Drew Miller signs for Braehead Clan: Photo courtesy of Al Goold
In the city where Drew Miller’s been playing for the past few years, ice hockey is more than a competitive sport. To the people of Detroit, the Red Wings are Michigan’s pride, family tradition and through the city’s hardships – and there have been many – a beacon of hope.
“Hockey is hockey,” says the modest Miller, 28, without a doubt the Braehead Clan’s most impressive signing in the team’s short history.
“You’ve got to go play hard wherever you’re at, and you try to help the team. And that’s what I hope to do here.”
“Less than a week after the idea of playing in Glasgow was proposed to him, Drew and his family found themselves on a plane to Scotland”
The NHL lockout – a financial dispute between the NHL and the National Hockey League Players’ Association over a new collective bargaining agreement – has brought Drew Miller to Scotland, where he is playing as a forward for Glasgow’s Elite League team.
And with the hockey season kicking off, he’s all set to merge into the Clan.
“I think when it comes to style of play, you try to fit into the team and play as much as the way they’ve been playing,” says Miller, who bagged an impressive 14 goals and 11 assists for the Red Wings last season – a career-best 25 points overall for his team.
“I like to bring a bit of my own game to the team, and try to be offensive and play with speed. That’s one thing I hope to bring.”
Less than a week after the idea of playing in Glasgow was proposed to him, Drew and his family found themselves on a plane to Scotland. By 10October, he was fighting jetlag on the ice of the Braehead Arena.
“Hockey’s, hockey” – Drew Miller. Photo courtesy of Al Goold
“The two dogs had to go to the parents, (we had to) close the house off and get going,” he says. ”It all happened really quick.”
Though, how long Miller is with the Clan remains to be seen, as the NHL Lockout may go on for some time.
Lockouts are not unheard-of in the NHL. There have been four in the history of the league, the most recent one being in the 2004-05 season, which was cancelled entirely.
“It’s tough right now being locked-out,” Miller states, “As of right now it doesn’t look like they’re going to get it figured out in the next month or so. So, for myself, instead of sitting around I want to keep playing a game and not get rusty.”
Born in Dover, New Jersey and raised in East Lansing, Michigan, into true ice hockey stock, Miller was the 10th member of his family to skate for Michigan State. Growing up, he had three cousins playing in the NHL to look up to – Kevin, Kelly and Kip Miller. His older brother, Ryan, is the goalie for NHL team The Buffalo Sabres, and was selected to play in the 2010 US Olympic ice hockey team, for which he won a silver medal.
Drew Miller is, however, “the first family member to play in the UK”.
According to Miller, visiting the UK and Ireland has always been on his agenda: “Myself and my wife always wanted to visit Scotland, Ireland, this area, (the) castles and the history that’s around here. It’s a really wonderful experience.”
It’s an ambition excelled by a recent discovery about his family history: “I was informed not too long ago, before this even came up, that my father’s side from Regina, Saskatchewan, moved over a lot of ancestors from Londonderry in [Northern] Ireland, so I have some connection there.
“There is some Scottish too. I think we’re a melting pot of the UK.”
Miller is not the only NHL star to make his way across seas in the wake of the lockout. Tom Sestito, of the Philadelphia Flyers has temporarily signed for Elite League squad The Sheffield Steelers; while Anthony Stewart of the Carolina Hurricanes and Matt Belesky from the Anaheim Ducks have found refuge with the Nottingham Panthers and Coventry Blaze respectively.
“It’s an unfortunate situation – what’s going on at home with the lockout,” says Canadian Jordan Krestanovich, player-coach for the Braehead Clan. “It’s our game right now.”
“For us to get a player of this calibre – to sign an actual, current NHL player – is huge”
On signing Miller, he says: “It’s good for a lot of our young, British players too. Obviously they’re going to look up to Drew. He’s a hard-working player. Obviously he’s going to be a massive part of our team, so yeah, I’m really excited about it.”
Miller’s first season playing in the NHL was during 2006-07, for the Anaheim Ducks, who went on to win the Stanley Cup final for the first time. During 2009-10, he was acquired by Tampa Bay Lightning before being switched to the Detroit Red Wings later that season, where he debuted with 10 goals and nine assists for the legendary side.
Kirsty Longmuir, the Braehead Clan general and business manager, says: “It couldn’t come at a better time. For us to get a player of this calibre, to sign an actual, current NHL player is huge. There’s teams that have been around a lot longer than us that maybe haven’t taken this opportunity on.
“This is a big thing for the club – it’s a huge thing for the fans, but it’s also pretty big for our players, to train and play with someone of Drew’s stature. I think he’s going to bring a lot to the team dynamic; and he’s going to bring a lot to the game.”
The Braehead Arena, with a capacity of 4,000, is comparable to Miller’s regular ground, the Joe Louis Arena, whose location by the Detroit riverwalk practically sits on the border of the Ice Hockey nation of Canada, and can shelter 20,000 Red Wings fans.
“It definitely was different,” he says. “You get out there and your whole perspective of the rink is different.”
But, he reiterates, in spite of the change, the lockdown-induced uncertainty and the shift oversees: “Hockey’s hockey.”
By Blair Dingwall
The Cardonald Courier 
Posted on October 31, 2012
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