A Look Back on the Career of Ryan Miller

This morning, former Canucks goalie Ryan Miller announced he will be retiring at the end of the season. In celebration of his career, lets look back at how he got here and what he achieved in his nearly two-decade long NHL career.

Ryan Miller

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Miller, 40, was drafted 138th overall in the fifth round by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1999 entry draft. He made his league debut in 2003, playing fifteen games for the team, ending with a 6-8-1 record. Miller spent parts of eleven seasons with Buffalo, and was the starter for nine of them.

In 2010, Miller would be selected for the United States’ Olympic hockey team to play in Vancouver. Miller was named the best goalie and most valuable player in the whole tournament, ending with a 0.946 save percentage. Team USA finished second place in the tournament, something that nearly all Canadian hockey fans will remember, as they fell to the Canadians in overtime in the gold medal game. He also won the NHL’s Vezina Trophy that year, awarded to the the league’s top goaltender.

Having lost Olympic gold to team Canada, in Vancouver, it would not be unreasonable to think he would want to distance himself from that place and memory. This was not the case, as only five seasons later Miller signed with the Vancouver Canucks after a brief stint with the St. Louis Blues.

In Vancouver, Miller split time in net with Eddie Lack and Jacob Markstrom. Despite the team being in a rebound, he put up impressive numbers in net, having an above 0.910 save percentage in all three years.

Miller has been with the Anaheim Ducks since 2017-18 where he has found himself in a secondary role on a young, developing team. If Miller gets six more starts this year from Anaheim, he will finish with an even 800 games played. Of these, Miller has won 390 games, the best of any American born goalie.

He signed off his announcement this morning by saying “I will see you around the rinks. I just won’t be in the creases.”

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