But he is ineligible?
If a team tried to sign a player draft-eligible player before the draft, thus he was ineligible, in addition to probably being sanctioned heavily, wouldnt the contract be voided because he was ineligible?
Bruins sign Mitchell Miller to an ELC - now "parting ways"
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
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If a team tried to sign a player draft-eligible player before the draft, thus he was ineligible, in addition to probably being sanctioned heavily, wouldnt the contract be voided because he was ineligible?
Yes they are. They are qualifying what his second chance entails. Which makes it not a second chance.
As noted before, I am not opining on Miller, but rather the assertation that ‘people deserve a second chance but not in a certain area.’
The Bruins really stepped in it. I don’t see the upside of alienating your team’s player leadership and fan base over an averagish prospect.
I was one of those people. And as I noted above I certainly am not trying to claim I’m “right.” What I’m still working through and processing is, for me in this situation, I think Miller deserves a second chance at leading a life where he doesn’t have to be haunted daily everywhere he goes by transgressions when he was a teenager. Assuming he shows progression as a human, and contrition, I think he would certainly deserve that much. That’s his right, as a human.
But as others have asserted playing professional hockey is a privilege, and it feels to me that he’s lost that privilege. ill end with two “that saids…”
1. That said, if he doesn’t show progression/contrition he doesn’t ever deserve a chance at a normal life, he should be haunted by the heinous acts he committed.
2. That said, I’m not dying on the hill I wrote above. It’s a complex situation, and I’m still working through how I feel about it personally.
Bettman is making it up as he goes. Miller was a free agent signed to a contract that central registry accepted. The commissioner can’t say “well actually he’s ineligible” after the fact.
The league could’ve made him ineligible for selection during his draft year. They didn’t. After the Coyotes renounced his rights they could’ve said any future employment opportunities in the league were subject to league approval. They didn’t.
Friedman also says the Bruins did tip off the league to say they were likely going to sign him. The league appears to have not taken them seriously and “likely is a lot different than actually signing” Just another one Gary lied/made up today.
Second chances are earned with action, not owed over time. They absolutely should have qualifications because people should not be allowed unfettered access to harm again.
It is not enough that Mitchell Miller has stayed out of trouble since. Mitchell Miller needs to do work with groups representing disabled kids and youth bullying and show that he has changed and that he will never commit that abuse again. Until he does, he should not be anywhere near the NHL or Bruins. Simply based on his lack of corrective action, I would not trust Miller to be around disabled children.
Those conditions are justified and are reasonable. He needs to take action to show restorative intent and effect, and that action will earn him a second chance. To make clear, if Mitchell does that work and has the positive effect I mentioned, I will not just step aside, but I will be an advocate for him returning to the NHL. I want to encourage people changing for the positive by doing the work.
View: https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1589056640682426368
Kyrie's buffoonery is on his what, 9th chance? Regardless of what chance he is on, I think that a clear guide for the actions he can take to restore good standing is approprite. He need to show change and should have his status restored after he has shown it. If he doesn't, he shouldn't be back in the NBA.
Kyrie's buffoonery is on his what, 9th chance? Regardless of what chance he is on, I think that a clear guide for the actions he can take to restore good standing is approprite. He need to show change and should have his status restored after he has shown it. If he doesn't, he shouldn't be back in the NBA.
I think I’ve spent the last day in avoidant denial about this in a way - while my overwhelming feeling on this is about accountability and the awful things Miller did, the spectacle (for lack of a better word) of the team doing something so stupid kind of blunted my actual negative feelings on it for the last day. I was avoiding embrace of the disgust in favor of aghast surprise that Sweeney could be so foolish because I wanted as much as possible to avoid thinking about the implications at hand. Chanel’s video really just snapped me back to reality.
Mitchell Miller shouldn’t be a member of the Bruins organization right now. I sincerely hope he actually isn’t by this time next week.
Mitchell Miller shouldn’t be a member of the Bruins organization right now. I sincerely hope he actually isn’t by this time next week.
With the absolute cluster F of both of these stories, I'm not prepared to say "this doesn't belong here"
I’m not sure I follow McBride. Are you saying once a second chance is “earned,” it can’t be qualified?
For example, what about a teacher that molests a child. The teacher is arrested, convicted, does jail time, and released. Should we allow that individual right back in the classroom? Or can we qualify it. You’ve served you jail time and have earned the right to rejoin society. But we’re not going to let you back in the classroom just because that’s your desired profession.
He’s literally already done that. You’re so quick to say he hasn’t done enough when you won’t actually read what it is he’s done.
That’s a very specific example where the crime committee has a direct impact on the teacher’s ability to do his/her job moving forward. This is not that and his actions have no impact on his hockey playing ability.
I tend to disagree with everyone that brings up Chara and how he definitely wouldn't have accepted this. Do you all honestly think that when Chara came in and began the no-bullying, no-hazing policy that he ended up getting the Bruins to kick off everyone on the team that had a history of it in their entire lives? I think, that Chara, as a good LEADER, would say "ok, what's done in past is in the past, but this is how it's going to be now, and if you have a problem with it, you and I will have a talk and I will tell you why you shouldn't be a piece of shit, or you will have to answer to Mr Left and Mr Right.".
Like, giving people second chances (to some extent) is what being a leader is about in my opinion.
I also don't get why people are conveniently skipping the part where Miller was mandated NOT to have any contact with the victim.
I hate that I'm defending someone who did something despicable over 7 years to a boy, and I probably wouldn't have cared about him at all if it didn't involve the Bruins. And selfishly, I would rather the Bruins not have to deal with him or the PR hit they should rightfully get. But attempting to look at it from a neutral perspective, I mean, jeez, are we so willing to write off someone over something they did as a kid/young teenager? All based on the words of the mother of the victim, who is absolutely in her right to have the feelings she has?
Also, way too many people are going off of incomplete information. @TSC posted a very telling article way earlier that, at the very least, tells a totally different story about what Miller has done since he got caught than what everyone is hearing from the victim's mother from what sounded like a fairly impartial inverviewer.
Like, giving people second chances (to some extent) is what being a leader is about in my opinion.
I also don't get why people are conveniently skipping the part where Miller was mandated NOT to have any contact with the victim.
I hate that I'm defending someone who did something despicable over 7 years to a boy, and I probably wouldn't have cared about him at all if it didn't involve the Bruins. And selfishly, I would rather the Bruins not have to deal with him or the PR hit they should rightfully get. But attempting to look at it from a neutral perspective, I mean, jeez, are we so willing to write off someone over something they did as a kid/young teenager? All based on the words of the mother of the victim, who is absolutely in her right to have the feelings she has?
Also, way too many people are going off of incomplete information. @TSC posted a very telling article way earlier that, at the very least, tells a totally different story about what Miller has done since he got caught than what everyone is hearing from the victim's mother from what sounded like a fairly impartial inverviewer.
Bettman is making a mockery of the CBA and potentially contracting law so he is in no way in the right. He’s literally making shit up to get some good PR. How he’s acting is a joke for a commissioner.
Bettman can’t do that retroactively. If he was ineligible they should’ve let that be known prior to any contract conversations took place. They can’t let the team sign him, accept the contract at central registry and then 24 hours later say he’s actually ineligible.
Would anyone be surprised if Bettman comes up with something like Double Secret Probation as why Miller is ineligible?
This is right. They shouldn’t have accepted and registered the contract if he actually was ineligible. It’s a bullshit, arbitrary, changing of the rules on the fly now. Complete abuse of his power, that he should be called out for. Unfortunately, many are celebrating him, and letting their emotional reaction to the signing cloud their judgement. Completely fair to attack the Bruins for it. Completely wrong for the league to be doing this post hoc, image washing.
The “why” doesn’t matter. He’s been in the organization for 48-hours. What are they going to do say he failed a drug test or something?
There was a simple solution here. At any point, going back to his draft year, they could’ve said any future employment with an NHL team was subject to commissioner approval. They didn’t do that. Now they are making this upas the go.
There was a simple solution here. At any point, going back to his draft year, they could’ve said any future employment with an NHL team was subject to commissioner approval. They didn’t do that. Now they are making this upas the go.
This story should be a source of shame to both this kid's family and to an entire community around him as well, to a degree.
It is one thing to have a bully where the kid is himself a bit of a 'hard knocks life' case and so the bullying is a response to a bad childhood. It is a whole other thing when it is early childhood sadism and lack of empathy enabled and developed over years in a "chosen one" kid punching down, with no consequences along the way.
There has got to be, almost by definition, countless people who looked the other way, laughed along with him, enabled and tacitly validated this behavior. I'm not at all trying to minimize Miller's own responsibility, but good lord, the idea that this started in first grade and went into middle school without multiple points of hellfire reckoning from adults and without other kids with a moral compass showing that they are keeping their distance from this psycho is itself damning.
It is one thing to have a bully where the kid is himself a bit of a 'hard knocks life' case and so the bullying is a response to a bad childhood. It is a whole other thing when it is early childhood sadism and lack of empathy enabled and developed over years in a "chosen one" kid punching down, with no consequences along the way.
There has got to be, almost by definition, countless people who looked the other way, laughed along with him, enabled and tacitly validated this behavior. I'm not at all trying to minimize Miller's own responsibility, but good lord, the idea that this started in first grade and went into middle school without multiple points of hellfire reckoning from adults and without other kids with a moral compass showing that they are keeping their distance from this psycho is itself damning.
This is exactly right.
It's not like Miller lived in a bubble where only his parent(s) and/or guardian(s) were involved in his life. He had teachers. He had coaches. If he grew up like the majority of kids do, he also likely had some kind of religious guidance in his life.
That no one stepped in for so long is a community failure. One continued by the Bruins front office. Because, unfortunately, physical talent matters more to some people than character
OK. Does he deserve precisely the same level of scrutiny and opportunity to be a Walmart greeter and the head of the DOJ Civil Rights Division?
Of course he is going to receive more scrutiny. That shouldn’t preclude him from pursuing a career. More scrutiny just means more oversight into his actions now to see if he has actually reformed.
But I was assured by people on this site he hadn’t done shit, and there was no way he was sincere in his efforts.
What does Eustace King know?
What does Eustace King know?
Really? You don’t think he’d rightly be shit out of luck for the DOJ job, regardless of how many hours he had spent working with developmentally challenged black youth in the past year?
So semi-honest question: should I be calling for Neely to be fired or for this kid to be getting a second chance?
Edit: after research the statement from King is basically a PR punch-up of the community service work he was ordered to do and not evidence of actual work.
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Por que no los dos? The kid should be given a second chance. Neely should be fired for giving it to him, when there was literally no upside to doing so.
I honestly wish that King had come out with a statement on Friday when the contract was announced.
Yeesh, it's not going great in the comments section of Twitter, as folks are pointing out that at least two of the organizations that King cited were part of Miller's court ordered community service. Another organization has chimed in to state that Miller ignored their invites. I hate that the Bruins are involved in this mess.
View: https://twitter.com/schiele1914/status/1589298745232924672?t=G3Gj4yHqgoOwKf1jKJ0BWA&s=19
View: https://twitter.com/JustOneMeg/status/1589299755930484736?t=kSBRpL5cFmeP61gftlINqw&s=19
View: https://twitter.com/jenspecialhock1/status/1589297199779045381?t=mSy9uK_30eBHM8zRx-Jrsw&s=19
View: https://twitter.com/schiele1914/status/1589298745232924672?t=G3Gj4yHqgoOwKf1jKJ0BWA&s=19
View: https://twitter.com/JustOneMeg/status/1589299755930484736?t=kSBRpL5cFmeP61gftlINqw&s=19
View: https://twitter.com/jenspecialhock1/status/1589297199779045381?t=mSy9uK_30eBHM8zRx-Jrsw&s=19
Why would they do that though? Did you even read what was written by his management company?
There’s a LOT of people, who every time something new is posted to show that this kid is working towards being better, immediately disregard it without factual basis, just indignant outrage.
People want this kid to fail, and suffer, and will listen to no one trying to say “hey maybe this kid actually is trying.”
I’m sure one of the few black agents in the NHL would cover for, and lie, to enable a mid prospect at best, if they actually were a raging racist who has shown no interest in being better.
Yeah, I read what they wrote. They represent this guy, right? Want him to have a career, make some money so they make some money?
I think his management company has an interest in improving Miller's image and it is OK to be skeptical and fact check what they have put out. If he did the work, it can be verified. I don't think anyone has to to take what the management company says at face value and that's ok. Certainly nothing to get upset about. Trust if you want, but verify, right?
But you didn't really answer the question. If it turns out that some of this is eyewash, does it matter to you?
Of course. If his agent is lying. And the reporter who interviewed him two years ago who verified his volunteer work is lying. And the USHL coach who said he was active in volunteering is lying. Of course I’ll think the kid is a massive piece of shit, and recant my support that he’s putting in the effort to change.
But that’s a lot of people lying and covering for sometime who does not deserve a single bit of it.
I don't think it matters if the player is sincere or is lying about any efforts toward self-improvement. As we've seen, it was a certainty that there would be a strong negative reaction to signing a player with this history regardless of any restorative efforts after the fact.
Why create this shitstorm?
The Bruins aren't some fringe team that needs to look the other way to sign a player with some upside and a terrible backstory. Cut him, apologize, eat the contract if need be, and move forward.
Why create this shitstorm?
The Bruins aren't some fringe team that needs to look the other way to sign a player with some upside and a terrible backstory. Cut him, apologize, eat the contract if need be, and move forward.
You keep ignoring the volunteer work as mandated by the court doesn't count. It actually speaks to a major complaint about him that it seems a huge portion of the "community" work his defenders keep trying to claim to pad his stats is stuff that was court mandated. Which goes to the whole, the kid only seems to do stuff when it matters to getting his career back.
Eustace is doing a huge bit of lying by omission by throwing in the court mandate community service to burnish the volunteer work.
I’m not ignoring it.
1.) That he did mandated volunteer work for them doesn’t mean he didn’t continue doing non-mandated volunteer work for them.
2.) the article I linked, that people for some reason continue to refuse to read or acknowledge, talks quite a bit about the volunteer work he’s done SINCE completing his required volunteer work.
How much was volunteer work vs court mandated work? You are acting like you have some sense given your use of “huge portion” where in reality you’re making shit up to fit your narrative.
I’m begging, on bent knee, for people to read this interview before they continue to comment on something they’ve done little to no research on.
https://azcoyotesinsider.substack.com/p/mitchell-miller-addresses-his-past
https://azcoyotesinsider.substack.com/p/mitchell-miller-addresses-his-past
I see that he did his court ordered community service, his USHL team's community outreach activities (voluntary, to his credit! But which ever junior league team does), and "hoped to" work with a guy at UND (but apparently did not?).
I can't pretend to know whether that means he's rehabilitated and I honestly don't know how any of us could make that determination, but I'm not seeing anything above and beyond what's been pointed out in this thread.
Edit: sorry, didn't see your last post. I really don't have a strong opinion as to Miller's post-judicial activities, to be honest. I just wish I wasn't spending my tiny brain's energy on this kid.
Your perspective has been valuable. I think it comes down to, we shouldn't even be in this position. The signing was dumb and the entire situation is a shitshow. There was no need to sign this kid, I'm sure there have been kids that have gone undrafted for less.
I think we can both agree that two things can be true here: he deserves a second chance, but that playing in the NHL is a privilege. He's not talented enough for the Bruins to put themselves on the line like this, just a complete unforced error.
Now that they have, hopefully they can both turn this into a positive.