ST. PAUL, Minn. — When the Rangers mounted the podium at the XCEL Energy Center to make their first selection in last night’s NHL Entry Draft, management personnel were accompanied by Aaron Boogaard, the younger brother of the late Derek Boogaard, the winger who died of the age of 28 at his apartment in Minneapolis on May 13.
And it was Aaron Boogaard, introduced at the podium by director of player personnel Gordie Clark, who announced the 15th overall pick as JT Miller, the Ohio-born and Pennsylvania-raised center/left wing who has made a verbal commitment to enter North Dakota as a freshman this fall but has been drafted by OHL Plymouth.
Miller, 6-foot-1 and 198 pounds, led Team USA in scoring in the Under-18 World Championships in which the Yanks captured the Gold Medal. The first U.S.-born player selected last night, Miller said he was as surprised as just about everyone else in the arena to be selected by the Rangers in that slot.
“I was a little bit shocked,” said Miller, who grew up as an avid Penguins’ fan. “To get my name called was breathtaking.
“I only had one meeting with [the Rangers]. I think they liked me, but I thought other teams did more.”
The Rangers liked the complete package Miller possesses. Indeed, Clark said the Rangers, who own only one of the first 105 selections in the draft after dealing a pair of seconds and a third for defensemen Tim Erixon and Bryan McCabe, had options to trade to trade down and add another pick but decided against it when Miller was there for the taking.
“We had talked about it, and under certain [circumstances] we might have moved back, but not with him,” Clark said.
“After seven or eight pretty high-end guys [were selected], nobody had all the qualities JT has. There could be somebody who might score more goals or is a faster skater, but with his size, with his shot, with his character, with his work ethic, with his playmaking ability, nobody had all the qualities in his game.”
Clark said the team had met with Miller only once because they were confident in their early assessment of the forward who recorded 37 points (11-26) in 48 games for the U.S.-Under 18 Development Team.
“He started coming up in the rankings in April [after the tournament],” said Clark. “He validated what we thought about him all year.
“He’s very underrated as a goal-scorer. He played with a guy [Rocco] Grimaldi, who got all the goals but JT gave him all the passes, but when he gets the puck back, he can score goals.”
Miller, who said it was “pretty emotional” for him when the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009, has been to New York once, about six years ago with his family.
“I went to Ground Zero with my family,” he said. “That’s the only thing I checked out.”
Though it’s dangerous to compare an 18-year-old to established NHL players, Clark likened Miller’s style to that of the Rangers’ Brandon Dubinsky and the Kings’ Mike Richards.
“He’s a Dubi- Mike Richards-type player,” Clark said. “Every shift he expends everything he’s got. That doesn’t vary.”