Boston Bruins officially terminate contract of Mitchell Miller

The Boston Bruins have officially terminated the contract of defenseman Mitchell Miller, according to Larry Brooks of the New York Post.

Miller, 21, was signed to a three-year, entry-level contract with an $861,667 cap hit by the Bruins on November 4th, 2022. It was a deal that was met with immediate criticism from not only fans and media, but players on the team as well, immediately dissociating that group from the signing and the defenseman due to his previous history.

The Bruins eventually rescinded the signing, sending Miller home after he was originally supposed to play for their AHL team, the Providence Bruins. Along with that, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced that Miller was not eligible to play in the NHL, adding that they were not consulted by the Bruins before making the signing.

However, despite reports that his contract was terminated at that time, it wasn’t officially terminated until Saturday, and was even still listed on the Bruins contract lists on both CapFriendly and PuckPedia. According to Brooks, the NHLPA filed a grievance for the situation, with Miller and the Bruins reaching a settlement where the Bruins were relieved of all obligations of Miller while he got an unknown sum and was granted free agency.

Miller has been met with consistent negative backlash from the hockey world due to a plethora of instances in high school of ableist and racially-motivated bullying of a developmentally challenged classmate named Isaiah Meyer-Crothers. Miller pled guilty to one count of assault and one count of violating the Ohio Safe Schools Act at the age of 14 due to his bullying of Meyer-Crothers.

Miller had apparently apologized to the family of Meyer-Crothers, which was the reason why the Bruins initially made the signing, but Meyer-Crothers later told the Bruins that it was only through social media. Meyer-Crothers released this statement on his experiences with Miller and Miller’s “apology” through the Hockey Diversity Alliance shortly after the Bruins made the signing.

Miller was originally a 4th-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes in 2020. However, news of his bullying history and criminal record had surfaced only a few weeks after the draft, leading to the Coyotes renouncing the pick.