|
Quick aesthetic note: I'm not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to triple post, stretch out the page with a poorly sized YouTube video, and disable comments last night, but for some reason that's what I did. I spent the last half hour or so cleaning all that up, though for some reason comments are still disabled on the last post. I'm not too worried about it -- if you have something to say, just stick it inhere. Also, the I realized that I'm way behind the times on the Blogroll. I had a bunch of blogs that I read regularly that weren't even on there, so it should be all up to date now. If I missed you for some reason, just drop me a line and I'll throw it up, it was nothing personal.
Anyway, kudos to Chris from Motown Wings for totally calling this yesterday. Chris clearly saw the writing on the wall with this one, where was everyone else? Really, the math is quite simple:
- Jason Williams snaps his leg, joining Valtteri Filppula and Johan Franzen on LTIR
- Drew Miller is on waivers.
- Drew Miller is from Michigan State.
- Drew Miller makes the league minimum.
- Detroit, sadly, has a high waiver priority right now.
- Jeremy Williams was being talked about as a potential call-up.
So, the need for Drew was clear. He probably won't be rushed into the lineup tonight, but there's a good chance he'll be in the lineup against Vancouver tomorrow over Brad May or Kirk Maltby, or possibly Patrick Eaves if there is something wrong with his bruised foot. There was talk about calling up Jeremy Williams, Kris Newbury, or Jamie Tardif, but none of those possibilities looked all too enticing to me. Rather than making a move at this point, I think Drew Miller is worth a shot.
The lesser Miller comes courtesy of the Tampa Bay Lightning, where for some reason, his zero points and -3 rating in 14 games just wasn't cutting it. But the Bolts definitely wanted him in the offseason, as he was the main part of the return that saw he's-so-dirty-but-I'd-love-him-as-a-Wing Evgeni Artyukhin shipped to Anaheim. Prior to that, he was actually a pretty promising prospect.
After a successful career at Michigan State, his last season being Justin Abdelkader's first, Miller had what you might call "baptism by fire" as two of his first three NHL games were in the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals. He looked pretty good, and I was convinced by this point he'd be a second line power forward, but that shows what I know, I guess.
His next two seasons were not nearly as productive in the NHL. The following year, he was pretty evenly split with 31 games in the AHL (36 points) and 26 in the NHL (5 points). Last season, his AHL totally took a dive (38 points in 53 games) but he was more productive in 27 games in the NHL, though all of his four goals came in the month of March. He did play every playoff game, and in my mind he really stood out against Detroit. There was one game in the series where he had five good scoring chances, including two breakaways, but Chris Osgood was just all over him. Other than that, he was mostly solid in his 4th line role.
But let's not celebrate just yet, keep in mind this guy was just cut by the Lightning, for being scoreless. But he's 25 and this is only his 4th professional season, so there's still some promise in him. I think he'll make a good 4th liner as a temporary fix. He's got size -- at 6-foot-2 he's actually the third tallest Wings forward behind Bertuzzi and Franzen, but at 178 pounds, he's outweighed by any other skater on Detroit by at least 10 pounds. Not what you'd call NHL size, and disappointing that he hasn't been able to put on weight in three professional seasons. He's not a strong skater, but he's got a pretty quick set of hands and he won't cheat you on effort. He's got a good shot, but so far his scoring touch in the NHL has been limited.
A solid pickup for now. Detroit can hold onto him until two of the three LTIR forwards return, then, provided nobody else is on LTIR, they can waive him and try to get him to Grand Rapids. That's assuming he doesn't really pick his game up in Detroit, in which case Brad May could be AHL-bound. I like the move though, gives us some flexibility and much needed depth without having to dip into one of Grand Rapids' key players.
|
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account! 