Oilers Sign Yale Captain

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It's been a pretty remarkable month for Andrew Miller and his teammates at Yale. First they just squeak into the NCAA national tournament, then upsetting some of the marquee programs in college hockey to get to the title game and beating the top ranked team in the country to win it. 

So if you're the senior captain of the new champions, what do you do for an encore? Sign a pro contract of course and that's what Miller did on Wednesday when he agreed to a 1-year deal with Edmonton.   

Some more information and highlights after the jump.


Friends in the USHL sent me some information about Miller who, until this past week, I had never laid eyes on so knew nothing about aside from his stats line. The stats though are impressive; 156 points through 4 seasons and 141 NCAA games at Yale.

What I did pick up during the two game Yale played at the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh was just how key a cog he was in Yale's machine. Just because a guy is the captain doesn't mean he's always a big part of a team's offence but Miller was one of the guys who seemed to be dangerous all the time. 

Miller's overtime goal againt UMass-Lowell (4:20 below) was huge even though it wasn't picture perfect but his breakaway snipe against Eric Hartzell in the title game was a goal scorer's goal. 


Allan Mitchell shared his comments earlier in the day and provided some information about the 5'9 forward.    

Here are some notes passed on to me via the USHL from his time spent in that league during the 2007-2009 seasons:

• Following his rookie season in which he had 41 points, he doubled his output the following year with 82 points
• His 82 points led the USHL in scoring and his 50 assists were tops in the League also
• He was named the USHL Player of the Year and an All-USHL First Team selection
• Miller was also honored by USA Hockey as the Dave Tyler Junior Player of the Year
• During his rookie season with the Chicago Steel in the USHL, he was teammates with two future Hobey Baker Award winners – Drew LeBlanc (2013) and Andy Miele (2011) – both of whom have signed NHL contracts.
• During his second season, he was teammates with now NHL players John Moore (NY Rangers) and Jamie Oleksiak (Dallas Stars)
• Three of his teammates that season also had fathers who played in the NHL, Dean Chelios (Chris), Philip Samuelsson (Ulf), and Alex Krushelnyski (Mike)
  
  
   (Photo Credit: Justin Aller)