Per Agent: Boston Bruins UFA Kevan Miller ‘Ready To Go’

Boston Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller can become an unrestricted free agent on October 9 and on Tuesday, his agent Peter Fish made sure the Bruins and every NHL General Manager know that the rugged defenseman has healed from recent knee surgery to his twice-broken right knee. 

Kevan Miller is ready to go! pic.twitter.com/ohrCcN52MR

— Peter Fish (@peterfish35) September 22, 2020

Recent chatter amongst numerous NHL sources pointed towards Miller likely hitting the unrestricted free agent market and then circling back to the Boston Bruins if he doesn’t find the right fit to see if they still have an interest. An email to Fish on Wednesday afternoon was not returned. Earlier this month, Sweeney didn’t rule out a Miller return to Boston but also didn’t exactly express serious interest. Instead, he showered Miller, who after playing just 35 games in 2018-19, didn’t play one game this past season or in the playoffs.

“I haven’t explored whether that’s with us until this point,” Sweeney admitted in his end of season presser. “We’ve engaged where his health is at both mentally and physically in the upcoming days and weeks and in the upcoming days and weeks we will reach out and find out where he is at and where he fits in. We have depth and we have numbers that we have to piece together and if we have to move players out to bring him back. It’s something we have to explore.

We think the word of him, we missed him the last couple of years certainly in the playoff environment and what he brings to the table. He’s a tremendous competitor, tremendous person and we wish him nothing but health and the opportunity to play again.”

Miller is coming off a four-year contract that carried a $2.5 million cap hit. He last played on April 6, 2019 when he broke his right kneecap near the end of the 2018-19 season. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound rearguard finished that season with seven assists and 35 PIMs. In 324 games with the Boston Bruins he has 12 goals and 55 assists to go with 261 penalty minutes. His physical presence was sorely missed in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final loss in seven games to the St. Louis Blues and again when the Bruins fell in five games to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs last month. 

Back in May, Miller confirmed to the media that he had had a substantial setback in his rehab from breaking his right knee twice in the spring of 2019 and had surgery on his knee.

“As far as hockey and rehab goes, I’m still rehabbing,” the rugged rearguard said. “I was on a good trajectory there. I was skating and whatnot, and then I had a setback. So I’m just coming off surgery that I had eight weeks ago. Timing-wise things have been good for me. I’m off crutches now and walking around again. Things are good.”