Even though prospect defenseman K’Andre Miller’s freshman season of hockey was cut short by injury, the 2018 first round pick had an extremely impressive year. At just 18-years-old, Miller is already amongst solid company.
Comparing the production of different players at the amateur or developmental level does not inherently translate to NHL success. However, similar or even better years can prove to be solid indicators of talent over long periods of time. As an 18-year-old, K’Andre Miller, a defensive prospect of the New York Rangers, had an amazing freshman year at Wisconsin.
The United States Hockey developmental program has produced a handful of quality NHL players like Zach Werenski, Jacob Trouba, Charlie McAvoy, Noah Hanafin and Mike Matheson. This group represents players that played college hockey at age 18 like Miller and went through the USA hockey program prior to college.
From the very jump, it should be pointed out that the experience of players at the college level is different from junior hockey in a variety of ways. First of all, the teams play fewer games and the quality of talent varies more widely. Meaning that since Miller played hockey at Wisconsin in the Big Ten conference, he played some less talented programs at the bottom of the spectrum.
However, his numbers at the college level as an 18-year-old bode well for his future. The Rangers are implicitly expected Miller to eventually step into the number one defenseman role in a couple of years and this was the first step. Even though Miller suffered a knee injury back in February, he didn’t return to Wisconsin’s lineup for the Big Ten tournament.
How good of a freshman year?
Even though Miller wasn’t playing in the NHL at age 18 like some of the other prospects that dazzled early on, he still excelled.
Following the end of his season, here is how #NYR prospect K’Andre Miller compares to other defensemen selected in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft through their first 26 career NCAA games played: pic.twitter.com/Pr6lMUGeKX
— NY Rangers PR (@NYR_PR) March 11, 2019
Aside from Matheson, the other four would instantly be the best defenseman on New York’s roster. That’s what makes Miller season so impressive and injury so demoralizing. Although he’s got until next fall before hockey season starts up again, missing a month of play is valuable developmental ice time.
Simply put, if Miller can live up to these other players he outperformed as a freshman, he’d be one of if not the best New York draft picks this decade.
Since Brady Skjei back in 2012, the team has continually struck out at drafting blueliners including Sean Day, Ryan Graves, Ryan Mantha and Sergey Zborovskiy. Although none of this group were first-round picks, this limited return on value has hamstrung the team and put it in its current predicament.
The Rangers have a lot of eggs in the prospect basket for the team’s future. Miller’s strong freshman season is a solid foundation to start with, but it’s going to be years, not months before he’s NHL ready. Expect at least one if not two more years of college hockey for the Badgers from Miller.