E-Mac's 2011 NHL Entry Draft Top 120: Jonathan Miller #17

By Eldon MacDonald

17. Jonathan (JT) Miller - “Miller Time” - W/C - USA

Vitals: Size - 6’1”, 189 lb.; Shoots left; Born: 14-Mar-93 - East Palestine, OH
Team: USA NDP U18 USHL
2010-11Stats: 48-11-26-37-78 + U18 6-4-9-13-6-(+8)

Rankings:
9 - Redline Report's Top 10
17 - E-Mac's 2011 NHL Entry Draft Top 120
17 - ISS's 30-May-11 per TSN
18 - Bob MacKenzie's June Poll of Scouts
18 - Dean Millard -The Pipeline Show Top 30
18 - Guy Flaming - The Pipeline Show Top 30
20 - The Scouting Report's Top 100 Skaters
22 - Kirk Luedeke's Top 50
26 - Christopher Ralph's Top 210
27 - McKeen's June Top 30
28 - NHL Central Scouting's Final Rankings (23rd North American skater)
30 - Future Considerations Final Rankings
30 - hfboards Readers’ Poll
54 - Cory Pronman's Top 100
59 - The Hockey News per TSN
Draft result:
15 - New York Rangers

Yes, I confess, I wavered on JT Miller. I had him in the first round for most of the year but I was planning to relegate him to the second round because he just wasn’t producing the results that a player with his skills should expect. However, then came the World U18 tournament and JT Miller showed me and the rest of the world that he was a player that could and did produce results when the results mattered. All he did was lead Team USA to its third straight gold medal by leading the team in points with four goals and nine assists in six games. And when the crunch came, it was JT Miller who showed up - scoring two goals in the semi-final game to defeat Canada in overtime and two assists to win the gold medal against Sweden, again in overtime (including the primary assist on the game tying goal with only 29 seconds remaining in regulation time).

So what type of player can the team drafting JT (and the University of North Dakota where he will play next year) expect to get? Offensively, you get a guy who goes to the net with power and speed, a guy who is strong on the puck and wins most of the board battles, a guy who is prepared to be physical and can drop the gloves, can shoot with the best of them and a guy who plays a gritty style that creates time, space and the puck for his teammates. The main question relating to JT is: “Was his lack of elite offense during most of the year a sign of a lack of hockey sense or just a phase that he was going through?”.

I thought that I was high on JT at seventeen but I see Kyle Woodlief has him at nine so the sky is the limit for this guy. In any case, it will be “Miller Time” Friday night (meaning, first round) and likely sooner rather than later.