Boston Bruins president Cam Neely said the team signing controversial prospect Mitchell Miller is “absolutely” his biggest regret with the organization.
The Bruins cut ties with Miller late Sunday night, 48 hours after signing him, and Neely said during a Monday morning news conference that the Bruins “failed” in their vetting process.
He apologized to fans and the family of Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, a developmentally disabled Black classmate Miller physically and racially abused as a teen.
Neely admitted the team never contacted the Meyer-Crothers family before signing him Friday and that omission by the team’s hockey operations department “was concerning.”
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When asked whether anyone in the organization will be disciplined, Neely said, “That’s something I have to deal with today and this week and see where it takes me.”
Here’s what we know.
What did Miller do?
Miller and another classmate were charged with assault and violating the Ohio Safe Schools Act in February 2016 after making Meyer-Crothers eat a push pop they had wiped in a bathroom urinal.
Miller, who was 14 at the time, admitted to the charge in an Ohio juvenile court.
The two teens then punched and pushed Meyer-Crothers, according to a police report obtained by the Arizona Republic. They were convicted and sentenced to 25 hours of community service, counseling and writing a court-mandated apology.
Meyer-Crothers had to be tested for hepatitis, HIV and STDs, which came back negative. He also told the Arizona Republic in 2020 that Miller taunted him for years, using racial slurs and repeatedly hitting him.
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Sweeney said Miller had apologized to Meyer-Crothers for what the player termed a “mistake” in Friday’s statement, but Meyer-Crothers’ mother, Joni, told WBZ that Miller bullied her son for years and the player reached out only last week via Instagram.
“I take a lot of pride in what we stand for as an organization, and we failed there,” Neely said before adding he planned to speak with the Meyer-Crothers family.
Why did the Bruins sign Miller?
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said Friday he had been working on signing Miller for “almost a year.”
Miller, a highly touted prospect out of high school, was a free agent after the Arizona Coyotes renounced his 2020 draft rights after selecting him in the fourth round. A right-handed defenseman, Miller posted 83 points in 60 games with the USHL’s Tri-City Storm last season.
Upon signing him, the Bruins immediately assigned him to their AHL affiliate in Providence, Rhode Island.
Scouts relayed to the Bruins that Miller had changed since the incident, according to Neely, who said he was made aware of the Bruins’ negotiations with Miller and his agent in August.
“From everything I heard he was working on himself, working in programs to better himself,” Neely said. “I was under the impression it was a 14-year-old kid who made a really, really bad decision and did some horrible things. He’s 20 years old now, so I was under the impression the last six years he had done a lot of work on himself.”
What did the NHL say?
Neely said he consulted Wednesday with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly about the Bruins’ decision to sign Miller. According to Neely, Daly said Miller would need to get in front of commissioner Gary Bettman in order to play in the NHL.
However, Bettman said that “before the Bruins made the decision to sign him, we were not consulted.” Bettman said Miller would be currently ineligible to play and may not ever gain NHL eligibility.
Bettman called Miller’s actions “reprehensible, unacceptable” Saturday during the 2022 NHL Global Series in Finland.
The NHL Players’ Association told ESPN were not made aware of any active or pending disciplinary action against Miller and questioned why he was being denied eligibility.
As for his AHL eligibility, Bettman said that was outside his purview.
Why did the Bruins cut Miller?
The team faced intense backlash following the signing, from the league, players, fans and media.
Neely acknowledged the role reaction had on the decision to part ways with Miller just two days after signing him.
Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron and forward Nick Foligno were among those who expressed reluctance and displeasure with the move. Bergeron said Saturday he “didn’t necessarily agree” with the decision when approached by Sweeney the previous week.
Neely said he “probably would have been upset as well.” Neely played 13 seasons in the NHL – 10 with Boston.
Neely declined to answer whether Miller’s camp misrepresented itself during the evaluation process the Bruins engaged in prior to signing. Miller’s agent, Eustace King, posted a statement to Twitter Sunday defending the player and listing numerous community programs with which Miller was “committed” to working.
However, one of those programs, The Carnegie Initiative, posted its own statement in response saying it had met with King but “found it best to move on” and for Miller to “not pursue engaging the CI.” It posted a clarification Monday saying, “We mutually agreed that Mitchell’s best path forward was to be vocal and own what he had done, followed by him finding his voice to speak loudly as a change agent in hockey.”
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Neely also declined to answer what sort of financial restitution might be owed Miller considering the two sides had signed a contract.
“Initially, I was thinking it was going to be ‘OK, this kid deserves a second chance,'” Neely said when asked how he thought fans would respond to the signing. “I thought there would be some people that were going to be upset about it. But to the extent of this, I misread that.
“… I do believe in second chances, but maybe some don’t deserve it.”
How are the Arizona Coyotes involved?
This happened before. Miller was originally drafted by the Coyotes in the fourth round of the 2020 draft, but the team renounced his draft rights after the Arizona Republic published its report that October.
On the same day the Arizona Republic report was published, the Coyotes doubled down on their decision to draft Miller and said in a statement it was the team’s “responsibility to be a part of the solution in a real way — not just saying and doing the right things to ourselves but ensuring that others are too.”
However, after backlash from fans and others, the Coyotes cut ties with Miller three days later.
Miller had been expected to begin playing college hockey at the University of North Dakota that season, but the program dropped him in light of the report. He was allowed to stay enrolled in classes.
