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Nolan: Sabres should build around Miller ‘rather than use him as a pawn’

Ryan Miller

Ryan Miller has been the subject of many a trade rumor this season, something Ted Nolan wishes wasn’t the case.

“You look at all the championship teams and it starts from goaltending out,” Nolan told the Buffalo News. “I prefer you build around him rather than use him as a pawn to try and get something to make you better.

“You learn to deal with the now as a coach and we’ve got one of the better goaltenders in the world here and I’d like to build around him myself.”

Miller, 33, is enjoying a quality campaign despite his team’s struggles and a woeful 5-15-0 record. He boasts a .918 save percentage while sitting fourth in the NHL in shots faced, this despite playing in three fewer games than the No. 2 and 3 goalies on the list (Braden Holtby and Ondrej Pavelec) and four games fewer than Phoenix’s Mike Smith, who leads the league with 786 shots faced.

Miller’s also right back in the mix to start for the U.S. at the Winter Olympics, and has re-established himself as a guy that can carry the load (the type of goalie at least a few teams will be looking for come free agency).

Now, it’s unclear if the last few tumultuous years in Buffalo have entirely soured Miller on the organization. He’s been visibly frustrated at times, but did say upon the Nolan/Pat LaFontaine hires that it was a chance for the Sabres to “reset” and start anew.

Nolan said he doesn’t discuss player contracts with LaFontaine, but wants to make Buffalo a place where players want to be -- and that includes Miller.

“I talked to Pat about this and I said the one thing we want to do is create an environment where people want to come here and stay here,” Nolan said. “Hopefully he likes what we’re doing. You never know.”

Related: Miller, Hiller top list of pending UFA goalies