Ryan Miller ‘25 came to Chatham University hoping to continue his lifelong dream of playing hockey, but after his on-ice career ended, he found a path to keep hockey in his life forever.
Miller is the hockey operations intern for the Chatham men’s ice hockey team. The soon-to-be graduate is working on parlaying his work with the Cougars into a job in hockey after graduation.
Miller spends about eight hours working on game days, and his presence on staff is a huge advantage and luxury for the team.
“Having a dedicated hockey operations and video coach is a rarity at the Division III level — only a handful of programs can claim this advantage,” head coach Michael Gershon said via text message. “When I took over at Chatham, developing players was a top priority, but I also recognized the importance of investing in our coaches and support staff. My goal has been to equip them with the tools and experience needed to build successful careers beyond their time at Chatham.”
Hockey has always been at the forefront of Miller’s life. He has been on skates since he was 3 years old and has traveled the country playing hockey. Like most members of the hockey team, he spent three years after graduating high school playing junior hockey before arriving at Chatham.
“Hockey has been my entire life,” Miller said. “I played from the time I was three until the time I was 21, countless hours at the rink. … I feel like I always knew I wanted to have a career in hockey.”
Miller chose Chatham for his love of Pittsburgh and for the opportunity to walk on to the hockey team. But after not making the team on the ice, an opportunity to be the hockey operations intern kept hockey at the center of his life. While he wanted to be a hockey player, Miller realized taking the position could give him the career in hockey he always wanted.
“I made the decision to do it because I’m going to have three years of on-the-job experience when I’m applying for anything in the spring this year,” he said. “It’s just kind of my quickest route to the top and my way to give back to the game.”
All of Miller’s day-to-day duties revolve around preparing the hockey team for its next opponent. His work for games begins long before the puck drops. Miller scouts the Cougars’ matchup a week in advance and shares clips with the coaching staff, who then shared it with the players.
On game days, he arrives at the arena three hours early to set up video equipment. Once the game begins, he watches and organizes plays in real-time on his laptop. Miller cuts clips in as they happen to share with the coaching staff during intermission. After the game concludes, he sits down with the staff for hours, often not leaving until midnight, to go over the video and find areas for improvement.
The 23-year-old graduates in the spring and is aiming to use his countless hours of work to get a job in professional hockey.
“I always knew I wanted to have a career in hockey and getting this opportunity has kind of gotten a jumpstart [on] my path to the top, to the NHL,” he said. “It kind of puts me a step ahead of guys who are playing right now. And that was also something I thought about when I made the decision to do it.”
He is aiming to follow in the footsteps of Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas, who started working in the hockey world young and climbed the ranks from junior hockey to the NHL.
