A Buffalo Sabres legend will receive the ultimate honor next season, per ESPN and NHL Network insider Kevin Weekes.
On Friday afternoon, Weekes reported that longtime Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller will have his number 30 raised to the rafters by the team during the upcoming 2022-23 season.
Miller was a fifth-round draft pick (138th overall) by the Sabres back in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. Throughout his 540 games played with Buffalo (first in franchise history amongst goaltenders), Miller holds the team records in wins (284), as well as finishing top-five in Sabres history in shutouts (28, second in team history), goals-against average (or GAA) (2.60, third) and save percentage (.916, tied for fourth with Robin Lehner).
Miller made a name for himself on the international stage. He was named the starter of Team USA at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and helped lead the Americans to the gold medal game, where their hopes fell short at the hands of Sidney Crosby’s golden goal for Canada.
Despite leaving Vancouver with a silver medal, Miller was named tournament MVP, finishing with a 5-0-1 record, as well as a 1.35 GAA and .946 save percentage (both of which are American Olympic records).
Amongst American-born goaltenders, Miller also holds the top spot in wins (391) and holds the second most shutouts (44), trailing only Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings with 56.
Miller made an impact immediately for Buffalo, as he established himself as the team’s starting netminder and helped the Sabres reach the Eastern Conference Final, where they fell in seven games to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes. Miller’s Sabres would reach the final four again in 2006-07 but fell in five to the Ottawa Senators.
Miller was traded to the St. Louis Blues at the 2014 trade deadline, but his time in Buffalo didn’t end empty-handed for the East Lansing, Michigan native. Miller would win the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best netminder in 2010, becoming the first Sabre to do so since Dominik Hasek in 2001.
Miller’s stint with St. Louis would last only 25 games (19 in the regular season and a six-game loss in round one of the playoffs). Eventually, he’d bounce around the western conference as a free agent between three seasons with the Vancouver Canucks and four with the Anaheim Ducks before retiring with Anaheim after the 2020-21 season.
Miller will become only the second netminder and eighth player in team history to have his number retired, joining the likes of defenseman Tim Horton (#2), forwards Rick Martin (#7), Gilbert Perrault (#11), Rene Robert (#14), Pat LaFontaine (#16), Danny Gare (#18), and fellow goalie Hasek (#39). He’ll also become the second banner Buffalo will raise to the rafters in two seasons, as a longtime broadcaster and Hockey Hall of Famer Rick Jeanneret had his initials honored by the team this past April.
The schedule for the 2022-23 season has yet to be released, so the date of Miller’s jersey retirement ceremony is currently to be determined (TBD).
