[News] UPD: Coyotes renounce the rights to draft pick Mitchell Miller

[sureLoss]

https://www.nhl.com/coyotes/news/coy...er/c-319543540

The Arizona Coyotes announced today that the club has renounced the rights to Mitchell Miller. Miller was selected by the Coyotes in the fourth round (111th overall) of the 2020 NHL Draft.

"We have decided to renounce the rights to Mitchell Miller, effective immediately," said Coyotes' President & CEO Xavier Gutierrez. "Prior to selecting Mitchell in the NHL Draft, we were aware that a bullying incident took place in 2016. We do not condone this type of behavior but embraced this as a teachable moment to work with Mitchell to make him accountable for his actions and provide him with an opportunity to be a leader on anti-bullying and anti-racism efforts. We have learned more about the entire matter, and more importantly, the impact it has had on Isaiah and the Meyer-Crothers family. What we learned does not align with the core values and vision for our organization and leads to our decision to renounce our draft rights. On behalf of the Arizona Coyotes ownership and our entire organization, I would like to apologize to Isaiah and the Meyer-Crothers family. We are building a model franchise on and off the ice and will do the right thing for Isaiah and the Meyer-Crothers family, our fans and our partners. Mr. Miller is now a free agent and can pursue his dream of becoming an NHL player elsewhere."

"I fully support our decision to renounce Mitchell Miller's draft rights," said Coyotes' General Manager Bill Armstrong. "It was a unique situation for me not being able to participate in this year's Draft and we were going through a transition with our scouting department. Mitchell is a good hockey player, but we need to do the right thing as an organization and not just as a hockey team. I'd like to apologize to Isaiah and the Meyer-Crothers family for everything they have dealt with the past few months. I wish them all the best in the future."

The Coyotes top priority is to be a leader on diversity, inclusion and equity and the club will continue to work with numerous local organizations including Best Buddies, One Step Beyond and the American Special Hockey Association to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In addition, the Coyotes and the Arizona Coyotes Foundation will look to partner with local non-profit organizations fighting bullying and racism.

[dustygoon]

It was....

Let's draft a kid that needs a 2nd chance but we handled the PR a little badly.

And now it's.....

Since we lost draft picks for being underhanded, we need to replenish by grabbing the best talent we can with 3rd pick. Let's chose a loser with bad character out of desperation. But we underestimated the reaction. We look bad, so let's rescind the pick.

What a pathetic organization.

[dobbles]

Originally Posted by cannon7

No one here said anything like this. I don't know who these comments are directed, but they're not in this thread.

I got the impression he was reacting to the first sentence of the previous post where lannys daman said he had tried writing the post several times and deleted because he felt too emotional. I inferred that Azure was telling him not to worry about coming across that way.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Yowzers. Quite the development.

Feels like they're just doing it now due to the backlash. What an organization.

[ComixZone]

I am optimistic that this will be a big message to kids, and more importantly in my eyes - their parents - that if you/your kids have aspirations to climb to the highest heights, being a good person is the absolute first step and one that you can not skip.

I do not care how the Coyotes handled this before today, but they have done their part and sent a heavy message throughout the hockey community today.

[AustinL_NHL]

How ironic that the Arizona Coyotes, who were heavily sanctioned for scouting violations, made one of, if not the dumbest pick of the 2000s with their very first pick of the draft.

Joke of an organization.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

https://www.nhl.com/coyotes/news/coy...er/c-319543540

Huh? Way to soften this up:

"Prior to selecting Mitchell in the NHL Draft, we were aware that a bullying incident took place in 2016.

From this:

Meyer-Crothers, also 18 and who now lives in Detroit, said Miller had taunted him for years, constantly calling him "brownie" and the "N-word," while repeatedly hitting him while growing up in the Toledo suburb.

[jayswin]

Why do organizations do these things? It's like when the Flames immediately stopped paying their low income staff who needed every pay cheque as soon as Covid hit, then waited for the inevitable backlash then did the right thing.

Except now everyone knows you didn't want to do the right thing to save money and now you still have to spend the money and keep the lost goodwill.

[tvp2003]

They should invite Isaiah to attend camp when things re-open and sign him to a one day contract. Then they can apologize to him directly and in person, something this turd never bothered to do.

[Mitch]

Good, #### this guy. Sad that i even share the same name as him. POS.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

I am optimistic that this will be a big message to kids, and more importantly in my eyes - their parents - that if you/your kids have aspirations to climb to the highest heights, being a good person is the absolute first step and one that you can not skip.

I do not care how the Coyotes handled this before today, but they have done their part and sent a heavy message throughout the hockey community today.

I said previously I was rooting against Miller so long as he didn't do right by his victim, so this result feels right to me, but what you've said here feels like a much more important part of it.

Yes, there are posts saying "they should have helped him" and "they're just going this because of bad PR" and I get it. But at the end of the day this is now about more than Miller, how he handles this is up to him whether he learns and grows from it or falls further off the right path, and it's about more than PR.

This is a message that should be heard by every young player with a dream of playing in the NHL. Be the best person you can be, treat those around you right, and do not expect that torturing others, bullying, hazing, racism and all things like them are excusable if you want to make it to the NHL. They are not welcome, and people who engage in these things will not be welcome.

[shogged]

Optics are still awful but this was the right move by the coyotes.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I would’ve preferred if they would have taken responsibility to try and make things right instead of just cutting ties.

Now they get to wash their hands of this and move on. Everyone in this situation is now worse off than they were before. The coyotes could have at least attempted to try and rectify the situation.

I don’t see how the coyotes can be applauded for this move.

[mikeecho]

Originally Posted by mikeecho

I’ve seen some scouting reports suggesting Miller was a 2nd round talent but would likely go as low as the 5th due to his history. Without a pick until the 4th and a draft team in a state of disorganization with new guys coming in, the GM unable to participate, etc... as you have noted, I think someone saw an opportunity to get a steal of a pick. They were obviously hoping the players history would stay under the radar and remain history otherwise I think they would have tried to get ahead of the story. If things get too radioactive, it’d be pretty easy to hang the decision on someone else.

I also feel like it’s unfortunate that the Shane Doan news seems to be dropped in to distract from the story.

I think if the Coyotes had their crap together and still wanted the player, they...
- make the pick
- address the player history right away
- talk about why they think he’s now on the right track as a human
- talk about how mentorship is important and that they’re bringing in one of the teams greatest leaders to help mentor the new wave of young Coyotes
- talk about the opportunity this gives the Coyotes to do in the community

Do that upfront and the story looks a lot different and maybe a genuine story about rehabilitation.

"I fully support our decision to renounce Mitchell Miller's draft rights," said Coyotes' General Manager Bill Armstrong. "It was a unique situation for me not being able to participate in this year's Draft and we were going through a transition with our scouting department.

[kyuss275]

Originally Posted by shogged

Optics are still awful but this was the right move by the coyotes.

I’m not convinced they did the right thing. They had a chance to help a human being see the errors of his ways. Instead they chose that the PR was more important than helping a kid out. Don’t get me wrong they should never have picked the kid to begin with.

[bdubbs]

The only one who can help Mitchell Miller is himself.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by kyuss275

I’m not convinced they did the right thing. They had a chance to help a human being see the errors of his ways. Instead they chose that the PR was more important than helping a kid out. Don’t get me wrong they should never have picked the kid to begin with.

They should have done the following:

1. speak with the victim and his family. Evaluate what the org and the player could do to rectify this, if anything.

2. Conduct extensive background on the player, including interviews and if necessary mandated meetings with a behaviour therapist.

3. Taken time to evaluate 1 and 2 to come up with a comprehensive plan of action, up to and including cutting ties with the player.

4. Done their best to help the victim, based solely on the fact they drafter this kid without doing their homework, regardless of how steps 1-3 turned out.


Instead this will get buried and we likely never hear about it again.

[jg13]

Dumb pick by the Yotes to begin with and they thought they could get away with it. The backlash from the internet once again prevails and rightfully so.

[dammage79]

Better late than never. And if the Coyotes didn't do this after such a massive backlash that would have been even worse.

Lord knows what they dug up as well. Sounds like they knew about the incident but didn't really look too deep. And when they did, along with the public outcry took the right course of action. Seemed like they were keen on helping him change but maybe the closer they looked they understood that wasn't going to happen.

So long, good riddance punk.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I would’ve preferred if they would have taken responsibility to try and make things right instead of just cutting ties.

Now they get to wash their hands of this and move on. Everyone in this situation is now worse off than they were before. The coyotes could have at least attempted to try and rectify the situation.

I don’t see how the coyotes can be applauded for this move.

It sucks that this kid is the one to pay the price in a vacuum - but change is rarely calm/peaceful/without a price paid.

At the end of the day, the kid and his parents are the ones at fault and in refusing to apologize privately, they've been held accountable publicly. Awful thing to happen to any kid, but hopefully his penalty will help correct a culture that we all know has some ugliness in it. The "optics" of it don't matter and people shouldn't give a !@#$ about that part of it. The important part of this all is the message being sent, and that's where the focus should be in my eyes.