2025 Rangers Season Preview: J.T. Miller

This article is part of an ongoing series of Rangers Season Previews, taking a close look at what we can, and should, expect from each member of the 2025-26 New York Rangers. To read other articles in this series, go here.

Last year, after their terrible start to the season, Chris Drury openly criticized his New York Rangers roster. He was dissatisfied with the style of hockey and locker room chemistry the team showed night after night. He was actively looking for a player who embodied a brand of hockey he personally favored. In skates J.T. Miller, the player Drury hopes will be the solution to the Rangers' problems over the past year and change.

J.T. Miller, or Jonathan Tanner Miller for those who didn’t know, can at his worst be a hindrance to locker room chemistry, as seen in Vancouver. But at his best, he’s a 100-point player with a no-nonsense attitude that Drury hopes will be contagious and ignite a fire under what has seemed to be a passive Rangers squad. Chris Drury backed his gamble even further, going all in with Miller, recently naming him the team’s captain, making him the organization’s 29th captain as they head into their 100th NHL season.

Previous Performance

A former Rangers first-round pick, we are all by now familiar with the story of J.T. Miller: a kid with an immeasurable amount of skill, but who never really committed to putting it all together when in New York. He was packaged and sent off to Tampa Bay with former captain Ryan McDonagh, but things never really came together for him in Florida either. It was the second trade of his career that brought him to Vancouver, where things clicked for the enigmatic forward.

Miller discovered what it took to become an NHL player in British Columbia. In his first season with the team, he scored a career-best 72 points in 69 games. A few seasons later, he would go on to score 99 points and then break through the century mark with 103 two seasons later, all while wearing an “A” on his jersey and helping lead the Canucks through a couple of difficult seasons.

It was the 2024-25 season where everything came to a head in Vancouver. The team was underperforming, and rumors were swirling around Miller and the Canucks' other superstar forward, Elias Pettersson, who were reportedly butting heads. Miller then stepped away from the team and took a personal leave. The reasons stated were vague, labeling it as a “reset” and that Miller needed “time and space.” It only further stoked the flames surrounding the drama of this past season for the Vancouver Canucks.

Miller was going through a tough season, and his play on the ice reflected it. Statistically, his production dropped to match his second year with the Canucks—still a 0.87 PPG pace, but nowhere near his 1.27 PPG from the previous year.  It was no secret J.T. Miller was on the trade block as both Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford were ready to do anything to bring peace back to their team, and moving on from Miller was the preferred path for multiple reasons. That’s where Chris Drury enters this story.

Drury was able to swing a deal to bring the troubled, prodigal son back home to Broadway. He scored at a slightly higher clip—35 points in 32 games—while playing on an equally troubled Rangers roster. Still, it was enough to see what could be on the horizon in this partnership between Miller and the Rangers.

Expectations

Giving the “C” to Miller signaled the beginning of a new era in New York. Gone were the days of little accountability and lackadaisical effort. Miller is expected to drag this team through the depths of hell to be hard to play against and competitive night in and night out.

He’ll more than likely feature on the team’s top power play unit and center the team’s top line. Miller has done it before within a high-octane offense, so if the Rangers' power play finds chemistry and really starts cooking, Miller should absolutely threaten to score 100 points.

Predictions

The word of the year for the Rangers should be "new." There are new players, new leadership, and new systems in place. This means there will be some growing pains. I fully expect the team to stumble once or twice before truly settling into a new identity. Try as Mike Sullivan might, it’s extremely difficult to get a team to buy into an entirely new system and style of hockey in as short a time as training camp and the pre-season allow. This goes two-fold for Miller, who will be brandishing that "C" on his jersey and leading the team as he sees fit.

I anticipate a slow start to the year, but for things to click around the end of November and for Miller and the team to never look back. I think Miller will be second on the team in points, right behind Artemi Panarin with 89 points.

Conclusions

This is a crucial year for the Rangers. The world will truly see what kind of team they are. Can they shake off the disappointment and unmet expectations that last year brought? Or was that season more reflective of what this team can and cannot do?

Finding success and maintaining the championship window depends on Miller’s ability to be not just an impact player but a leader that others will want to follow and believe in. It’s one thing to bring in a player to boost scoring and team production, but it’s a whole different story when you expect that player to take on and carry the mantle of leadership, especially considering many of those before him were unceremoniously shipped off after proving they were either not enough or simply not what the team needed at the time.

Miller has a no-nonsense attitude, that’s for sure, but will the team buy in with him? By the end of this season, we’ll have our answer.