A pivotal offseason for Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller will coincide with his recovery from surgery for an upper-body injury he sustained toward the end of the 2024-25 season.

The pending restricted free agent attempted to rehab the undisclosed injury, per a league source, but ultimately decided surgery was his best option. He is expected to make a full recovery and be back around the start of next season.

Whether that will be in a Rangers jersey will depend on the negotiations to come.

Miller has been a bona fide top-four defenseman for the Rangers since he made his NHL debut in 2021, posting an average time on ice of over 20 minutes in each of his first five seasons. Drafted 22nd overall in 2018, the 6-foot-5 blueliner has been an integral part of the team’s back end.

While inconsistencies in his defensive game have been a concern — culminating this past season in an abundance of costly turnovers — Miller is still only 25 and believed to be far from his ceiling.

“Kind of hard to talk about my future here, obviously,” Miller said on the Rangers’ breakup day last month. “I have a great agent that is going to help me throughout this summer’s process. I love being a New York Ranger. I think this has been some of the best years of my life. These last five years have been unforgettable in about every aspect you can think of.”

Miller was also far from the only Ranger to take a major step back this season, but the defensive lapses almost became periodic. That could make Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury hesitant to commit to Miller long term.

At the same time, Miller’s undeniable athleticism, reach and skating ability make him a tantalizing player to see through.

Drury can reshape the Rangers this offseason in multiple ways, and Miller is certainly one of several player options to begin with. The organization, however, probably would hate to see Miller take off wearing another team’s jersey.

The injury doesn’t exactly make the Minnesota native an appealing trade target, if that’s the route Drury wanted to go. But if both sides are committed to the cause, there should be no reason why they can’t agree on a deal that would fit reasonably under the rising cap.

Miller could also file for, and go to, arbitration for a two-year contract that would bring him into unrestricted free agency at 27.

“I think throughout this team, there were a lot of ups and downs throughout the year, and I was obviously a big part of that,” he said. “Yeah, didn’t love how I started my season this year, and I was listening to a lot of the noise and just not really playing my game I wanted to play. I thought it was a hard season for me to kind of get a grip of how I wanted to play. Like I said, there was a lot of noise at the beginning, but I thought I did a good job of just staying true to myself and showing up every day with a smile on my face and a willingness to get better.”

Perhaps one of the biggest selling points to extending Miller is his success alongside Rangers No. 1 defenseman Adam Fox, who lost longtime defensive partner Ryan Lindgren to a trade to Colorado on March 1. That top defensive pairing could be an easy starting point for new head coach Mike Sullivan come training camp.

The Miller-Fox tandem led all pairs who played a minimum of 200 minutes in expected goals for percentage (64.72) last season, while also outscoring opponents 19-12, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Former head coach Peter Laviolette deployed the pairing over the first 10 games of the season, as well as 16 of the opening 20. Despite their encouraging numbers over 314:36 of five-on-five ice time, the last time they played together was a one-off on March 20.

Over 74 games this past season, Miller posted seven goals and 20 assists for 27 points, which is 16 under the career high he posted in 2022-23.

“I think there’s been uncertainty throughout my whole career,” Miller said. “You know, it’s part of the job. My first time going through it, so it’s a little different. But, like I said, I love New York. I wouldn’t want to play for anywhere else right now.”