Bruins announced that they have signed Mitchell Miller, whose draft by Arizona Coyotes was renounced after a bullying incident came to light.

Mitchell Miller : Bullying | Bruins | Hockeydb | Bully

Mitchell Miller is an American professional ice hockey defenseman currently with the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League (AHL) as a prospect to the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Mitchell Miller : Bullying | Bruins | Hockeydb | Bully

Personal information
Born December 20, 2001 (age 20)       
Sylvania, Ohio, U.S.
Height 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Weight 190 lb (86 kg; 13 st 8 lb)
      Position       Defense
Shoots Right

He was drafted 111th overall by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, but had his draft status revoked after details of extreme bullying by Miller became public.

A commitment to join the University of North Dakota was also ended as a result of the controversy, and in 2021 he joined the Tri-City Storm.

Mitchell Miller bullying 

Mitchell Miller, who was cut by two teams last fall after an earlier conviction for bullying was reported, has landed with a new team.

The United States Hockey League’s Tri-City Storm announced Wednesday that they are bringing back the defenseman, who played for them in 2019-20.

Mitchell Miller : Bullying | Bruins | Hockeydb | Bully

Miller was taken in the fourth round of the 2020 round by the Arizona Coyotes. The Arizona Republic later reported that Miller four years earlier, at age 14, had admitted in an Ohio juvenile court to bullying a Black classmate who had developmental disabilities.

The classmate, Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, was tricked into licking a candy push pop that Miller and another boy had wiped in a bathroom urinal. Meyer-Crothers also told the newspaper that Miller had used racial slurs around him.

Soon after, the Coyotes renounced their rights to him and the University of North Dakota dismissed him. Miller didn’t play hockey last season.

The Storm said they decided, “after careful consideration,” to add Miller to the roster.

“We know Mitchell very well and we are convinced what happened when he was 14 isn’t indicative of his character or who he is now as a 19-year-old young man,” Anthony Noreen, the Storm’s head coach and president of hockey operations, said in a statement.

Mitchell Miller Bruins 

Mitchell Miller, a prospect whose draft rights were relinquished after it publicly surfaced that he and a classmate were convicted of abusing and bullying a developmentally disabled classmate, signed an entry-level contract Friday with the Boston Bruins.

Mitchell Miller : Bullying | Bruins | Hockeydb | Bully

The 20-year-old defenseman was a fourth-round selection of the Arizona Coyotes in 2020. Shortly after he was drafted, however, a report by the Arizona Republic detailed how Miller and another middle school classmate were convicted in juvenile court in 2016 of racially abusing and bullying Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, who is Black.

In the report, Meyer-Crothers’ mom alleged that Miller started abusing her son in second grade while also using repeated racial epithets.

“When I was in eighth grade, I made an extremely poor decision and acted very immaturely,” Miller said in a statement released by the Bruins on Friday.

“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.”

“… To be clear, what I did when I was 14 years old was wrong an 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.”

Hockeydb 

Starting in 2018, Miller played for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in the United States Hockey League (USHL).

Mitchell Miller : Bullying | Bruins | Hockeydb | Bully

He played two games during the 2017–18 season, and stayed with the team for the entire 2018–19 season.

During the season, he was called up to the United States men’s national junior ice hockey team to play in the 2018 World Junior A Challenge. After the end of the 2018–19 USHL season, Miller was traded to the Tri-City Storm.

Miller had committed to play for the Miami University men’s ice hockey team and was expected to join the Red Hawks for the 2019–20 season. However, he de-committed, and opted to spend the 2019–20 season playing for Tri-City, where he finished the season with 33 points.

He also earned an all-USHL first team selection, an honor bestowed on the best players in the league as determined by the votes of the league’s general managers.

He was once again called up to the United States junior team for the 2019 World Junior A Challenge where he had two goals and four assists in six games. In May 2020, Miller committed to play for the University of North Dakota men’s ice hockey team.

Mitchell Miller : Bullying | Bruins | Hockeydb | Bully

At the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, the Arizona Coyotes used their first pick (111th overall) to select Miller.

On October 29, 2020, the Coyotes renounced the draft rights to Miller. The next day, he was dropped from the University of North Dakota hockey team.

Bully

Miller was the Arizona Coyotes’ top pick in the NHL entry draft held earlier this month.

He was unceremoniously released on Thursday by the team a few weeks after being selected – and only days after the Coyotes defended their decision to draft him amid mounting controversy.

What needed to happen initially – and never did – was for the league, the team, an executive, a coach or somebody to connect with and hold space for Isaiah Meyer-Crothers.

Mitchell Miller : Bullying | Bruins | Hockeydb | Bully

Meyer-Crothers is the young man who at an Ohio junior high school in 2016 was given a lollipop that Miller and another boy, Hunter R McKee, rubbed in a urinal.

The boy wanted to be friends with Miller and McKie, so he accepted the candy and had to be tested for hepatitis, HIV and STDs, according to a police report.

The abuse didn’t end there. For years he was the target of their taunts, which included racial slurs. At the time of the abuse Meyer-Crothers had the mental ability of a 10-year-old.

Also the Arizona Republic first reported the abuse and anger quickly reverberated across social media. Miller’s lack of a sincere apology, and the many levels of failures within hockey come to light, including the team that regarded themselves as the saviors in Mitchell’s redemption arc.

By Rishabh

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