Today’s NHL is increasingly coming toward Colin Miller, which should play to his favor during his career kickstart in Las Vegas. The former Bruin, lost to the Golden Knights in the recent expansion draft, likes to lug the puck and fire it off the point, the strong points of his game that he showed only glimpses of during his time with the Bruins.
“I was very invested in Boston, the two years I spent there were great,’’ said Miller, acknowledging his disappointment over leaving the Bruins. “They gave me my shot to play in the NHL, so you are never going to leave that easily. The way the team is put together, being an Original Six franchise, and the guys in that room, it’s pretty special. So it’s tough to leave, but kind of part of the game.’’
Miller, reached at his offseason home in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in September will have a fresh start to convince a coaching staff that he is ready to command top-four minutes. Under both Claude Julien and Bruce Cassidy, Miller’s inconsistency often made him a spare part, spotted into a third pairing to replace the injured, or dropped in when the backline simply needed a different look.
With the Knights, who drafted and then traded experienced blue liner Marc Methot, Miller should be able to secure steadier, more impactful work. None of Vegas’s pricier D-men, Jason Garrison, Luca Sbisa, Clayton Stoner or Deryk Engelland has a résumé to prevent the 24-year-old Miller from taking work from a group that, on average, is four years older and shorter on raw talent.
“I don’t think I can go in really looking at it like that,’’ said Miller, who has but one year remaining on his contract, with a modest $1 million cap hit. “There’s a lot of work for me to do still to kind of prove that I am worthy of that. Yeah, it’s an opportunity, but I’m not so naïve to ignore the fact that things can change pretty quickly in the NHL, and if you are not at the top of your game and performing, then you are not going to stay there very long.’’
Obtained in the deal two years ago that sent Milan Lucic to the Kings, Miller looked perfectly suited to be another Torey Krug-like mobile defender for the Bruins. But with his playing time dialed back, and his numbers modest (103 games, 29 points), Miller was dangled in the expansion draft along with the sturdier, pricier, older, and more defensive Adam McQuaid. The Knights, not surprisingly, went for the kid with the faster legs, searing shot, and a playing template seemingly perfectly suited to today’s game.
“I think over the last however many years there’s been a transition to offense from the back end, that kind of puck-moving defenseman,’’ said Miller. “That’s something that I’ve definitely tried to model my game as, and maybe it just kind of happened at the right time for me . . . it seems to be moving that way, so I am all for it.’’
Vegas will be a new experience for everyone on the roster. It’s the first major pro team that’s put down stakes there, just off the Strip. No one, Miller included, arrives with any franchise history, or with a presupposed notion of their limitations and faults.
Upon arriving in September, it will be all about what they can do, and that alone could bring Miller a comfort factor that will help him thrive. They’ll arrive as puck pioneers and, like all expansion franchises, they’ll be working in an environment that comes with very limited fan expectation.
“There’s a lot of guys going there, and I think we’ll all have the same feel,’’ said Miller. “We’ll all have in common that we’ve been kind of let go by a team, and I don’t know if you’d say we’re underdogs, but I think maybe we’ll have a sense of something to prove.’’
GOING PUBLIC
Corson reveals anxiety struggles
We often don’t know what’s going on in a player’s world. Case in point: Shayne Corson, whom Bruins fans will remember played for the Habs in the late 1980s, when Boston finally beat the Canadiens/Forum curse in the playoffs.
Corson last week revealed to the Toronto Sun’s Steve Simmons that for decades he has battled often debilitating anxiety. The condition was once so severe, said Corson, now 50, that he couldn’t sleep for 12 straight nights during one NHL training camp, his weight dropping some 15 pounds as he struggled to regain a sense of normalcy.
“Some days,’’ Corson told Simmons, “it’s almost like you want to rip your skin off.’’
Corson felt compelled to talk about his struggles after watching news reports in Toronto about Roberto Osuna. The Blue Jays closer chose to go public with his similar battle with anxiety. Corson lauded Osuna for meeting the challenge head-on, and particularly credited him for being open about it and seeking professional help.
“I was afraid to tell anyone,’’ Corson said to Simmons. “I was afraid and embarrassed to show weakness.’’
Such is often the stereotype of mental illness, the afflicted living in fear of being stigmatized as being weak or being a risk to a team dynamic. In the Sun story, Corson noted repeated trips to hospital emergency rooms over the years, at times feeling as if he were about to die, not knowing when he would get better.
“There’s no timeframe on anxiety,’’ he said.
Corson noted that some of his condition was rooted in the loss of his father, who died at age 45.
“He fought his ass off to keep living,’’ said Corson. “I’ve done the same.’’
Dr. Fred Neff, who was the Bruins’ sports psychologist for 21 years, said it is common for athletes to delay, or ignore, help for mental health issues.
“They have a hard time coming forward for a number of reasons,’’ said Neff, who these days is the New York Rangers’ sports psychologist and operates ProFormance, his psychology practice in Beverly. “The macho thing is part of it, but it’s also a player thinking, ‘What does the general manager say about it come contract time? Will struggling with it lead to time off? Will the team choose to go with someone else who doesn’t have it?’ So they tend not to go public with it. My hat is off to the gentleman in Toronto, as well.’’
Professional teams increasingly make mental heath professionals available to players, create an environment for help that was in its very early stages when Corson broke into the NHL.
“It’s good that [Osuna’s] done it,’’ said Neff. “Because the more athletes do it, the more that sports organizations are going to say, ‘OK, let’s find some help for this guy.’ There’s a lot out there to help people with anxiety issues.’’
ETC.
Marleau leaves for the Leafs
After 19 seasons without winning a Stanley Cup in San Jose, Patrick Marleau chucked it all off the Bay Bridge on Sunday and signed on to be the roster-bonding element in Toronto for a three-year deal worth $18.75 million.
It’s a pricey, risky play for the Maple Leafs, who were compelled to make the deal, in part, because of Marleau’s strong ties with coach Mike Babcock. He won two Olympic gold medals with Babcock as his Team Canada coach, and now he’ll be asked to help speed the playing maturity of talented young forwards Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, et al.
Marleau kidded that he had “worn out a few carpets pacing around the house’’ while deciding whether to make the move. Anaheim, Dallas, and San Jose all were after his services.
“The timing is perfect,’’ said ex-Devils boss Lou Lamoriello, who is overseeing the remake of the Leafs with Brendan Shanahan.
Perfect, maybe, but with no guarantee. Marleau is a solid citizen with a proven scoring résumé (1,493 games, 1,082 points), but he will be 38 when training camp opens. He also will be without symbiotic setup man Joe Thornton, who opted to say in San Jose for a one-year deal worth $8 million.
The theory is that Marleau will lift the tide for the Leafs, with his age advancing out to sea and two decades of comfort factor stripped clean. To the latter point, the Bruins saw a 32-year-old David Backes attempt similar last season. Results: mixed.
Meanwhile, with Marleau aboard as their top-paid forward, the Leafs are nearly $2 million over the $75 million salary cap. They have the summer to be cap compliant, and might have to move ex-UNH winger James van Riemsdyk, who is one year from reaching UFA status and is carrying a $4.25 million cap hit.
Breathing life into Hurricanes
The Hurricanes, distant sons of the Forever .500 Hartford Whalers, may have chipped their way back toward relevance with a few moves, including a return engagement of Justin Williams, brought back with a two-year deal worth $9 million.
Williams, fresh from two productive seasons in Washington (100 points), will be 36 when the season starts. But he’s quick and crafty around the net and should bring a much-needed boost to a flatlined attack.
In the midst of the holiday, the Hurricanes also added ex-Blackhawk Marcus Kruger, a smart two-way center and two-time Cup winner who had just landed on the Strip in a trade days earlier with the Golden Knights. Kruger is on the books for two years at $3.1 million. Combined with Williams, that’s an $8.6 million play for a club that hasn’t been to the playoffs since . . . wait for it . . . 2009.
In April, the Hurricanes shipped a third-round draft pick to the Blackhawks for ex-Maine goaltender Scott Darling who at age 28 has a real shot, with a real contract (four years/$16.6 million), finally to become a No. 1. Darling, 6 feet 6 inches and 230 pounds, only has 75 games of NHL experience. He is now positioned to take the reins from Cam Ward, who won the Cup as a 22-year-old in 2006, only to drift away in irrelevance with the rest of the franchise.
Jagr among those looking for work
Headed into the weekend, a few marquee names, including Jaromir Jagr, still hadn’t landed contracts for 2017-18.
Jagr, still spry at age 45 (weep, you couch potatoes), has not been asked back by Florida, where he was one of the Panthers’ few drawing cards the last 2½ seasons. The Bruins need help on the wings, but Don Sweeney and Co. appear committed to swinging wide the doors of opportunity to unproven kids, a few of whom will wrap up their Development Camp auditions Sunday in Brighton.
Jagr, of course, had a brief run here at the end of 2013, when he came aboard the Black and Gold train for what ultimately cost then-GM Peter Chiarelli a first-round draft pick (Dallas used the No. 29 to select Jason Dickinson in 2013).
Though he couldn’t find his scoring touch, Jagr in the spring of ’13 helped the Bruins make it to the Stanley Cup Final vs. Chicago. He went a frustrating 0-10—10 in 22 playoff games, then hitched on with New Jersey as a free agent in July.
Over the last four seasons, only 36 NHLers have put up more points than Jagr, who despite his lack of speed is able to manufacture points off positioning and IQ.
Consider: In his four seasons since leaving Boston, Jagr collected 84 goals and 142 assists for 226 points. As for the Hub teammates he left behind: Brad Marchand (241), Patrice Bergeron (238), and David Krejci (217).
Other oldsters still looking for work: Jarome Iginla (age 40), Andrei Markov (38), Shane Doan (40), Matt Cullen (40), and Mike Fisher (37).
They’ll be free to bid on Toninato
Only some 48 hours after landing Marleau, the Leafs learned that one of their top college prospects, Dominic Toninato, will opt for free agency in August, reminiscent of last summer when Harvard’s Jimmy Vesey severed his draft tie with Nashville and signed as a UFA with the Rangers.
The 6-2 Toninato, who captained Minnesota-Duluth last season to a trip to the Frozen Four, was not a prolific NCAA scorer (91 points over four seasons). Chosen 126th in 2012, he was offered a deal by the Leafs last summer, opted to remain in college, and now will be free to walk as of Aug. 15.
Loose pucks
In the 1984 draft, when Shayne Corson went No. 8 to the Canadiens, the Bruins selected Dave Pasin the Scoring Machine with the 19th pick. The Prince Albert center’s NHL time was brief: 76 games, 18-19—37. The Bruins ultimately flipped him to the Kings for Paul Guay, and he lived out his playing days in Italy and Switzerland, including a 108-point season with Bolzano (Italy). The No. 1 pick in the ’84 draft: Mario Lemieux . . . Congrats to Kirk Luedeke, career Army guy and longtime draft aficionado for the New England Hockey Journal, who later this summer will begin his new career as director of player personnel for the USHL’s Omaha Lancers. None better than the Captain, who two years ago was effusive in his praise of Brandon Carlo when the Bruins picked him in Round 2, a pick vastly overshadowed by Boston’s three Round 1 picks — Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk, and Zach Senyshyn . . . Super snoop Larry Brooks of the New York Post on Tuesday was the first to report that Ilya Kovalchuk will stay in the KHL (St. Petersburg) for 2017-18, cutting short speculation that the ex-Devil would return for another NHL fling. It’s a good bet that Kovalchuk, who bolted the Devils three years into a 15-year/$100 million deal four years ago, will sign in the NHL next summer. He’ll be 35 then and, per CBA rules, can sign a bonus-heavy deal . . . After dealing Brendan Smith to the Rangers at the deadline, the Red Wings had a hole to fill on the backline, and addressed it with free agent Trevor Daley (three years at $3.178 million per). Daley put his name on the Cup twice in his two years in Pittsburgh . . . The Wings risked losing pricey backup goaltender Petr Mrazek in the expansion draft, but the Knights opted for Marc-Andre Fleury, ex- of the Penguins, to be their franchise stopper. That leaves Mrazek and his $4 million cap hit still in Motown, where Jimmy Howard (two more years, $5.292 million per) is now the pricey backup to the guy the Wings left exposed in the expansion draft. That may not make much sense, but hey, it’s goaltending . . . Matthews was only two weeks old when Marleau made his NHL debut with the Sharks in October 1987.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD. Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.
