Calgary Flames were frontrunners to trade for K'Andre Miller

The Calgary Flames have been rather quiet since free agency kicked off, though that certainly wasn’t from a lack of effort.

The Flames have a number of holes they’d like to fill ahead of the 2025-26 season, including on the left side of their back end. That said, they also want to fill those holes with players who will be around for several years as they look to turn the corner in their retooling efforts. From the sounds of it, they nearly had one.

There was plenty of talk heading into the offseason that the New York Rangers would be trading K’Andre Miller, and that wound up coming to fruition. The right-shot defenceman was dealt to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for Scott Morrow, a 2026 first-round pick, and a 2026 second-round pick. While the Hurricanes did win the sweepstakes, it sounds as though the Flames were very much in the running.

Darren Dreger joined the Barn Burner podcast and explained that a big part of the reason the Flames didn’t end up with Miller was because the Hurricanes were prepared to give him an offer sheet if they weren’t able to work out a trade with the Rangers.

“K’Andre Miller was an interesting story to follow,” Dreger said. “The Calgary Flames were definitely in on [him]. When Carolina threatened the offer sheet, then Chris Drury and the New York Rangers had to go, ‘Oh, okay, hold on a minute here. We have to focus on making this deal with the Carolina Hurricanes.'”

After being acquired by the Hurricanes, Miller agreed to an eight-year, $60 million deal that carries an average annual value of $7.5 million. The 25-year-old suited up for 74 games with the Rangers last season, scoring seven goals and 27 points while averaging just under 22 minutes in ice time.

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