Rangers GM: Miller 'will be a key part of our core moving forward'
New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury is a fan of what J.T. Miller can bring to the table during his second stint with the team.
"(He's) certainly one of the premier impact forwards in the NHL," he said, according to the New York Post's Mollie Walker. "Brings a unique combination of skills, size, and physicality to our team. Not just helps us this year in the short term, but will be a key part of our core moving forward."
Miller is under contract for five more years with an $8-million cap hit. His deal is up in 2030, the same as Mika Zibanejad's, while fellow core players Vincent Trocheck and Adam Fox's pacts expire the year prior.
New York selected Miller with the 15th overall pick at the 2011 NHL Draft, and the star forward totaled 72 goals and 172 points in 341 outings with the Blueshirts during his first six NHL seasons.
The Rangers dealt Miller to the Tampa Bay Lightning at the 2018 trade deadline, but he's back in the Big Apple nearly seven years later. New York reunited with Miller in a six-piece trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Friday.
Drury was an assistant general manager for the Rangers during Miller's last two-plus seasons in New York. Despite his familiarity with the player, Drury did his due diligence before acquiring him because of the rift between Miller and Canucks teammate Elias Pettersson.
"We've certainly done a lot of homework on that situation and on J.T.," he said. "We do have history with him, obviously having drafted him and being a Ranger. So we felt comfortable doing the deal.
"Obviously, I'm not in their dressing room or part of their organization, but (I) wouldn't have done the deal if I didn't feel comfortable as to what he's going to bring to us on and off the ice."
Part of that homework was talking to Trocheck, who is good friends with Miller.
Though Miller is a splashy addition, Drury stopped short of saying he'd be aggressive at the March 7 trade deadline. The Rangers had a disastrous stretch earlier in the season that saw them trade Jacob Trouba and Kaapo Kakko in December, but they're now just five points outside of a wild-card spot with a 24-22-4 record.
"We've certainly had a better January," Drury said of his team's 8-3-3 month. "Didn't end the way we wanted it to with the two losses. ... But as I've said in the past, my job on the management side of the organization is try and push forward as best we can and always find different ways to try and be a better team. We'll continue to do that."
Miller will be in the lineup Saturday when the Rangers take on the Boston Bruins.