Early in November, the Boston Bruins signed former Arizona Coyotes’ 2020 4th-round draft selection Mitchell Miller. Miller, a defenseman playing for the United States Hockey Leagues (USHL) Tri-City Storm, had been cut by the Coyotes shortly after the draft; primarily due to the discovery of his conviction in juvenile court in 2016 for bullying and racially abusing a special needs student while Miller was still in middle school. Miller and other classmates abused Isaiah Meyer-Crothers throughout elementary and middle school calling him racial and ableist slurs, physically and verbally harassing him, and forcing him to eat candy that had been stuck in a urinal. As expected, there has been an enormous amount of internal and external outcry against the signing.
Further tarnishing the Bruins’ public image, after the signing, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced that Miller was not eligible to be signed onto an NHL roster. Subsequently, the deeply embarrassed Bruins organization rescinded the contract three days after signing him. Captain Patrice Bergeron spoke out against the decision to give Miller a place on the Boston team soon after his signing, declaring, “In this locker room, we’re all about inclusion, diversity, respect…We expect guys to wear this jersey to be high-character people with integrity and respect. That’s how they should be acting.”
Furthermore, we at Belmont Hill and Winsor believe that there is no place for players like Miller in the NHL, and the fact that he is a professional hockey player in the USHL, where he won both Defensemen of the Year and Player of the Year in the 2021-2022 season, is completely abhorrent. The objections towards Mitchell Miller’s signing with the Bruins extended to students at Winsor. Catherine Macenka ‘23 said, “I don’t like the guy. I appreciate that the Bruins unsigned him, I don’t know why they signed him in the first place and I’m glad that the team took that kind of personality out of the locker room and out of the organization.” Students from both Belmont Hill and Winsor condemn the actions of Miller and feel as if he never should have received a contract from the Boston Bruins.
