches whove seen Miller grow in confidence to match his outstanding skill set this season. Not to the coaches from his amateur career who helped him transform from a big, rangy forward into a potential top-pair, shutdown defenseman. And not to his old friends and teammates who know that underneath Millers cool exterior theres a hard-charging, focused young man who seemingly wont be denied his place as a top NHL defenseman.

When you think youre by him, Cole Caufield said, you find out pretty quick youre just not.

The Rangers are in the playoffs, non-bubble version, non-preliminary-round version, for the first time since 2017. Of the 20 guys who are likely to suit up for Game 1 next week, this will be the first NHL postseason for 10. And outside of Igor Shesterkins surefire Vezina Trophy performance this year, none of the Rangers young players has improved more than Miller, the 22-year-old who has solidified one of the best top-four defense corps in the league.

He keeps the serious, professional look, said Tony Granato, Millers coach for two years at University of Wisconsin. That emotion and energy is controlled. But I know how much he loves it.

Millers evolution as a defenseman began just five years ago. He arrived in Plymouth, Mich., to the U.S. National Team Development Program, in 2016 as a bit of a tweener a rangy, athletic player who played mostly forward but also some defense.

I remember at tryout camp seeing him play a scrimmage at forward and one at D, said Nick Fohr, who has coached defensemen in the USNTDP program for the past decade. I was coaching the 99s (birth year) then, and (Danton) Cole and Chris Luongo had the 2000s. By the time Seth (Appert) and I got KAndre the next year, he was a defenseman full time.

Fohr said Miller excelled at closing out opposing players on the rush, even in the earliest stages of learning to be a defenseman. The way we defended line rushes, he was able to close plays out and do most of it on instinct angling, either forwards or backwards, Fohr said. He was so good at doing that, hed get on top of people super fast. Then you had to teach him the D-zone aspect. Pucks in the corner, heres what you need to do. He had to learn how to do a lot of that stuff. He had a good base in year one. He was such a quick learner and picked up on those skills so quickly.

Fohr and Appert, who is now coaching the Sabres farm team in Rochester, fielded their usual inquiries from amateur scouts. Miller was still considered a raw prospect, but the way he picked up the nuances of being a defenseman and added them to his game throughout the USNTDP season didnt go unnoticed. He was the No. 31 ranked North American prospect by Central Scouting midseason and moved up to No. 23 before the draft, where the Rangers took him 22nd.

I remember talking to some scouts that year. Everybody wanted to compare KAndre to (Sabres defenseman) Mattias Samuelsson, who was also at the program, Fohr said. Mattias was going to play you could see the maturity. KAndre had a higher ceiling, a chance to be a top-pair NHL guy, but if things go sideways, he could spend a lot of time bouncing from team to team. There was more unknowns with KAndre at that time. How good can this be? It was only a year and a half that hed played the position so I had all these scouts asking questions. You couldnt stamp it then. There were huge factors that had an impact on where hed end up.

Hes fun to coach. He had so much to learn and it was a challenge because you didnt want to overwhelm him. And we had our moments. There were some times he didnt like me too much, Im sure. We had this picture of where he could go and what he could be and honestly, hes exceeding it already. And hes going to continue to get better. You can see hes got more to add to his game. As that comes together, hes going to be really, really good.

After the draft, it was on to Granato and Wisconsin. Miller was definitely a defenseman and definitely someone the Rangers held in high regard among their growing stable of prospects. In Madison, he started to show some of the offensive flair hes let out from time to time in the past few months with the Rangers.

Frankly, we needed that from him because of how our team was structured, Granato said. He didnt get much power-play time at the program, but we needed some offense from him. They were hard on him about the basics, learning where to be, what to do without the puck. It was great for his development. When he got to us, we had to turn him loose.

Miller posted 12 goals and 40 points in 62 games at Wisconsin, with the Rangers player development team keeping in close contact. Tanner Glass, Jed Ortmeyer, they had a really good plan on what they thought KAndre could be, Granato said. And hes ahead of schedule. Hes already surpassed whatever expectations they had for him in year two, Im sure.

Miller had a very strong rookie season in 2020-21. It can be that second season where theres stagnation for a young defenseman, as he is asked to do more, gets sheltered less and the adrenaline of that first season wears off. Add in a new coaching staff, and it was understandable for Miller to have the lull he had the first three months of this season, as many of his teammates did in getting their bearings under Gerard Gallant and assistant Gord Murphy, who runs the defense.

You could see plays like the one Wednesday from Miller, but they usually came when he was trying to erase his own mistakes. Mistimed pinches or mentally getting ahead of himself on a play thinking instead of acting and pucks were coming off his stick to opposing players at an unpleasant rate.

Since Christmas, though, Miller has been perhaps the most dependable Rangers defenseman.

Courtesy Evolving-Hockey, here are the expected-goals percentages at five-on-five for the Rangers six most-used defensemen before and after Christmas:

45.07

51.46

45.52

50.39

54.03

47.99

52.20

47.85

--

42.73

44.15

36.32

49.83

--

Its the same as it was when he came to us, or when he went to Wisconsin: You have to learn the level before you can apply the knowledge at that level, Fohr said. Watching all the guys Ive had move on to that level, its impressed me to watch and see how quickly they pick things up. They all have those moments when theyre in the NHL, then theres a lull. It wouldnt shock me that he had that in his second season, and then things take off again.

That development process that happens here happens there too. For him to pick things up, start to accelerate and become a more dominant player at that level is not a surprise. Hes probably done it a little faster than I thought he would, to be honest.

The confidence that comes with knowing the defensive keys has allowed Miller to be more confident joining the rush and showing some of that skill at the other end of the ice. His tricky shootout goal to beat the Bruins on Feb. 15 was one moment.

His overtime winner to beat the Sabres last month was another.

Yeah, I saw that one, Granato said. It was against my brother (Don, the Sabres coach), so I definitely heard about it. And maybe they need to move him up the shootout list.

Caufield was with Miller at the U.S. program and for a year at Wisconsin. Caufield has had a whirlwind year-plus in the NHL, going from making a Stanley Cup Final in his first season with the Canadiens to the AHL in the first half of 2021-22 to a surge since Martin St. Louis took over as coach. Hes kept in touch with Miller along the way and sees what his old friend is developing into.

Every time I catch a game of theirs, I see him on the ice against the other teams top players, Caufield said. It shows how far hes come in such a short time. We always knew how good he was, even when he was still new to being a defenseman. And now hes playing big minutes on a pretty good team. It says a lot about him as a person and a player. The skys the limit for him.

(Top photo of Rem Pitlick and KAndre Miller: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

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KAndre Miller is coming on fast: Inside his evolution from scouting conundrum to Rangers defensive stalwart - The Athletic