The Bruins announced on Friday that they have signed defenseman Mitchell Miller, who in 2016 admitted to an ugly case of bullying and had his draft rights renounced by the Arizona Coyotes in 2020 after more details about the incident came out.
In 2016, a then-14-year-old Miller and a classmate admitted in an Ohio juvenile court to bullying Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, a Black classmate with developmental disabilities. According to an investigation by The Arizona Republic, Miller repeatedly taunted Meyer-Crothers with racial slurs, hit him, and tricked Meyer-Crothers “into licking a candy push pop that Miller and another boy had wiped in a bathroom urinal.”
After the Coyotes drafted Miller in the fourth round in the 2020 NHL Draft, Meyer-Crothers told The Arizona Republic that Miller had never apologized to him in the four years since the bullying incident. The Coyotes faced widespread backlash after the pick and wound up renouncing Mitchell’s draft rights less than a month later. Miller was also dropped from the University of North Dakota hockey team after those details had come to light.
Miller, now 20, did not play at all during the 2020-21 season. Last season, he played for the Tri-City Storm in the United States Hockey League and was named the USHL Player of the Year after ranking third in the league in scoring and first among defensemen with 39 goals and 44 assists in 60 games.
In a statement released through the Bruins, Miller said he has since apologized to Meyer-Crothers.
"When I was in eighth grade, I made an extremely poor decision and acted very immaturely," Miller 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. I strive to be a better person and positively contribute to society. As a member of the Bruins organization, I will continue to participate in community programs to both educate myself and share my mistakes with others to show what a negative impact those actions can have on others. 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."
Bruins president Cam Neely said the organization spent several weeks with Miller “to better understand who he is as an individual and learn more about a significant mistake he made when he was in middle school.”
"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."
Miller was set to report to the AHL Providence Bruins on Friday.
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney met with reporters via Zoom on Friday afternoon to answer questions about the signing. He said that he struggled with the decision, but referenced his father's career in education and working with kids who got suspended from school and then came back in explaining why he was willing to give Miller an opportunity.
"I am not going to downplay that this has been a personal struggle as well as a professional struggle as we go through and try to separate hockey player and person, spending quite a bit of time with Mitchell in particular over the last 10 days," Sweeney said. "Spending time with my own family, talking through some of the details, I came to a position that if the organization was willing to support the person and give him an opportunity, recognizing that I come from lifelong educators -- my father in particular was a vice principal, principal, board of education, who had suspended kids throughout his professional life, but he always welcomed them back if they were willing to abide by the rules and continue to move forward in their life, because it was more about opportunity and it wasn’t about punishment. Mitchell paid a punishment, and he’s going to continue to carry that for the rest of his life, and we’re going to hold him to a standard that he needs to understand, that each and every one of us look in the mirror every day and respect others and have to be unilaterally inclusive."
Sweeney said that he did not speak to Meyer-Crothers or his family, but that it was "imperative" that Miller reach out to Meyer-Crothers and apologize. Sweeney said that process was already underway before the Bruins began to seriously consider signing Miller.
"I have not asked for the personal feelings of how those conversations went," Sweeney said. "I was understanding that they had taken place, and we are incredibly respectful of what this young man was put through. We felt it was imperative that Mitchell spoke to him prior to even considering moving forward."
Guy Flaming of The Pipeline Show shared an exchange he had with Meyer-Crothers' mother on Friday in which she said that Miller tried to reach out via social media, but seemed to indicate that there was not any conversation beyond that. She clarified that the bullying was not just one incident either, but something that occurred for years. She also said that she had not heard from anyone in the Bruins organization.
WBZ also shared a video clip of an interview with Meyer-Crothers' mother on Friday in which she says that there was no apology until last week, which seems to contradict Sweeney's claim that the process had begun earlier.
Sweeney said he would be open to having a conversation with Meyer-Crothers, but it remains a bit unclear why such a conversation did not take place before signing Miller.
"I’d be fine having a conversation with Isaiah subsequently to hear exactly how he feels," Sweeney said. "We don’t feel there’s necessarily forgiveness involved in this. We feel there’s an opportunity for a young man to still have a career despite a very immature and misguided decision back when he was in the eighth grade. I don’t feel it was necessary at this point in time to hear both sides of the story, albeit we take Isaiah’s side that this event happened and the culpability lies 100 percent with Mitchell, and he needs to live with that and work for the rest of his life to understand that he needs to respect people and live it."
Sweeney said he did talk to some players in both Providence and Boston, especially team leaders, before signing Miller.
"You can be assured that our leadership group was aware when we were considering this," he said. "Same reaction a lot of us had, like, ‘Why? Why would you necessarily invite this?’ Again, just trying to make decisions based on information that we have and following up. People deserve, earn second chances in life as long as those misgivings are not repeated and they can grow as people."
Sweeney also said that the Bruins considered walking away at multiple points during this process, but that they ultimately came to the conclusion that they were willing to give Miller this opportunity and weather the backlash.
"You’re right. It invited a lot of negativity that, quite frankly, we didn’t need, didn’t want," Sweeney said. "Every time we got to the point where we were just walking away, walking away, we came back to: The young man was in the eighth grade, he was 14 years old, he has owned and will continue to own, he’s made his statement. There is no way that he doesn’t take full responsibility for the decision he made in a group dynamic where they were certainly trying to find somebody that would take the push pop. I think that he has to live with it, and we’ve had a lot of conversations about that. … I didn’t tell him that he deserved a second chance. I just think that the organization made a decision that we’ll allow for the growth of an individual."
Miller was available to media in Providence Friday afternoon. Mark Divver reported that Miller said there were a couple other teams interested in signing him.
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