Rangers will ‘give it a look’ with K’Andre Miller-Adam Fox defense pairing
Ever since Ryan Lindgren went down last week with an upper-body injury, the elephant in the room has been if the New York Rangers will consider teaming K’Andre Miller with Adam Fox on their top defense pairing.
Miller and Fox are the most skilled defensemen on the Rangers roster, but have played little together over the years. That’s because Lindgren, a rugged stay-at-home defenseman, is the perfect foil for the freelancing Fox, who’s totaled 70+ points in each of the past three seasons. Miller has played primarily alongside captain Jacob Trouba and some with Braden Schneider.
But Miller is a natural left-hand shot, and Fox plays the right side. Each is a workhorse, capable of playing big minutes, and solid at both ends of the rink.
Unlike Lindgren, though, Miller has major upside offensively, as evidenced by his 43-point campaign in 2022-23. Simply, Miller-Fox could be a dynamic pair with Lindgren out of the lineup at least a few weeks.
“We’re going to give it a look,” coach Peter Laviolette said Tuesday.
The coach also mentioned left-shot Connor Mackey, who showed little chemistry with Fox in a 5-2 win against the Boston Bruins last week, as an option on the top pair. He also offered that two right-hand shooters, veteran Chad Ruhwedel and rookie Victor Mancini, could flip from their natural side to the left. Of course, that could be done to pair with Fox, or to pair further down with either Trouba or Schneider if Miller moves up alongside Fox.
Zac Jones, a left-shot, isn’t really an option to pair with Fox because of his being more of an offensive-minded defenseman, too.
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Rangers will look at two ‘top-end defensemen’ as partners after Ryan Lindgren injury
The bottom line is that the Rangers don’t know yet how the pairings will look when they open the regular season Oct. 9 against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena. But that top pair could very well be Miller and Fox.
“It’s a lefty-righty combo, I feel like they’re both top-end defensemen for us,” Laviolette explained when asked why Miller and Fox will get a chance to play together in training camp and the preseason.
“[Lindgren’s injury] opened up something … you’re not expecting that, but then something happens, you have that stability and then something happens and now you don’t, you’ve got to find the right pieces and the right partners for each other.”
Miller, who’s averaged more than 21 minutes of ice time per games the past two seasons when he and Trouba largely have been tasked with being the shutdown pair, saw his point production drop 13 points to 30 last season. At 24, Miller could be ready to simply explode with this opportunity.
Fox missed 10 games due to a knee injury last season but scored an NHL career-high 17 goals and finished with 73 points in 72 games, averaging 23:27 in ice time. It’s intriguing to think how Miller could help his point production reach new heights, too.
Though extremely enticing, the Rangers may decide that loading up with Miller and Fox might dilute the effectiveness among the defense pairs. Jones would be with either Trouba or Schneider and one of Mackey, Ruhwedel or Mancini likely would land a spot with the other righty.
“It’s just really an evaluation process,” Laviolette explained. “Mancini on the left. Ruhwedel on the left. Maybe a Miller-Fox combination. These are all things we will look at and try.”
That evaluation continues with preseason games Tuesday and Friday, at which time the Rangers will be five days away from the season opener.
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