MTPS: Making a Key Move for Some Gritty Goodies

With the trade deadline coming up fast and the New York Rangers chances of making the playoffs slipping further into the abyss, I’m looking at a bunch of trades that the Rangers could make, should make, and most likely won’t make.

First up...K’Andre Miller.

Make no mistake, Miller is probably the single most physically gifted player in the entire New York Rangers organization. His combination of size and speed is the stuff that GMs and coaches drool over. A forward up until his draft year, the Rangers have done him no favors by saddling him with some pretty terrible defensive assistant coaches during his NHL tenure. Every so often you see flashes of the kind of player Miller can be, but the only thing consistent about his game is that he’s inconsistent. With some projecting that Miller’s next contract would be in the range of 6 years and $6.5 million, I just don’t see how the Rangers can give that to him based on what we’ve seen so far. 

With that being said, other teams will be lining up to bring Miller into their system and see if they can unlock what the Rangers could not. 

Before we get to the trade proposals, let’s look at some comps.

Jacob Trouba

This is the one that jumps off the page to me. Trouba was entering his age 25 season when the Rangers traded for him. Like Miller, Trouba had all the physical tools but lacked consistency. Trouba was also an RFA with arbitration rights, just as Miller will be after this season. 

The Rangers acquired Trouba for a 1st Round Pick and Neal Pionk

Bowen Byram

The former Colorado defenseman had the misfortune of being a really good player stuck behind a generational player. With limited cap flexibility and a glaring need for a 2C to replace Nazim Kadri, Byram was deemed expendable.

The Sabres acquired Byram for Casey Mittelstadt

Mikhail Sergachev

Sergachev is a lot like K’Andre in that—on paper—he’s everything you could possibly want in a first pair D. While consistency is what has limited K’Andre, Sergachev’s issue has been availability. When Utah acquired him, Sergachev was coming off a season where injuries limited him to only 34 games. 

Utah acquired Sergachev for defenseman J.J. Moser, forward Conor Geekie, a 7th-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft (No. 199) and a 2nd-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft

So, using those three players as comps, what could the Rangers reasonably expect back for K’Andre? A first and a young player seems like a good place to start, or if not a first, then a player and high-end prospect. 

Now that we’ve established a baseline of value, let's identify some interested parties. Like I said above, Miller is the type of player that literally any team would love to have. Contenders would be interested because they believe that in their system Miller helps them in the playoffs now; non-contenders would be happy to get a player with his skillset on their roster so that he can help them in the years to come. 

What teams would have interest in Miller? All of them.

Next question: What do the Rangers want?