Ryan Miller, one of just two goalies ever to win the Hobey Baker Award, will forgo his senior season at Michigan State after agreeing to a two-year contract with the Buffalo Sabres today.<\/p>\n
Miller, a fifth-round pick of the Sabres in 1999, has been a standout since day one at Michigan State, posting eight shutouts his freshman season. He went on to break the all-time NCAA career shutout record by the end of the next season, when he posted 10 more. He finishes his NCAA career with 26 shutouts.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-2-inch, 160-pound Miller won the 2001 Hobey Baker Award when he posted a 31-5-4 record and 1.32 goals against average. He followed that up last season with a 26-9-5 record, 1.77 GAA and eight shutouts.<\/p>\n
Miller joins a young goaltending corps that including returning starter Martin Biron and backup Mike Noronen, both of which excelled at Buffalo’s AHL affiliate in Rochester before getting to the NHL.<\/p>\n
Miller is likely to start in Rochester.<\/p>\n
“Every player in college, there’s going to come a time when the opportunity to further his pro career will take precedence over finishing his college career,” said Mike Liut, Miller’s agent, to the Associated Press<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Liut, a former college all-American and NHL goalie in his own right, said the decision was difficult.<\/p>\n
“It’s not a decision that’s made cavalierly, you have to weigh it out, and much of it has to do with how they’ve performed. And with Ryan, he’s accomplished to a large extent what there is to accomplish,” Liut told AP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ryan Miller, one of just two goalies ever to win the Hobey Baker Award, will forgo his senior season at Michigan State after agreeing to a two-year contract with the Buffalo Sabres on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n