This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
K'Andre Miller
Carolina Hurricanes Defense
6-5, 25 years old, and a defenceman the Rangers gave up on at exactly the age most defencemen arrive.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | NYR | 53 | 5 | 7 | 12 | +9 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 62 | 8.1 | 21:07 |
| 2021-22 | NYR | 82 | 7 | 13 | 20 | +23 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 102 | 6.9 | 20:36 |
| 2022-23 | NYR | 79 | 9 | 34 | 43 | +12 | 47 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 113 | 8.0 | 21:57 |
| 2023-24 | NYR | 80 | 8 | 22 | 30 | +5 | 49 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 96 | 8.3 | 21:34 |
| 2024-25 | NYR | 74 | 7 | 20 | 27 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 110 | 6.4 | 21:57 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 368 | 36 | 96 | 132 | +49 | 162 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 483 | 7.4 | 21:27 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
7 goals and 20 assists in 74 games for 27 points, even, on 21:57 a night with the Rangers.
22 minutes a night on a club that missed the playoffs after winning the Presidents’ Trophy, and a season in which he was widely criticised. The underlying numbers were middling; the reputation took more damage than the record justifies.
The Finesse Game
The skating is exceptional for 6-5 — he is genuinely fast, he can turn, and he closes a gap that most defencemen his size cannot. It is the reason he has been given top-four minutes since he was 20.
The puck game is the weakness. The first pass is inconsistent under pressure, he attempts the wrong option at the wrong moment, and 110 shots with 7 goals is a modest offensive return for the ice time. Five NHL seasons in and this has not improved as much as expected.
The Physical Game
6-5 and 210, and he uses it. He hits, he can clear a net front, and he defends the rush with reach as well as feet.
22 penalty minutes over 74 games is disciplined. The physical tools are the least questionable part of him.
The Intangibles
A first-round pick, five seasons in the largest market in the league, and a departure at 25 in a sign-and-trade that the Rangers pursued rather than resisted.
Carolina has made a career out of this exact transaction: take a defenceman whose reputation is worse than his play, put him in a structure that reduces the decisions he has to make, and watch the numbers improve. It has worked more often than not. He is the most interesting bet in this chapter.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,314 minutes
- Expected goals
- 49.3%
- 44th pct
- Shot attempts
- 50.3%
- 57th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 57 for, 47 against. Expected: 53.6 and 55.1.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 14 points of one another. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason.
Both bars are percentiles among the 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 74 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 with NYR · 1314 minutes at five-on-five
- William Borgen49%
- Adam Fox23%
- Braden Schneider11%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- NYR took 47.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 49.3% — 1.6 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second pair, 1,314 minutes at five-on-five — 92nd percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will Borgen | 47.4% | 51.0% | 43.7% |
| Mika Zibanejad | 50.3% | 48.8% | 49.5% |
| Alexis Lafrenière | 51.6% | 48.2% | 47.9% |
47.4% together, 51.0% for him apart and 43.7% for Borgen apart. He was carrying it: the share stayed with him and left Borgen behind.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
163 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 6 of them goals. His median goal came from 34 feet. 7% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 68% from beyond forty.