NEW YORK — K’Andre Miller took the Madison Square Garden ice as a visitor for the first time at the Carolina Hurricanes’ skate Tuesday morning, but he won’t play against the New York Rangers while recovering from a lower-body injury.

The 25-year-old said, “It stings a little bit” not to be able to play his former team, but the Hurricanes are taking a longer-term approach with his health.

“I was really hopeful that we would’ve saw him here tonight,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “(A return) is right there, but we’re not putting guys in the lineup unless they feel 100 percent.”

Miller, the No. 22 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, spent five seasons in New York, playing 368 regular-season games and 43 more in the playoffs. He averaged more than 20 minutes of ice time per game every year with New York and had 132 points with the club. Miller, a 6-foot-5 defenseman with mobility, posted a nine-goal, 43-point campaign in 2022-23, but was unable to reach those offensive heights the next two seasons.

With limited cap space, Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury traded Miller on July 1 for a 2026 first-round pick, a 2026 second-round pick and defenseman Scott Morrow. The move gave the Rangers the cap flexibility to sign Vladislav Gavrikov. Miller, meanwhile, signed an eight-year, $7.5 million average annual value extension with Carolina to complete the sign-and-trade deal.

Miller felt he did a good job during his time with the Rangers, he told reporters Tuesday from his locker in MSG’s visiting dressing room. The team reached the Eastern Conference final twice during his tenure, and he frequently had to play difficult defensive minutes, first while paired with Jacob Trouba and then with Will Borgen after New York acquired him last season. Miller played against the second-hardest quality of competition of any Rangers defenseman last season, according to Hockey Stat Cards.

K’Andre Miller averaged more than 20 minutes of ice time per game over five seasons with New York and totaled 132 points. (Danny Wild / Imagn Images)

“Had a pretty tough job every night going against other (teams’) top lines,” he said. “Had a lot of minutes, big responsibility. I think overall I handled it pretty well. It’s a tough job playing here. Obviously I wanted to win here and do whatever I could to help the team do well, but just came up short a couple times.”

Miller raved about the amenities, travel and food he had with New York — “it’s just the little things that you appreciate after the fact,” he said — but believes there’s more to his game than he showed with the Rangers.

“Confidence-wise and just what I wanted from myself, I wasn’t getting all the results I wanted here,” he said. “I blame myself for that. I had some struggles throughout my years here. The ups and downs just kind of took a toll, and it was in my head for a lot of the time I was here.”

Raleigh, he’s found, has presented a nice change. The city has a slower pace than New York, and he likes “having a little bit more time during the day to go on walks, sit outside, enjoy the weather rather than sitting in traffic.”

The Hurricanes love what they saw from Miller before his injury. He has two goals and four points in six games this season and has averaged 23:32 of ice time per game.

“He couldn’t have played much better at the start,” Brind’Amour said. “I was so impressed. … His skating ability fits perfectly, getting up the ice. He was kind of doing it all for us there until he went out.”

“I didn’t know he was that good of a skater,” Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho added. “Big body as well. I feel like he fits our system really well.”

Miller agrees, saying Carolina’s style “fits my game perfectly.”

“I think we have a very skilled team, very fast team that likes to skate up the ice and create chances off the rush,” he said. “I’m just trying to do whatever I can to play hard defensively and get the puck in those forwards’ hands.”