A day before training camp opens, the New York Rangers named J.T. Miller the 29th captain in franchise history.

Rangers team president and general manager Chris Drury made the official announcement on Tuesday morning before the centennial season begins.

“We’re pleased to announce J.T. Miller as the new captain of the New York Rangers. Since his arrival last season, J.T. immediately became a leader for our group and exemplifies how we want to conduct ourselves both on and off the ice. Congratulations to J.T. and his entire family on an incredible meaningful achievement and we’re confident he will continue to represent our organization with class, commitment, and integrity.”

Acquired from the Vancouver Canucks along with Jackson Dorrington and Erik Brannstrom for Filip Chytil, Vincent Mancini, and a 2025 conditional first round pick on Jan. 31, Miller performed well in his return to Broadway. Seven years after being packaged with Ryan McDonagh to the Lightning for Vladislav Namestnikov, Brett Howden, Libor Hajek, a 2018 first round pick (Nils Lundqvist), and conditional 2019 second round pick (Karl Henriksson) on Feb. 26, 2018, Miller agreed to waive his no-movement clause to become a New York Ranger again.

In 32 games for the Rangers, he produced 13 goals and 22 assists for 35 points. Miller centered a cohesive line with Will Cuylle and Mika Zibanejad, whose play improved dramatically once he shifted over to play the right side. Zibanejad finished the final 32 games with 11 goals and 22 assists for 33 points.

With the Rangers moving on from Chris Kreider (traded to Ducks), Cuylle’s expected to remain on the number one line and become the net front presence on the power play. It’s a tall order for the third-year pro who set personal bests with 20 goals, 25 assists, and 45 points in his second season.

The leadership group will remain very similar to last year. With the exception of Kreider and former captain Jacob Trouba, Miller will assume the captaincy with four alternates. They are Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, and Zibanejad.

There had been some speculation that Trocheck would become the next captain. However, he was approached by management and signed off on his close friend Miller, taking over instead. Trocheck played a role in bringing Miller back to the Big Apple.

With it now official as the Rangers plan to celebrate their Centennial Anniversary with special games honoring the past 100 years, they have a clear vision for 2025-26. It’ll be interesting to see how important Miller is to helping the team rebound from last season’s disappointment that resulted in no playoffs.

The 32-year-old center is a player who wears his emotions on his sleeves. He will voice his opinion when things aren’t going well. If there’s any concern, that kind of strong personality isn’t for everyone. In Vancouver, he didn’t see eye to eye with Elias Pettersson. Eventually, the Canucks chose to make Miller available and keep Pettersson. With the Rangers showing serious interest, that’s how he wound up back in New York City.

There will be plenty of pressure and expectations for Miller to perform up to capability. In Vancouver, he averaged over a point-per-game by totaling 152 goals with 285 assists for 437 points in 404 games. Now, he’ll be asked to produce consistently under the spotlight while being front and center as the Rangers’ new captain.

With new head coach Mike Sullivan brought in from the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Rangers want to turn the page from the underachieving roster from 2024-25. The goal is to make the playoffs. Considering how mediocre the teams they’ll be competing against are, it’s realistic to return to the postseason. They’ll likely be competing against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, and Detroit Red Wings for the wild card.

While it’s still too early to make season predictions, the Rangers clearly are behind the Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, and Washington Capitals. If say the Caps slip up after last year’s break through that saw them finish with the best record in the Eastern Conference, then maybe the Rangers can sneak up and compete for third place in the Metropolitan Division.

For now, we’ll just focus on the opening of training camp. The Rangers invited 61 players.

It’ll be interesting to see which young players establish themselves. Scott Morrow had a good rookie camp against the Philadelphia Flyers. So did Brennan Othmann. Noah Laba is a center who some are high on to compete with Juuso Parssinen for the third line center. Is Laba ready, or does he need more seasoning with the Hartford Wolf Pack?

Amongst the veterans who were invited include former Lightning defenseman Andrej Sustr. He hasn’t played in the NHL since 2021-22. He’s a longshot to make the roster.

Keep an eye on Dorrington, who was included in the Miller deal last winter. He’s a 21-year-old defenseman who played at Northeastern University.

We’ll delve more into key camp battles over the next few days.

The Rangers play their first preseason game against the Devils on Sunday, Sept. 21.