Boston Bruins: Will Colin Miller Be A Top Four Blueliner for Boston?
The Boston Bruins made a lot of moves during the draft and free agency. The Bruins did solve several of their problems. They were able to find solid, offensive-minded forwards. These players also bring a snarl and sass element that was lacking from the B’s last season. They also seemed to have locked up their backup goaltender for next season as well.
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Puck Prose
The biggest thing that seems to be missing from the Bruins right now is a proper top-four defenseman. When the Bruins moved Dougie Hamilton, they didn’t really find a suitable replacement for him. Or did they?
If you follow the American Hockey League, Colin Miller is a name you’ve gotten to know. He’s a reasonably good-sized (6’1″, 173lb) blueliner. He had an outstanding year last season with the Manchester Monarchs. Miller put up a fifty-two point season for the Monarchs, helping them win the 2015 Calder Cup.
Miller has set a few records in the AHL. He has the fastest shot on record in the league at 105.5 MPH. That’s in the neighborhood of Zdeno Chara.
When the Boston Bruins first acquired Miller as part of the package deal for forward (and crowd favorite) Milan Lucic, people were upset. The deal began making more sense the longer people mulled it over. Lucic had a couple of bad seasons, but his trade value was still pretty high. Miller had a great season last year, and he could make an immediate impact in Boston.
Miller brings a certain level of snarl to his game. He’s not afraid to drop the gloves (much like the other Miller on the team). He has good speed, he’s got a great right-handed shot. He could fit in on the right side of either Chara or Dennis Seidenberg. This may be what Don Sweeney saw all along. It could also explain why he hasn’t made any serious moves to land the remaining top three defenseman still in the free agency pool (Christian Ehrhoff, Johnny Oduya, and Cody Franson).
The Bruins could certainly use a right-side, right-shot in the top two defensive pairs. He’d be a great compliment to the left-shooting Chara or Seidenberg. While putting him in the top four may seem a bit presumptuous, he’d make more sense there than Adam McQuaid right now. (I’d rather see Torey Krug on the bottom pair as well so he can spend more of his ice time on special teams.)
This might have been Sweeney’s backup plan all along. We know he’s still shopping for a defenseman. If he finds the right fit for the Bruins, great. Sweeney might have predicted this problem when he traded Hamilton and chose Miller to cover that gap when he traded Lucic.
Don Sweeney has surprised a few times already this offseason. He was able to solve most of their cap space troubles, and bring a new energy and aggression to the Bruins bench. That being said, Colin Miller could turn out to be the biggest and best surprise seen by the Bruins fans this season.