Colin Miller drew aggro like crazy in 2016-17

Evaluation:

Boston has a lot of positives to look forward to in Colin Miller for the next season...for Las Vegas.

A fast, aggressive skater with an absolute cannon of a shot and an uncanny ability to keep the puck in the offensive zone whenever he gets the chance, Chiller ended up being one of the more fun players to watch create havok on the attack for Boston. By far their leading defenseman in pushing the puck in the right direction, willing and able to pounce on rebounds and try and get the final shot in, or just taking over a shift to get the puck on net.

When it came to defending, Chiller was...actually also pretty alright! He just did it in a very...”modernized” way, which is my nice way of saying he let a lot of close call chances get into the zone and eliminated them using the body and by tying up the opposing skater at the last possible second. Arguably the biggest moment of “just in time” defending from him was this moment that got people’s heart-rates skyrocketing:

He also was, for some reason or another, the player most likely to draw some kind of ridiculous penalty for roughing, crosschecking, interference or the like on the team. Players just kind of like hurting Chiller, I guess.

Miles Wood tried that one on one while he was expecting it.

It didn’t go well for him. Don’t fight Boston’s defense.

Was he perfect? Well...

Early on, Colin Miller had a real concern with allowing said chances more often than not, and it wouldn’t go great for him or his partner. He also appeared to have a real confidence problem that thankfully appeared to get ironed out towards the halfway point of the season and by once again being on a defense pairing that took advantage of the Puck Mover-Stay At Home setup with Kevan Miller. His tendency to jump into plays like he could would also sometimes find Boston with only a man back to stop the transition, which wouldn’t always work out for him or the team.

Finally, for a player as offensively gifted as he is, he really didn’t blow anybody away this year in terms of scoring, being tied for third on the team in defensive scoring with his own partner who is uh...not offensively gifted.

Chiller was picked by Las Vegas in the Expansion, and I wish him well in the Golden Knights inaugural season!...assuming of course he is not traded.

Grade: B-

A bit of a shaky start turned into a pretty solid part of the defenders Miller pairing, keeping play going in the right direction and taking cannon-like shots onto goaltenders with ease. If he’s able to take what he’s learned from this season, combined with a team that should be on paper a lot younger and better than it was, There’s no reason to think he couldn’t have a bounce-back and have a solid next year!

...Or he could go to Vegas. In which case I wish him all the best as a Golden Knight!

Stats:

Age: 24

Games Played: 61

Goals: 6

Assists: 7

Points: 13

Shooting-%: 7.1%

Final Aggregate CF%: 60.23%