BOSTON (WHDH) - The Boston Bruins are dropping Mitchell Miller, effective immediately, Bruins President Cam Neely announced Sunday.
The announcement came after a weekend of backlash, following Friday’s announcement that the team had signed Miller and a day after NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced Miller was not eligible to play in the league.
In a statement, Neely said in part, “the decision to sign this young man was made after careful consideration of the facts as we were aware of them: that at 14-years-old he made a poor decision that led to a juvenile conviction. We understood this to be an isolated incident and that he had taken meaningful action to reform and was committed to ongoing personal development.”
“Based on new information,” the statement read, “we believe it is the best decision at this time to rescind the opportunity for Mitchell Miller to represent the Boston Bruins.”
Miller was charged and admitted to bullying and racially abusing a Black, developmentally disabled classmate for years in 2014, including kicking and punching him, calling him slurs and forcing him to eat candy swabbed in a urinal.
At 20, Miller had been selected by Arizona in the 2020 draft, but the Coyotes relinquished his draft rights after learning more about his abusive past, and after criticism by the public.
Soon after Boston announced that they had signed Miller, league Commissioner Bettman said the NHL was not consulted by the Bruins on the signing.
“He’s not coming into the NHL, he’s not eligible at this point to come into the NHL,” Bettman said on Saturday, according to the Associated Press. “If, in fact, at some point they think they want him to play in the NHL, and I’m not sure that they’re anywhere close to that point, we are going to have to clear him and his eligibility and it’ll be based on all the information that we get first hand at the time.”
“The culture that we built here goes against that type of behaviour,” Bruins Captain Patrice Bergeron said after learning of the initial signing. “In this locker room, we’re all about inclusion, diversity, respect.”
Neely also wrote in his statement that the team will be reevaluating their internal processes for vetting players who want to join the team, and that they apologized for the impact of the decision to sign Miller in the first place, including an apology to the former classmate.
“To Isaiah 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,” Neely wrote. “Finally, as a father, I think there is a lesson to be learned here for other young people. Be mindful of careless behaviors and going with the group mentality of hurting others. The repercussions can be felt for a lifetime.”
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