The Boston Bruins announced Sunday night they have parted ways with Mitchell Miller, a defenseman they signed just two days prior. Miller, now 20 years old, was convicted of abusing and bullying a disabled classmate when he was 14, and on Saturday NHL commissioner Gary Bettman ruled him ineligible to play in the league.
In a statement, Bruins president Cam Neely explained the team signed Mitchell because it considered his conviction an "isolated incident" and believed he took "meaningful action to reform and was committed to ongoing personal development." However, Neely said the team found "new information" that led to its decision to part ways with Mitchell.
"We are sorry that this decision has overshadowed the incredible work the members of our organization do to support diversity and inclusion efforts," Neely said. "We will continue to stand against bullying and racism in all of its forms.
"To [the student] and his family, my deepest apologies if this signing made you and other victims feel unseen and unheard. We apologize for the deep hurt and impact we have caused."
Miller was originally drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in 2020, but the team renounced the draft rights to him shortly after public outcry ensued over details of Miller and another classmate bullying a developmentally disabled classmate from the time he was in the second grade. Miller's bullying had included repeated racial epithets and repeated hitting, and culminated in a particularly sadistic incident in the eighth grade in which the victim was tricked into eating a candy push pop that Miller and another boy had wiped in a urinal.
In a statement that accompanied his signing, Miller confessed that he had bullied his classmate, saying that he deeply regrets the incident and has apologized to the individual in question.
"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," Miller said. "... To be clear, what I did when I was 14 years old was wrong and unacceptable. There is no place in this world for being disrespectful to others and I pledge to use this opportunity to speak out against mistreating others."
However, Miller has yet to be forgiven -- Bettman claimed that the Bruins did not consult him before signing Miller, and that Miller may never be cleared to compete in the National Hockey League.
#NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on the recent signing of Mitchell Miller by the Boston Bruins. pic.twitter.com/9lOeNSEK5T
— Jesse Montano (@jessemontano_) November 5, 2022
"He's not coming into the NHL. He's not eligible at this point to come into the NHL. I can't tell you that he'll ever be eligible to come into the NHL," Bettman said. "If, 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. It will be based on all the information that we get firsthand at the time.
"... They were free to sign him to play somewhere else. That's another organization. But nobody should think at this point he is or may ever be NHL eligible. And the Bruins understand that."
Miller spent the 2021-22 season playing for the Tri-City Storm of the USHL, where he was named the league's Defenseman of the Year and Player of the Year after tying for the league lead with 39 goals while also having 83 points in 60 games, both marks that set single-season league records for a defenseman.
