Colin Miller Signs In Switzerland

The UFA market opens up in just a few hours from now but one veteran blueliner has elected not to test it.  Instead, Colin Miller has already found his new home as Lausanne in Switzerland announced that they’ve signed the defenseman to a one-year contract.

At his best, the 33-year-old was a strong complementary offensive blueliner.  Back in 2017-18 with Vegas, Miller had his best season, one that saw him post 41 points in 82 games and then followed that up with 29 points in 65 outings the following year on the first season of a deal that paid $3.875MM per season.  It looked as if he had found his role as a second-pairing defender.

But he hasn’t gotten back to that level since then.  Miller has bounced around Buffalo, New Jersey, Dallas, and Winnipeg in recent years with the hopes that he could rediscover that form.  He showed flashes of it but not often enough to come close to those types of point totals; he only put up more than 15 points once in the last seven years.

Last season, Miller had a tough go.  A knee injury cost him 35 games while when he was healthy, playing time wasn’t exactly easy to come by.  He was scratched more than he played, suiting up in a career-low 18 games and was limited to just two assists in 14:17 per night of playing time.

While his overall career numbers are certainly respectable (43 goals and 140 assists in 590 games over 11 NHL seasons), Miller certainly would have had some difficulty commanding a contract with a guaranteed pathway to third-pairing minutes.  Rather than wait to see if something shook loose later in the summer, he now heads overseas for the first time in his career and will get the opportunity to play a bigger role than he has for quite some time.