Boston Bruins: Loyalty might prevent them from moving Kevan Miller

The Boston Bruins ideally need to free up some salary cap space, but Kevan Miller may not be moved out of pure loyalty.

Kevan Miller went un-drafted but was picked up by the Boston Bruins’ AHL affilate, the Providence Bruins on an amateur try-out contract out of college. The former captain of the University of Vermont team made his AHL debut at the tail of the 2010-11 season and has remained within the Bruins organisation ever since.

He now finds himself having dealt with the worst possible year for injuries and on a $2.5 million contract as a player that isn’t realistically within the top-four of his position on the NHL roster. This makes him the ideal candidate to trade or buyout in the eyes of most Boston Bruins fans.

Now, I get that hockey is a business and all of that, but I genuinely think the Boston Bruins organisation wouldn’t want to do bad by Kevan Miller by trading him away or buying him out whilst he’s recuperating from an injury. The deal would have to be impressive for them to truly consider it, I think.

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Since making it stick in the NHL, Kevan Miller has played 324 regular-season games, every single one with the Boston Bruins. They took a gamble on him out of college and have been rewarded with a steady defensive game. He has never been much for point production but he is able to play a very solid shut-down role, especially alongside a more offensively-minded partner.

The sheer fact that he is now entering his ninth full season with the organisation and may well be able to be willing to actually take the hit of a demotion to the AHL, if for nothing else but regaining his fitness and getting rid of rink rust and suddenly Kevan Miller still holds value.

I get it; trade him if you can so guys like Connor Clifton can make it stick with the big club, but equally I see the class in retaining someone that has been with your club for almost a decade. That’s the sort of character you want to keep around, especially when blooding youth.

My bet is that a combination of both loyalty and lack of interest from other teams keeps Don Sweeney from moving him on until he’s recovered from injury, at the very earliest.

When he hits free agency in the summer, that’ll be the true test – will the Boston Bruins really be that keen to bring back a 30-plus year-old?