How good is Colin Miller?

[Patrik Barkov]

Colin Miller has been having a great season really quietly so far. Miller has 35 points in 64 games so far which puts him 22nd in points for Dmen. His advanced stats are impressive as well. Here's some of his even strength advanced stats, on brackets his rank among defensemen.

evCF%: 56,7 (4.)
evCF% rel: 7,4 (3.)
evFF%: 55,9 (4.)
evFF% rel: 5,9 (4.)

His corsi and fenwick sure are impressive, but he starts 62,3% of his shifts in the offensive zone.

Having only watched a handful of Vegas games I'd like to know how good he actually is and what can you see him becoming?

Click to read more...

 

[ESH]

I'm pretty sure I remember reading that he won the AHL fastest skater competition when he was a part of the Bruins' organization.

 

[rent free]

wish the leafs could have swung a deal for him at the ed when vegas picked him

 

[DangleCity]

Will need to string a few more seasons together

 

[Frolov 6'3]

Just thrown away by Dean Lombardi.

Fast and rocket of a shot.

 

[tsanuri]

I'm pretty sure I remember reading that he won the AHL fastest skater competition when he was a part of the Bruins' organization.

Actually that was with Manchester the Kings AHL team at the time.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

as you alluded to, you can contribute a lot of his advanced stats to his usage.

one of the highest ZSR in the league, easiest competition for all VGK defensemen, minutes aren't there.

 

[YesCubed]

the bruins protected kevan miller over him in the expansion draft

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

He could be better. He's not completely refined and consistent yet. Wish the Knights would keep Jason Garrison up with the big club rather than down in the AHL, so that Miller could have a good powerplay guy mentor to learn from.

He's also not playing 15:00min. He's playing around 19:00-20:00min a night.

He's also a RFA this offseason so he could be a target for offersheets if the Knights don't sign him. I would like him to re-sign in Vegas for long-term.

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

I see more potential in Miller than in Shea Theodore or Nate Schmidt, both defensively and offensively.

 

[Patrik Barkov]

He could be better. He's not completely refined and consistent yet. Wish the Knights would keep Jason Garrison up with the big club rather than down in the AHL, so that Miller could have a good powerplay guy mentor to learn from.

He's also not playing 15:00min. He's playing around 19:00-20:00min a night.

He's also a RFA this offseason so he could be a target for offersheets if the Knights don't sign him. I would like him to re-sign in Vegas for long-term.

Ahh my bad. Was looking at his EV minutes

 

[wintersej]

He can't defend worth a lick. Brain fart city. Very good at moving the puck, but, again, BAD in his own zone if the other team can bring it into the zone with control. Top pairing offensive physical talent, but not a great amount of offensive zone IQ, either. Like when you see him on the PP he just gets tunnel vision and shoots it into shins, not creative. The right role for him on a good team is bottom pairing offensive specialist paired with your PK specialist.

 

[wintersej]

the bruins protected kevan miller over him in the expansion draft

No regrets.

 

[Patrik Barkov]

He can't defend worth a lick. Brain fart city. Very good at moving the puck, but, again, BAD in his own zone if the other team can bring it into the zone with control. Top pairing offensive physical talent, but not a great amount of offensive zone IQ, either. Like when you see him on the PP he just gets tunnel vision and shoots it into shins, not creative. The right role for him on a good team is bottom pairing offensive specialist paired with your PK specialist.

That's kinda contradicted by him playing in the first pairing of the second placed team in west.

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

He can't defend worth a lick. Brain fart city. Very good at moving the puck, but, again, BAD in his own zone if the other team can bring it into the zone with control. Top pairing offensive physical talent, but not a great amount of offensive zone IQ, either. Like when you see him on the PP he just gets tunnel vision and shoots it into shins, not creative. The right role for him on a good team is bottom pairing offensive specialist paired with your PK specialist.

I sorta agree with this, and it's interesting because your judgment is probably from when he was a Bruin. My views are of when he's a Knight, so maybe he hasn't improved much. He's not a liability in his own zone though, but I think he tends to play the body too much rather than make the smart or safe play.

On the PP, he does have tunnel vision and wants to shoot it immediately.

 

[gumgum]

the bruins protected kevan miller over him in the expansion draft

the unorthodox strat of retaining the better player has had a massively negative impact on their season for sure

 

[wintersej]

That's kinda contradicted by him playing in the first pairing of the second placed team in west.

He is playing under 20 mins a game. I guess Vegas plays shorter hockey games than everyone else? That doesn't seem fair!

 

[ESH]

That's kinda contradicted by him playing in the first pairing of the second placed team in west.

Except he plays on their 3rd pairing...

 

[KarmaPolice]

Those numbers say he knows how to hockey.

 

[Patrik Barkov]

He is playing under 20 mins a game. I guess Vegas plays shorter hockey games than everyone else? That doesn't seem fair!

Except he plays on their 3rd pairing...

Eliteprospects has him on the first pairing and last 15+ games his average time on ice is just above 20 minutes

 

[ESH]

Eliteprospects has him on the first pairing and last 15+ games his average time on ice is just above 20 minutes

He's 8th out of 9 defenseman that have played for Vegas this season in average ES TOI/GP. His 2 most common defense partners are Hunt and Merill, who are 7th and 9th in average ES TOI/GP. Pretty clearly playing on the 3rd pairing for the majority of the season.

 

[Canada4Gold]

Better than Kevan Miller

 

[CupInSIX]

Miller doesn't play the top pairing, Schmidt does. Gallant tries to manage his ice time because he's not ready for 20+ minutes yet.

wish the leafs could have swung a deal for him at the ed when vegas picked him

Yeah I know I remember the 30 Leivo for Miller proposals this past summer.

(I also remember all the 'yeah well he's not good enough for our top 6 anyway' responses)

 

[Patrik Barkov]

He's 8th out of 9 defenseman that have played for Vegas this season in average ES TOI/GP. His 2 most common defense partners are Hunt and Merill, who are 7th and 9th in average ES TOI/GP. Pretty clearly playing on the 3rd pairing for the majority of the season.

I stand corrected

 

[NinthSpoke06]

I really liked Colin Miller. I wish the Bruins could have kept him. But it made no sense to go out of their way to protect him with Torey Krug already on the team and locked up for a while.

Bruins already have to hide Krug a bit because of his defensive shortfalls (not that he's a bad player just not great defensively). It's hard to play two of those guys at the same time in the lineup.

It's obvious they knew what they were doing considering they have given up 158 goals against in 63 games. Best in the league.

I'm glad he's found some real success in Vegas.