The Boston Bruins are facing a backlash for their decision to sign Mitchell Miller, a 20-year old defenseman who admitted in court to bullying a fellow student while using racist language.
Many Bruins fans, the commissioner of the National Hockey League and Bruins players have reacted negatively to Friday’s announcement that the team had signed Miller to an entry-level contract and assigned him to the Providence Bruins, Boston’s A.H.L. affiliate.
“It’s not something anyone in this room stands for,” Nick Foligno, the Bruins veteran forward, told reporters at the team’s morning skate in Toronto on Saturday. “The culture we’ve built and these guys have built before I got here is one of inclusion. I think it goes against that.” He added: “It’s hard for us to swallow.”
Gary Bettman, the commissioner, spoke to reporters Saturday in Tampere, Finland, before a game between Colorado and Columbus there, and said the Bruins had not consulted the league before signing Miller and that Miller was currently ineligible to play in the league. If the Bruins ever decide to promote him, they will need to appeal to Bettman before Miller can gain eligibility.
Bettman indicated it would not be easy for him to clear Miller.
“What I understand and have heard through the media, what he did as a 14-year-old is reprehensible, unacceptable,” Bettman said. He added, “They were free to sign him to play somewhere else, that’s another league’s issue. But nobody should think, at this point he is, or may ever be, N.H.L. eligible. And the Bruins understand that now.”
Whether the Bruins keep Miller or not, the signing has already added tarnish to the legacy of the Original Six team that made Willie O’Ree the first Black player in the N.H.L. in 1958.
Patrice Bergeron, in an interview with Sportsnet in Toronto, where the Bruins were scheduled to play the Maple Leafs on Saturday, said bringing in a player with such a toxic record was contrary to the Bruins’ culture.
“We stand for integrity and inclusion and diversity, obviously,” Bergeron, the Bruins’ captain, said. “That was the first thing that came out of my mouth, it goes against a little of what we are as a culture and as a team and for me as a person.”
In 2016, Miller, then 14, pleaded guilty to one count of assault and one count of violating the Ohio Safe Schools Act. He and another teenager were accused of making Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, a developmentally challenged 14-year-old boy, eat candy after they had wiped it in a bathroom urinal, and surveillance video showed them kicking and punching him. Miller also used racial epithets against the boy, who is Black.
Don Sweeney, the Bruins general manager, said he had struggled with the decision to sign Miller but indicated that other teams were also interested in signing him, too.
“If they were willing to give him a chance, then we all have to look in the mirror and say, ‘Why wouldn’t we be willing to give him a chance?’” Sweeney said in a video news conference with reporters on Friday.
Before the 2020 draft, Miller apologized to all the N.H.L. teams in writing but not to the victim. According to the Bruins, he did not apologize to Meyer-Crothers until recently, when they asked him to, and he did it on social media, not in person. Isaiah’s mother, Joni Meyer-Crothers, has said that the other person involved in the attacks made a tearful apology in person.
The Arizona Coyotes drafted Miller in the fourth round, 111th overall, but after The Arizona Republic reported on the bullying and Miller’s conviction in juvenile court, the team renounced his rights. In the account, the victim said the abuse went on for years, with Miller hitting him and using racial slurs. Miller was playing for the University of North Dakota at the time and was kicked off that team, too.
In a statement released Friday, Miller apologized for only one incident.
“When I was in eighth grade, I made an extremely poor decision and acted very immaturely,” the statement said. “I bullied one of my classmates. I deeply regret the incident and have apologized to the individual. Since the incident, I have come to better understand the far-reaching consequences of my actions that I failed to recognize and understand nearly seven years ago.”
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