REVISITING THE K’ANDRE MILLER TRADE
On Thanksgiving Eve in Raleigh, the New York Rangers will get their first chance to see K’Andre Miller in a Carolina Hurricanes uniform. Due to injury, Miller, 25, missed Carolina’s shutout 3-0 on November 4th at Madison Square Garden.
When Miller put up 43 points as a 23-year-old in 2022-23, it was presumed he would be a staple in the Blueshirts lineup for a long-time. Two years later, he was dealt to the Canes — who immediately signed him to an 8-year, $60m ($7.5m AAV) contract. He’s off to a good start in his new home with 10 points (2g, 8a) while averaging 22:51 of ice time across 16 games.
Despite Miller’s success, and still untapped potential, there’s no doubt that the Rangers are feeling good about the deal. Because not only did they add three resources — a conditional first-round pick in 2026, a second-round pick in 2026, and 23-year-old defenseman Scott Morrow — but they used the cap savings to sign free agent Vladislav Gavrikov to a 7-year, $49m ($7m AAV) contract.
Gavrikov, 30, was brought in to help Adam Fox return to elite form and give the Rangers a true shutdown pair. At five-on-five, the duo has driven play at a strong clip — posting an expected-goals share above 58% through the team’s first 23 games, per Natural Stat Trick data — which places them among the NHL’s most effective defensive pairings this season.
In the Rangers 3-2 win earlier tonight (November 24) against the St. Louis Blues, the pair was each a plus 2 with two assists. On the year, Fox has 21 points (3g, 18a) and Gavrikov has 10 points (2g, 8a).
NEED FOR SPEED
There are successful NHL forwards who have below-average speed. Mark Stone of the Vegas Golden Knights comes to mind. In recent Rangers’ history, there was Derek Stepan — who made up with his hockey sense and vision what he lacked in foot speed. In his seven seasons with the Rangers, he scored 360 points in 515 regular-season games. He added 49 more points in 97 post-season games, including a thrilling Game 7 OT winner against the Washington Capitals in the second round of the 2015 NHL Playoffs.
In my post, “Can You Draft Better Than the Rangers’ Front Office”, I stated that I would’ve taken Colorado Avalanche F Gavin Brindley over F Gabe Perreault in the 2023 NHL Draft. Brindley’s speed (and motor) jumped out of YouTube when you watched his highlights. He gave me, and still does with the Avalanche, Carl Hagelin vibes.
Like Stone and Stepan, Perreault needs to rely more on his hockey sense, skill, and vision to play at NHL speed. That was missing during his recent three-game audition. Many fans, myself included, were excited to see him in the lineup when the Rangers beat Nashville, Tampa Bay and Columbus.
However, it was easy to interpret why he was sent back down to Hartford. I can recall two shifts in the Lightning game where the Rangers appeared to have a two-on-one forming, but Perreault’s lack of footspeed prevented it. He seemed to be a beat off throughout his three-game stint.
To be clear, I’m not sounding the alarm on the Rangers top prospect. He worked seamlessly with the speedy Ryan Leonard (now of the Washington Capitals) and Will Smith (now of the San Jose Sharks) when he was their linemates with Boston College and Team USA.
He just needs to work on making quicker decisions and processing faster before his next opportunity to flank JT Miller and Mika Zibanejad.
SPEAKING OF SPEED
Brett Berard made his 2025-26 NHL season debut on Monday, November 24, against the St. Louis Blues. At 5’9”, 175, the 23-year-old from Providence did all the things he’s going to need to do to stay in the lineup. He brought energy and speed on every shift — getting in on the forecheck and having a handful of scoring chances.
I believe the optimal Rangers’ lineup this season, and for the foreseeable future, has Berard sharing the third line with Noah Laba. However, in order to stay in the lineup, he’s going to have to avoid the careless four-minute high-sticking penalty that he took with six minutes left in what was a two-goal game at the time.
Rangers HC Mike Sullivan said after the game, “I thought he played well, I would’ve liked him to be a little more responsible with his stick in the third… but I really like his energy, he brought some speed… we anticipated that he would bring some juice, and he did”.
REMEMBERING LARRY BROOKS
Larry Brooks was the premiere hockey scribe in the New York Post for 30+ years. Despite being a local guy — he grew up a Rangers fan, and worked for the New Jersey Devils — he was very well-known and respected across the NHL. In 2018 he was selected for the Elmer Ferguson Award, making him forever a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
My go-to hockey source, especially before the recent onslaught of hockey blogs/podcasts, was his weekly “Slapshots” column. Every week Brooks would advocate for something like retiring Brad Park’s #2 or educating us on something like the collective bargaining agreement or simply entertaining us with behind-the-scenes information.
It was my favorite column, one I enjoyed reading in a physical newspaper in the 90’s, and more recently on my phone. I can remember feeling a void every August when the NHL news dried up to the point that Brooks would take a late summer hiatus.
Like most of his readers, I never met Larry Brooks. But based on how I felt while waiting for his bylines to return after Labor Day, I can say with certainty that I’m going to miss him.
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