Well, this thread has been quite the ride! I'll leave my personal feelings on Miller aside for a moment, what I do find interesting is the narrative in this thread that playing the NHL is a "privilege" and that certain actions either can or should disqualify someone from said privilege.
I strongly disagree with that take. Maybe in a perfect world that's the way things SHOULD be, but it's not the reality we currently exist in.
NHL hockey, like all of pro sports, is a business and in order for your business to be successful in this particular sector, you need to win games. If a team believes a particular person can help their team win and said person is legally able to play for that team, that's really all there is to it. Of course team management has to consider things like dressing room suitability and fan impact before bringing in someone with a checkered past. But if we're being honest, NHL players aren't likely to blackball some guy because he has a history of bullying. And the fans, like management, really only care about winning.
Let's say the Bruins keep rolling, top of the league heading towards the playoffs, and they bring Miller up (obviously very unlikely this year, but I digress). Do you really think the rink would stop selling out? I don't. Fans of sporting teams around the world have proven they will support scumbags, if said scumbags can help their teams win.
Pro sports contacts aren't rewards for having lived good, decent and moral lives. They're simply given to people that are really good at sports. Miller very well may be a scumbag, but this narrative that he doesn't "deserve" an NHL contact is silly, imo.
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