The Bruins’ Mitchell Miller fiasco ending in his release, explained

The Boston Bruins are one of the best teams in hockey.

But nobody is talking about their gaudy record to start the season, nor their NHL-best goal differential, right now.

Instead, the point of focus is the organization’s decision to sign defenseman Mitchell Miller, and then “part ways” with him just days later after intense backlash from around the NHL.

The 20-year-old has been playing for the Tri-City Storm in the United States Hockey League the past two seasons, after being drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in the fourth round of the 2020 NHL Draft.

But Miller’s story begins years prior, while in middle school. In 2016, at 14 years old, he and a fellow classmate were found delinquent in juvenile court of one count of assault and one count of violating the Ohio Safe School Act. Miller and his classmate engaged in a pattern of racist, bullying behavior against a developmentally-challenged Black classmate, Isaiah Meyer-Crothers. In addition to using racist language against the student “for years,” the two boys also tricked their classmate into eating a piece of candy they had dragged through a urinal.

They were also caught on a school’s surveillance video of punching and kicking their classmate repeatedly.

While this behavior was public knowledge in 2020, the Coyotes went ahead with drafting him in the fourth round, using a selection that was their first pick in the draft. After the decision, Coyotes Team President and CEO Alex Gutierrez issued a statement indicating that the organization had expectations for Miller, but also that the team wanted to be part of the “solution:”

Given our priorities on diversity and inclusion, we believe that we are in the best position to guide Mitchell into becoming a leader for this cause and preventing bullying and racism now and in the future. As an organization, we have made our expectations very clear to him. We are willing to work with Mitchell and put in the time, effort, and energy and provide him with the necessary resources and platform to confront bullying and racism. This isn’t a story about excuses or justifications. It’s a story about reflection, growth, and community impact. A true leader finds ways for every person to contribute to the solution. We all need to be a part of the solution.

However, that statement missed the mark, including with Joni Meyer-Crothers, the adoptive mother of the bullied student. Meyer-Crothers was born with fetal alcohol syndrome, and according to his adoptive mother, the boy had the developmental age of a 10-year-old at the time of the abuse and bullying.

After Arizona made the selection, she contacted the team, noting that Miller may have sent a letter of apology to NHL member clubs, but never to her or her son. Meyer-Crothers also noted, at the time the Coyotes made the pick, that while Miller’s classmate “broke down in tears” while apologizing to her son, Miller never personally apologized:

Miller and the other boy admitted to the misdemeanors and were sentenced to 25 hours of community service and were ordered to write an apology through the court system to Meyer-Crothers, participate in counseling and pay court costs.

Joni Meyer-Crothers said the other boy broke down in tears while personally apologizing to her son, yet Miller has never personally apologized, she said, other than the court-mandated letter.

In fact, the magistrate found that Miller, at the time of the guilty plea, showed no remorse. In a letter to the Coyotes, Meyer-Crothers noted that, along with the lack of a personal apology to her son:

Weeks after drafting him, the Coyotes renounced the pick, and apologized to the Meyer-Crothers family: “We have learned more about the entire matter, and more importantly, the impact it has had on Isaiah and the Meyer-Crothers family. What we learned does not align with the core values and vision for our organization and leads to our decision to renounce our draft rights,” said Gutierrez, who apologized to Meyer-Crothers and his family.

Miller was also kicked off the hockey team at the University of North Dakota, in a decision made personally by the school’s president. In his decision, school president Andrew Armacost noted that Miller could remain enrolled as a student, but his actions could not see him continue as a member the school’s hockey team. Armacost wrote: “After much consideration and discussions with Mitchell, the Miller family, our Athletics Director, Bill Chaves, and Coach Brad Berry, I have decided that the best course of action for Mitchell and the University is that he no longer be a member of the UND Men’s Hockey program. Mitchell may remain a student at UND and we will continue to support his future intellectual and interpersonal growth. We wish Mitchell well in whatever path he chooses in his future endeavors.”

Those decisions put Miller on a path to the USHL, and this past season, he was voted as the league’s Player of the Year and the Defenseman of the Year, a move that sparked criticism. Dr. Teresa Anne Fowler, an assistant professor and sport scholar at Concordia University of Edmonton, said after the move that the decision “reminds us what is valued within men’s ice hockey and that is preservations of power.” Dr. Fowler added “...by rewarding Miller with these honours, the USHL is rewarding players who lean into abusive forms of power in the wake of calls to hold hockey culture to account for the ongoing legacies of racism, misogyny, and homophobia… as many players are stating is wrong with hockey.”

But Miller’s success on the ice opened the door to a return to either college hockey, or the NHL itself, and this week the Bruins made the decision to sign him as a free agent.

In announcing the decision, Boston Team President Cam Neely said the following:

“Representing the Boston Bruins is a privilege we take seriously as an organization,” Neely said. “Respect and integrity are foundational character traits we expect of our players and staff. Prior to signing Mitchell, our Hockey Operations and Community Relations groups spent time with him over the last few weeks to better understand who he is as an individual and learn more about a significant mistake he made when he was in middle school.

“During this evaluation period, Mitchell was accountable for his unacceptable behavior and demonstrated his commitment to work with multiple organizations and professionals to further his education and use his mistake as a teachable moment for others. The expectation is that he will continue this important educational work with personal development and community programs as a member of the Bruins organization.”

That language mirrors in some ways what the Coyotes said two years ago.

Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney stated that one of the conditions for the move was that Miller personally apologize to the family, and the victim. “We are incredibly respectful of what this young man has been through,” Sweeney said. “It was imperative that Mitchell reach out to him as part of the process.”

However, that might not even have happened. Guy Fleming, a hockey analyst, contacted the victim’s mother after the move to see if anything had changed.

Here is their exchange:

She states that Miller did reach out to her son Isaiah via Instagram to say he was “sorry,” and that the move “had nothing to do with hockey.”

Which is extremely difficult to believe given the timing, and the request from the Bruins.

Meyer-Crothers also highlighted how Miller continues to refer to the behavior as an “incident,” but the pattern of abuse, bullying, and racist language occurred over a period of years.

Years she described quite accurately as “torture.”

The decision has been met with deserved criticism both from the media, as well as fans, but also from within the Bruins’ locker room, and from NHL offices. Current Bruins forward — and team captain — Patrice Bergeron, who spoke with SportsNet regarding the move:

Bergeron states emphatically, and powerfully, that the signing “ ... goes against what we are as a culture, as a team and for me as a person.”

Instead of taking that approach, the Bruins instead signed Miller to their organization.

And he may never see an NHL surface.

Because on Saturday, NHL Commissioner. Gary Bettman said that Miller is not eligible for the NHL, and that he may never be:

The Commissioner elaborated. “He’s not coming into the NHL, he’s not eligible at this point to come into the NHL,” Bettman said. “I can’t tell you that he’ll ever be eligible to come into the NHL. If in fact at some point they think they want him to play in the NHL — and I’m not sure they’re anywhere close to that point — we’re going to have to clear him and his eligibility and it’ll be based on all the information that we get firsthand at the time.”

Bettman added that the Bruins did not consult with the league, although he spoke with Neely after the move.

On Saturday night, the NHLPA informed ESPN that they have not been notified by the league of any suspension for Miller, and there “there needs to be more info provided by NHL” regarding his status.

And for Neely to describe Miller’s behavior as “significant mistake he made when he was in middle school” is a laughable, and absurd, understatement. This was a pattern of vile behavior. Let’s not forget that as a result of forcing Meyer-Crothers to eat the piece of candy that was dragged through a urinal, their classmate was forced to undergo testing for a variety of communicable diseases, including HIV.

This was more than a mistake.

Much more.

Perhaps if Miller had actually shown real remorse at any point during the past six years, the sales job the Bruins have put together would have a chance at being successful, instead of falling wildly, wildly short. But for Miller to only reach out in recent days — at the request of his new team — and then play it off as having “nothing to do with hockey,” fails to pass the smell test.

Back in 2016, the magistrate judge hearing the matter in juvenile court noted that Miller seemed more distraught with what might happen to him as a result of his behavior than anything else. William Hutchenson, the juvenile magistrate, said to Miller, “I don’t have a sense of real remorse. But I do feel that you feel sorry for yourself.”

It seems nothing has changed.

Sweeney admitted said after the move “[a]nd I can’t categorically tell you this is the absolute right decision ... This is an opportunity that we’re providing for a young man that is going to work to continue to earn trust and respect, as each and every one of us do every day. My own personal judgment on this wasn’t a final say. It was just part of the equation.”

Things came to a head on Sunday, when news broke that the organization was moving on from Miller. In a statement released on the team’s website, Neely addressed the decision:

The decision to sign this young man was made after careful consideration of the facts as we were aware of them: that at 14-years-old he made a poor decision that led to a juvenile conviction. We understood this to be an isolated incident and that he had taken meaningful action to reform and was committed to ongoing personal development. Based on that understanding we offered him a contract.

Based on new information, we believe it is the best decision at this time to rescind the opportunity for Mitchell Miller to represent the Boston Bruins.

Even this, however, seems unbelievable. Miller’s behavior was publically known to be part of a pattern of abuse, and not an isolated incident as Neely describes things. That was part of the reason the Coyotes rescinded the draft pick years ago.

Then, Neely seems to shift the blame for the decision to sign Miller to those responsible for “vetting” players:

We owe it to our fans, players, staff, partners and community to make sure that our practices and protocols are in keeping with the ethos that we demand from ourselves and as an organization. As such, we will be reevaluating our internal processes for vetting individuals who wish to earn the privilege of playing in the National Hockey League for the Boston Bruins.

The Bruins made a mistake when they decided to sign Miller, and are now moving on from the move. But the explanations offered at the time of the signing, and even in the aftermath, are still falling short.