One of the biggest rumors floating around the Red Wings was their interest in K'Andre Miller of the Rangers. The 25-year-old defenseman had a lot to offer the Wings, despite him seemingly regressing every single year he's been in the league.
The hope was that a change of scenery was all Miller needed to recapture the hype he once had and live up to his expectations. It seemed like it was going to be one of the big moves the Wings pulled off this offseason.
However, an hour into free agency, that dream appears dead, as it looks like the Rangers are sending Miller to the Hurricanes. This is a significant setback for the Red Wings, altering the trajectory of the entire offseason. But the big question is, where does Detroit go from here?
How the loss of K'Andre Miller affects the Red Wings plans for the offseason
While Miller was a gamble to trade for, his upside well outweighed the risk. Over his career, Miller has appeared in 368 games, registering 36 goals and 96 assists for 132 points with 661 hits and 162 penalty minutes.
The concern with Miller was the increase in turnovers and the drop in other stats. He committed 97 turnovers during the 2024-25 season, 63 more than he had the previous season. He's also seen drops in point totals, hits, blocks, and takeaways.
Although those numbers do not inspire much confidence, with him being 25, there is plenty of time to right the ship. Miller would've slotted in on the Red Wings' top four, most likely alongside Albert Johansson. It was a low-risk, high-reward type of trade and could've provided some stability on the blue line. Something Detroit is in desperate need of.
The Red Wings will now have to pivot and try to find their blue line help somewhere else. The most obvious place would be in free agency; however, Steve Yzerman stated the other day that they'd likely not be overly active in free agency and instead would be focused on the trade market. Plus, there is not much to be excited about on the open market, though they did bring in one blueliner.
The best pivot would be to enter the Bowen Byram sweepstakes. Byram is another young defenseman who is coming off a much stronger season than Miller. However, the Red Wings might be too late.
At this point, there are at least four teams interested in Byram's services. They appear to already be behind the eight ball, and with Yzerman staying away from bidding wars, it's unlikely Byram wears a Detroit sweater in the future.
Either Yzerman is going to have to get creative on the trade market, or sign a veteran defenseman you hope still has something left. Regardless, it's not what Wings fans envisioned when it came to improving the defense. It could be something that keeps them out of the playoffs for the 10th straight season.
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