What Miller is doing right now, looks to be an aberration to what he has been doing in prior years. And Miller did not get traded by himself. He was a part of the deal that sent McD away. If you believe Gorton did not get enough on the whole deal, fine. But you cannot view Miller as a separate move.
Some prospects are not going to pan out. And then some are going to get traded. Both are inevitable. The key is draft and obtain the ones that you want to be a part of the core. Chytil and Lemieux fit the bill. It could well be that Andersson gets moved. I do not want that, but it will be hardly what makes or breaks the rebuild.
The Rangers did not screw up with Kravstov. He is managing to do all of that on his own. But him going back is not a big deal. He is hardly beyond salvage.
As for Strome, I think that just like with Kreider, it comes down to how much does he value the one franchise in which he has found trust and comfort of the team and coaching staff. And how he continues to perform for the next several months. There is value in someone like him in the middle 6 and with the ability to move from center to wing. At some point, he will need to decide if he wants his agent to contact Gorton to discuss what happens in the future. But if someone comes along with what Gorton perceives as a trade he cannot say no to, then he will be gone.
It’s only an aberration if he doesn’t continue to produce at a higher level in Vancouver. With the players they have there and how Miller is being used, there’s no reason to think he won’t continue to be highly productive there. Perhaps not always at the pace he’s on now, but 70 points+ seems completely plausible given his current situation. Dylan Strome, Elias Lindholm, Marchesault and many others have shown that sometimes the right fit makes worlds of difference. He was producing well in TB in spurts, but he never really got acclimated there and they perpetually moved him around the lineup. He never got a chance to stick in the top 6. To that end, I think he was misused to an extent both in TB and NY. He was fairly productive with the Rangers, but didn’t have tha consistent talent around him that he has in Van. Plus, as far as I can remember, he got moved around a lot in NY also. But he put up some very good numbers with the Rangers relative to how the team was performing back then.
Well, I absolutely don’t think the Rangers got enough in return in the entire deal, including McD. But I also think that trade devalued Miller. It probably devalued both McD and Miller as far as I can tell. I said as much the day the trade broke in news and it seems even more true today. There were numerous other forwards the Rangers should have traded instead at the time. Not that TB would have wanted them, but then maybe that deal would have been an altered version or a hundred other possibilities. Not that he would be playing the pace he is right now had he stayed, but I always believed he had the potential to be a 65+ point guy given the right circumstances and a bit more consistency and talent in his linemates.
In that sense I always thought Miller was undervalued in NY and I’ve always thought he had much more potential in him. We are seeing that in perhaps what are ideal conditions for him. And it’s not just his offense. It’s his entire game, perhaps minus decision making. Although he seems to have improved in that regard as well.
Well, there is no way of knowing yet if the Rangers screwed up regarding Kravtsov. He literally just left. He hasn’t really had the opportunity to succeed or fail yet. Hence the “hope” that it wasn’t a bad move. He definitely wasn’t having a great time in his brief experience here. But it’s not yet even a situation that requires “salvaging” as there has been no time to determine such an outcome. I make no such judgements regarding him at the moment.
However, I do regarding Miller. I feel similarly about Chytil as I did Miller. Except I think Chytil has even greater potential ultimately. A trade would have to lean heavily in NYs favor for me to even consider moving him.
As opposed to say Lias. Its definitely way too soon to make any declarations of success or failure. However, if they, for whatever reason, decided to trade him tomorrow for another prospect that perhaps needs a change of scenery (Casey Mittlstadt could probably use a fresh start) or some relatively high draft pick, I don’t think I’d be too upset. Obviously CM would cost more than just Lias though.
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