Bruins general manager Don Sweeney has been creative about addressing the organization’s lack of prospects. He signed Marc McLaughlin and Georgii Merkulov as college free agents. He acquired the rights to Mike Callahan from the Coyotes.
Creativity is encouraged in team building. An absence of principle is not.
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Let’s be real: The only reason the Bruins signed Mitchell Miller to an entry-level contract Friday is that he scored a lot of points as a defenseman in the USHL last season. The 20-year-old is the kind of pace-pushing defenseman who fills an organizational need. The Bruins don’t have many players who fit that profile. Whether it’s bad drafting, not enough picks or a poor job of development depends on your perspective.
The bottom line is that the Bruins are short on players with upside. On the ice, Miller’s history says he has that. In 2021-22, he scored 39 goals and 44 assists in 60 games for the Tri-City Storm. It’s a lot of points, perhaps signaling a future as an NHL power-play quarterback.
The Bruins have signed Mitchell Miller to an entry-level contract, the team announced Friday.
The controversial defenseman had his draft status revoked in 2020 after it was revealed he had been convicted in juvenile court of bullying.https://t.co/oLtz5Qopxi
— The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) November 4, 2022
“Had a tremendous offensive season last year in the USHL as an older player in that league,” Sweeney said. “His production, offensively, the power play, his ability to generate up the ice, shoot the puck and be part of the offense, gives him an opportunity and a chance as a professional. We’re going to work with him on the defending part of the game. He was a transitioned forward that moved back to defense. We’re going to teach him to understand how to play defense and use his offensive attributes and hockey acumen.
“I think he has a chance to be an NHL player. He has attributes that certainly translate to the new style of game.”
This, of course, does not factor in the noxiousness that led to 31 other NHL teams ignoring Miller’s on-ice talent. It does not factor in Miller’s history of repeated and acknowledged mistreatment of Isaiah Meyer-Crothers. It does not factor in the time Miller made Meyer-Crothers lick a push pop that had been in a urinal, though Sweeney did mention repeatedly that Miller was 14 and in eighth grade when that happened.
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The Bruins would not have considered a pitch from an average stay-at-home USHL defenseman with uncertain NHL talent and that background.
But they decided to give Miller a second chance because he has the potential to put up points in the NHL.
It is a shallow and low-character pursuit of hockey talent. Being a good person should have been held in higher regard. Whether Miller has made steps in that direction is unknown. Sweeney himself seemed uncertain of it.
“I can’t categorically say this is the absolute right decision,” said Sweeney, a father of twin boys. “This is an opportunity that we’re providing for a young man that is going to work to continue to earn trust and respect, as each and every one of us do every day. My own personal judgment on this wasn’t the final say. It was just part of the equation. But having spent time with him and having a clear understanding of the direction he’d like to take his life in, I felt if other teams were going to be willing to give him — I’m not going to speak for other teams — a chance, I think we all have to look in the mirror and say, ‘Why wouldn’t we be willing to give him a chance?’
“I’ve also come to the understanding that I don’t think forgiveness is part of this. Because if that had happened to one of my own children, I can’t categorically say that I would have (forgiven it). But I would also applaud somebody that if you were willing to welcome somebody back for a second chance, you’ve got to walk that walk.”
It is also a transaction that flies in the face of a chorus the Bruins have repeatedly preached: culture. Coach Jim Montgomery has been behind the bench for only 11 games. But 10 wins in, he has recognized that how his players treat people is not a small reason for their best-in-show start.
Now Montgomery and the players have to answer for the signing of a 20-year-old whose NHL arrival is not imminent, if at all. That is not something the first-place Bruins want. They do not need blemishes to dull what should be a moment of organizational sparkle.
Wrote about Mitchell Miller and the Bruins' stupid, ugly, unsurprising decision. Mask off for the NHL, yet again.https://t.co/Nkc9trYNyo
— Sean Gentille (@seangentille) November 4, 2022
“Walking away would have been the much easier decision in this regard,” Sweeney said. “A little less about hockey as we all like to make our hockey decisions and what might be best for the organization. This was a lot more in-depth. I think Mitchell understands the gravity of the decision that each and every one of us — but collectively, most importantly, as an organization — has made to allow him to move forward with his professional career and his personal development. We’re now going to support, push and stretch a young man that, at 14 years old in the eighth grade, made a very immature, misguided and reprehensible act.
“But the easier decision would have been to walk away.”
Walking away wouldn’t have just been easier. It would have been the right thing to do.
(Top photo of Don Sweeney: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
