Where will Ryan Miller end up? That’s the question hockey fans have been asking ever since the St. Louis Blues passed on Miller in favor of Brian Elliott and Jake Allen. One team Miller has been linked to since last year’s trade deadline is the Anaheim Ducks. San Jose is another organization believed to have interest. In other words, all signs have pointed to Miller heading for California.
According to ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun, you can scratch the Ducks and the Sharks off of the list. LeBrun’s sources indicate that Anaheim will stick with their youngster John Gibson as well as Frederik Andersen. Meanwhile, the Sharks are trying to rebuild (more or less) and they’re not looking to add a big veteran contract.
It’s really no surprise Anaheim is moving forward without Miller considering their rise of youthful goaltenders during the playoffs, but it seems a bit premature for San Jose to rule out the upcoming free agent. You can have a youth movement, as evidenced by the team moving on from Dan Boyle, but common sense says that the Sharks may not settle on Antti Niemi when 2014-15 rolls around.
Maybe you can scratch these two teams off of the possible list for Miller, but that doesn’t make his free agency situation any clearer. Jaroslav Halak removed himself from the market, but there’s still a decent number of goaltenders (Jonas Hiller and Ilyz Bryzgalov to name a couple) waiting for new contracts.
