New York Rangers: J.T. Miller Will Build on Breakout Season

Next in our series of New York Rangers 2016 Player Previews, we look at the potential for Miller to build on his breakout 2015-2016 campaign.

In his 4th season in the league and his first season of playing more than 60 games, J.T. Miller finally found his game at the NHL level. After a few years of playing underwhelming hockey in the NHL, Miller became a consistent force to be reckoned with for the New York Rangers. Was last year a fluke, or could last year’s performance be the beginning of what looks to be a very bright young career?

2015-2016 Traditional Stats

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Games Played: 82

Goals: 22

Assists: 21

Points: 43

Plus/Minus: +10

PP: 2

S%: 16.3

TOI: 15:02

Previous Role: 2nd Line Winger

Season in Review

Last season was a coming out party for Miller. After finally getting consistent ice time from Alain Vigneault, Miller broke out to the tune of 22 goals and 43 total points. There were times during this past season where Miller was by far the best player on the team. Miller was very consistent with his play all season, even when he was held out of the scoresheet,

Miller would make his presence known with his physicality on the forecheck and on defense. He showed tremendous growth in his defensive zone play, which was one of the main reasons why Vigneault opted to play him a whole two and a half minutes more a game than he did in 2014-2015. Miller’s play reminded me of that of a young Ryan Callahan who always made it known he was on the ice and didn’t give up on any shift. Alain Vigneault calling him out the prior season, saying that he may be just a “very good minor leaguer” lit a fire under his butt and it showed.

2016-2017 Project Stats

Games Played: 80

Goals: 25

Assists: 27

Points: 52

Plus/Minus: 12

PP: 5

S%: 14.9%

TOI: 16:30

Projected Role: 2nd Line Winger

Reasoning: Miller was a former first round pick, so obviously the team had to believe in his talent to pick him there. It seems that Miller has finally figured out how to play with the big boys. His jump in production in just one season is substantial in every area. Obviously, if you look at the traditional stats, you would see that Miller tallied 12 more goals and 8 more assists last year than in his 2014-2015 campaign. It wasn’t just his traditional stats that jumped into a different stratosphere.

Take a look at Miller’s hero chart right here. Miller improved dramatically in every single category. In terms of his G/60, he scored at a rate of a player that would be worthy of first line minutes. His advanced statistics point to him being able to repeat or exceed his production next season and beyond.

The one thing that, I guess could be looked at as a bit of a concern for Miller’s potential 2016-2017 goal output is how high his shooting percentage was. His shooting percentage of was nearly 6 percentage points higher than his 14-15 shooting percentage (10.9%). Miller had never had a shooting percentage as high as 15-16 shooting percentage at any level.

At the end of the day, while I do think his shooting percentage will come back down to earth, I still fully expect 20+ goals out of Miller again next year, especially since he should see an uptick in powerplay time. Playing a full season with Derek Stepan and Chris Kreider on the “America” line could be beneficial for everyone involved.

Miller is developing into something special in this league. I’m excited to be along for the ride.