Sabres talking trade with Port Hope for Miller

The Fort Frances Jr. Sabres are hoping to lure a big fish back to his hometown.
Former Muskie Tyler Miller, currently leading the Port Hope Predators of the Ontario Provincial Junior ‘A’ Hockey League with 43 points in just 22 games, is looking for an opportunity to win a championship ring in his final year of junior eligibility.

His current team has had its injury problems, and probably is considered a long shot to make it out of the competitive OPJHL for a shot at the Dudley Hewitt Cup.
But one team’s gain is another’s loss, and losing Miller would be a tough pill to swallow for Predators’ management.
“Tyler has become arguably the best winger in our league, and maybe one of the best in the country at this level, and is our leading scorer this season and last year, as well,” Port Hope GM Tim Clayden noted.
“I will do my best to help Tyler get home this year, no guarantees, but I will do my best to help the hometown boy with his hometown team.”
The problem, said Clayden, is getting a return on the significant investment they’ve made into Miller’s progress over his nearly three seasons with the Predators.
“The problem we have is with our annual budget each year in Port Hope, at roughly $224,000, [and] our math says it costs us about $12,000 per player per season to develop each kid,” Clayden explained, noting the costs of sticks, flights home, meals, and billets all add up.
“We have about $25,000-plus invested into Tyler and his own development, not ours, over the past three seasons,” he added. “There are more than one team from every league in the country that want Tyler Miller on their hockey club, so you can only imagine the offers that we have been receiving.”
Acquiring Miller would go a long way towards getting the Sabres over the hump in the SIJHL standings, and head coach Wayne Strachan has made it clear they hope to add him to their lineup.
“We are very interested in acquiring a player of Tyler’s ability,” Strachan stressed. “He would boost our lineup a lot.
“We are in talks and hoping to work something out as soon as possible with Port Hope,” he added. “Getting him would, I believe, make us a serious contender in the league.”
Discussions are ongoing, but clearly the asking price is high—and justified given what Miller brings to the table.
“In fairness to Coach Strachan, he is also doing his best to make this happen, and has made some offers that have been pretty attractive and worth considering,” Clayden admitted. “We are not there yet, but we are much closer than I thought we could get.”
Miller, meanwhile, isn’t getting ahead of himself, saying the whole situation is out of his hands. His junior career is missing a championship win and that’s what he’s focusing on right now—not where or when he’ll get traded.
“If this is going to get done, it will be a testament of two teams working together in order to only create what [we] all hope is a win-win for both teams,” Clayden said. “If not, a deal just won’t get done before the Dec. 1 trade deadline, and maybe not at all this season.”