This according to Elliott Friedman. Sportsnet up there in Canada. He posted this about 10 minutes ago. We were in the middle of doing the numbers game. Elliott Friedman said, The, on the, an update on the potential New York Rangers. Sending Ke’Andre Miller, the defenseman to the Carolina Hurricanes, something that he reported about nearly 5 hours ago. 10 minutes to go, Elliott Freeman, hearing this will be a sign and trade between the Rangers and the Hurricanes. The Ke’Andre Miller contract will come in at 8 years, $60 million. So that’s 8 years at $7.5 million a year. The reason why you’re doing a sign and trade, Graham is because Because his rights are with the New York Rangers, he can get the 8th year on his contract. So That’s the reason for a sign and trade. Now, what’s the trade compensation going back if it’s equivalent to what a If it’s the equivalent to what an offer sheet compensation will be, $7.5 million Graham falls in the category along the lines of a 1, 2nd and 3rd round pick going back the other way. Now, that’s not confirmed yet, but if they’re falling along the lines of what Elliott Friedman reported earlier about draft pick compensation going back to the New York Rangers, you’re looking at. A 1st, a 2nd, and a 3rd round pick potentially going back to the New York Rangers for Ke’Andre Miller. Again, we’ll wait and see what the compensation is completely, but that’s what it’s looking like, Graham. I just love so we, we started off the show like just waiting, waiting, waiting. It was supposed to be an Eric Toolsky press conference at 3 o’clock, then I was told that it was gonna be pushed back 1 to 2 hours, but it was worth it. It was worth it because Eric Tolski cooked once again. Yeah. Eric Tolski putting in some work. So again, if you just missed it, Elliott Friedman reported that it looks like it is a sign and trade between the Carolina Hurricanes for Ke’Andre Miller, the, the defenseman for the New York Rangers. Miller’s contract will come in at 8 years, $60 million. So that’s 8 years, $7.5 million a year, which Carolina would then have, if that’s, if that’s true, you’re looking at having him signed through the 2033 season. Which is when Jacob Slavin’s contract ends. Cause Graham, remember, Jacob Slavin’s contract extension that he signed last offseason. Kicks in starting this year. Jacob Slavin is signed all the way through 2033. So his 8-year extension kicks in. So that’s what you’re looking at, 8 years. That’s gonna take you all the way through the 2022, I’m sorry, the 2032, 2033 season for a player that’s 25 years old and Ke’Andre Miller. Again, 25 year old Andre Miller, the defenseman, by all accounts, is going from Carolina, I’m sorry, going to Carolina from the New York Rangers. So if you look at, OK. $7.5 million coming off. The salary cap for the Carolina Hurricanes that still gives them roughly around. $18 million in cap space, Graham, roughly $18 million in cap space. So, Carolina. Needed a defenseman after. Brett Burns, free agent, Dimitri Orlov, free agent, Alexei Alexander Nkiishin should step into one of those roles this upcoming season, but then you also factor in. Brent Burns being gone, now you got younger and bigger on defense. Because Dimitri Olo, 33 years old, Brent Burns now 40 years old, but now you have Alexander Nkein, 23, 24 years old. They have Ke’Andre Miller, 25 years old coming in. So you got younger, now you’ve got control over Ke’Andre Miller for the next 8 years, it appears. This is a big time acquisition by the Carolina Hurricanes, Graham. And with Miller, you get another defenseman that has the ability to score. It can also pin on the attack, but also you’re, you’re OK with him moving up that far up the ice because he can get back. I mean, my question is, does this make up for them not getting Aaron necklad yesterday? Like, are we just completely like that’s just in the rearview mirror. Welcome to Carolina, KeAndre Miller. So that’s the big thing is that. There are a couple of question marks down here going forward. Where does he slot in the lineup? Now, if he’s your number, if he’s on your 2nd defensive pair alongside. Jaylen Chatfield, I absolutely love it. But the question is, who plays alongside Jacob Slavin? Do you have Alexander Nkiian play alongside Shane Gostapa? Does Shaun Walker play on that top pair? Because let’s not forget, you still have Shane Gossaspere on a contract for 2 more years. Alexander Nkiin has a year left on his entry level contract, and he’s a restricted free agent. He’s not gonna go anywhere. Jalen Chatfield has 2 years left on his contract. Shaun Walker has 4 year left on his deal. Don’t forget you have Scott Morrow still. So the fact that you’re going and bringing in Ke’Andre Miller for 8 years on a sign and trade with the New York Rangers. Your entire defense is locked up not only this year, but for at least the next 2 years, at least that. So that’s where you currently stand right now if you’re the Carolina Hurricanes on defense. Now, what does necessarily this mean? It’s people who don’t know who Ke’Andre Miller is as a player. Ke’Andre Miller is 65, about 210 pounds. Great, obviously great length, great size, but isn’t. Excellent skater. He’s great in terms of transitioning the puck from defense to offense. He’s an offensive-minded defenseman. He’s a pretty active stick and also he’s super physical as well. You know Ryan Hinkle of the, who covers the Carolina Hurricanes for the hockey News. Pointed out that over the last 4 years, Ke’Andre Miller had more hits than any Hurricanes defenseman in every season over the last 4 years. So you’re adding physicality as well. So physicality, great transition skills, active with the stick, great offensive mind, can score a little bit and an absolutely great skater. Yeah, that’s what Carolina Hurricanes want in their players, especially among their blue line. And this team does need more offense from their blue line. He didn’t get a whole lot of it from Brent Burns. You didn’t get much of it from Dimitri Orlov. Shaun Walker, I think with, if he, when he started getting a little bit more ice time, you saw him actually contributing a little bit more on the offensive side of things, but he was playing with an offensive-minded guy like Shane Gossapa. So this team does need a little bit of an offensive scoring putts. Maybe Alexander Nikiin could possibly provide some of that too. Now, there are some concerns and you hopefully with coaching. And continued development and being a part of the Cane system, that’s some of the things that that’s played Ke’Andre Miller a little bit early on his career as again, still developing. Some things like defending off the rush, some gap control things along those lines. But again, with coaching and being in the Kane system where he can actually fully utilize. His skill set Then, yeah, he could possibly flourish. Don’t forget a few years ago. It was about 5 years ago when the Carolina Hurricanes traded for Brady Shea. It’s about 5 years ago when they did that. I think it was 2020, 2021. So it’s about 5 years ago, they traded for Brady Shea. They gave him a first round pick to the New York Rangers, a player who could skate really well, had some offensive upside, but kind of have fallen out of favor a little bit in New York. And there’s some questions about, well, how well could he actually play defensively. There are some questions about that with Brady Shea. Sure enough, he comes to the Carolina Hurricanes. Brady Shea was good in this system, really good in this system, was one of the top producing defensemen in the playoffs too during those runs. But put like 1718 goals. Like, and sure enough, that turned into a massive contract last offseason with the National Predators for Brady Shea. So by all accounts, but it looks like from Elliott Freeman, but the reports, in case you just missed it, as we have the, the free agent frenzy continues here on 99.9 The Fan presented by John Heer, Chrysler, Dodge Deep Ramm out there in Litlington. Elliott Freeman reporting. Hearing that it would be a sign and trade between the New York Rangers and the Carolina Hurricanes for Ke’Andre Miller, Miller’s contract will come in at $8 million I’m sorry, 8 years, $60 million total contract. So you’re looking at $7.5 million per year. And I actually had someone, uh, respond to me, um, on, on, uh, on Twitter saying, is that higher than Jacob Slavin? Yeah, that’s higher than Jacob Slavin. Now, Jacob Slavin Jacob Slavi’s contract does have a little bit of deferred money in it, so that the capit isn’t quite as high, but The Jacob Savi contract that’s kicking in this upcoming year is an absolute steal. An absolute steal. So guess what, you can afford to pay Ke’Andre Miller this. Well you can afford it easily. They still have about $18 million in cap space. Now granted, next year, when next offseason, the cap’s gonna jump up at about $9 million. So, You don’t have to worry about this being a quote unquote overpay. You really don’t. Because then that 9 million bucks, gosh, that could turn into Alexander Nkeshin. On a per year basis, possibly. And then obviously, next year’s Logan Steinhon contract kicks in and things like that. But this team, everyone that is currently on the Carolina Hurricanes roster with the exception of a couple of players. It’s under contract for at least the next 2 seasons, at least, or at least their rights are controlled by the Hurricanes for the next couple of seasons. This team is pretty locked and they still have a bunch of cap space if they still want to make a trade, whether this offseason or next year, or, or sorry, at the trade deadline. His team has set himself for it. I’ll say this flat out. Ke’Andre Miller on this team. This defensive group is better than what we saw last year. With Ke’Andre Miller and Alexander Nikiin coming in for Brent Burns and Dmitri Orlov, this group of blue liners as a whole is better than what we saw last season. It just is. It’s younger, it’s faster, it’s more physical. And has more offensive upside. Now, there’s still gonna be some growing pains. There’s still gonna be some growing pains for Alexander Dakin learning how to play in North America. There’s gonna still be some growing pains with Ke’Andre Miller. Again, he’s still a young player, 25 years old, much like Scott Morrow is still a young player. But Let’s keep this in mind. This defense right now, this team right now with Nkein coming in to be a full-time player and KeAndre Miller, it’s a better team. It is a better team. Than what it was a year ago. A little more aggressive too. Yeah, it’s gonna be more physical, it’s gonna be faster. Be it’s just simply, it’s a bigger team. Especially on the blue line. They got more physical, again, with Dikeyian and Corey Miller, you got more physical, you got faster, you got younger, you got more offensive upside. The blue line is better. I’ll flat out say it. Now, again, there are gonna be mistakes. There’s gonna be growing pains. It takes a while for defensemen to learn how to play in this system. We even saw it with Brent Burns. It took him about 2025 games. That guy, It’s gonna be a Hall of Famer and it took him a while to adjust to this cane system a few years ago. It’s gonna take a little bit of time. As Andy McCutden put, and I’m sorry if I pronounce mispronounce his last name, YouTube group chat or YouTube live chat. This is the kind of guy you need to compete with Florida, especially in the division. By the way, the Canes did sign 1/7 defenseman, Mike Riley, 1 year, $1.1 million just a depth defenseman. That’s really what it is.
