Arizona Coyotes (NHL) top draft pick was convicted for bullying Black, mentally disabled teen [up: dropped from team]

[Minthara]

Thread title comes from full article linked below.

This news is making the rounds in the hockey world and is quite frankly gross that the team drafted him, nevermind the absolute PR move put on by both this kid and his parents by sending apology letters to the whole league but not apologizing to the actual victim.

Four years ago, Miller admitted in an Ohio juvenile court to bullying Meyer-Crothers, who was tricked into licking a candy push pop that Miller and another boy had wiped in a bathroom urinal.Meyer-Crothers had to be tested for hepatitis, HIV and STDs, but the tests came back negative, according to a police report.

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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. Other students at their junior high confirmed to police that Miller repeatedly used the "N-word" in referring to Meyer-Crothers.

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"It was absolutely brutal," she said. "Had he not pled guilty, the video would have been released. It would have been so much worse on Mitchell because of the brutality to our son … He's smashing Isaiah's head against a brick wall."

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Fun fact: the GM that drafted this kid is on the NHL's Executive Inclusion Group.

Full article here

Absolutely disgusting.

EDIT: To add even more to this stupidity, the kid doing the bullying has a history of repeatedly tormenting this kid:

"The biggest problem I have is [Mitchell] has been bullying Isaiah since he was in second grade, so I thought he'd have a more severe punishment," said Joni Meyer-Crothers, Isaiah's mother. "I truly believe Hunter is remorseful. I don't think Mitchell is remorseful at all, in my opinion. Him rollerblading by our house is a taunt. It's like him saying, 'I may not be at school, but I'm still here.'

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[dr.rocktopus]

Once again we assemble to note how shitty the NHL is.

Gotta love how Black players like Duclair, Subban, Aliu etc are all pilled on/traded/stuck in the minors for "character issues", but then the white player gets a chance at redemption. Fuck outta here with that shit.

This league is too satisfied with pretending to do things and apologizing when caught red-handed than actually taking lessons from their mistakes.

 

[Minthara]

Once again we assemble to note how shitty the NHL is.

Gotta love how Black players like Duclair, Subban, Aliu etc are all pilled on/traded/stuck in the minors for "character issues", but then the white player gets a chance at redemption. Fuck outta here with that shit.

This league is too satisfied with pretending to do things and apologizing when caught red-handed than actually taking lessons from their mistakes.

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I think the worst part of this whole thing is that there were hundreds of other players available at the draft, they had to draft THIS one with their first pick of the entire draft. It was the perfect time to send a message and have no team draft this asshole but nope, one team has to not give a shit about rewarding racism.

 

[Huntersknoll]

Yo fuck this guy. Get him out of the NHL

 

[Violence Jack]

God, reading that just brought back some painful memories for me when I was bullied and harassed by white kids. I'm not much of an NHL fan to begin with, but I've really gotten tired of the hockey world's treatment of black players. If he stays, I have no remorse hoping that someone takes him out during a game.

 

[CitizenVectron]

Money rules all of this. The best thing people can do is continue to shame the team, but also to boycott them.

 

[Richiek]

Four years ago, Miller admitted in an Ohio juvenile court to bullying Meyer-Crothers, who was tricked into licking a candy push pop that Miller and another boy had wiped in a bathroom urinal.Meyer-Crothers had to be tested for hepatitis, HIV and STDs, but the tests came back negative, according to a police report.

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Jesus fucking Christ.

 

[Precious Tritium]

Just absolutely terrible.

He's not really a top pick, only because the Coyotes had to be stripped of their 2nd round pick for violating combine rules. He was picked in the 4th round the likelihood is incredibly low he'll even play in the NHL, so the decision to not cut him loose is something.

 

[Minthara]

Just absolutely terrible.

He's not really a top pick, only because the Coyotes had to be stripped of their 2nd round pick for violating combine rules. He was picked in the 4th round the likelihood is incredibly low he'll even play in the NHL, so the decision to not cut him loose is something.

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I feel like that can be built on with two thoughts:

1) Since the Coyotes picked him, even if they never sign him another team might try and pick him up under the radar, meaning the Coyotes take all the PR hit for this and other teams can hope this whole thing blows over by the time his rights expire.

2) Any form of entry-level contract this kid signs, if it is at the NHL level, will be worth about a million dollars. The message sent here is clear: This kid's dreams of playing in the NHL take precedence over a kid he tormented for years.

Which is why I feel extra gross about this.

 

[OrangeNova]

Racism, in the NHL? Never. /s

But seriously fuck this guy, the NHL is notoriously racist, did some racism watchdog dissolve when trying to tackle the NHL because they refused to implement any meaningful change?

 

[TheDestructiveSquirrel]

Youth and minor hockey management and culture needs to be purged, absolutely disgusting what goes on without punishmemt

 

[Minthara]

From the Editor at EliteProspects:

Spoiler: Text Version

Some of the teams I spoke with going into the draft had some pretty not great things to say about Miller and the way he represented himself. Concerns that neither Miller nor his representation were willing to be forthright or engage in this topic were routine.
I made numerous efforts to talk with Miller's camp myself, and let's just say that I got absolutely nowhere — I'll leave it at that. The teams who did speak with Miller were... not impressed. Many got the sense he felt no remorse for the incident in question. Not good!

Proof that this problem was with multiple teams, Arizona is just the one that drafted him:

Spoiler: Text Version

While we are — rightly — raking Arizona over the coals for the Mitchell Miller pick this morning, in the interest of posterity, & without making a value judgement here, just presenting information — no way Miller would've made it out of the fifth-round. That was my sense.
https://twitter.com/JDylanBurke?ref.../iframe/2/twitter.min.html1320776000058224641
I spoke to a handful of teams who had no interest in drafting him. Spoke to a few others who were wary but held him in that esteem. Rightly or wrongly, that's where it seemed like he was headed in the 2020 draft.

 

[HomokHarcos]

He should never play in the NHL. Actually, maybe he should even be in prison.

 

[Deleted member 1659]

Arizona was in a really tight spot this year. The team had several of their draft picks taken away because their prior GM committed illegal recruiting violations. On top of that they already traded picks as a part of the Taylor Hall trade which didn't work out as Hall didn't Re-sign with them.

In a normal year they typically would pass on this guy.

 

[Reckheim]

At least according to elite prospects he was supposed to be ranked in the 2nd round. Looks like a number of teams passed on him for at least 2 rounds.

IMO Arizona was desperate and that was the best guy (skill wise) on the board at the time and they were hoping no one would notice.

Wonder whats going on with the organisation. First the combine thing, then Chayka quits on the team and now this.

 

[Cotton McKnight]

Geez, the Yotes just can't buy a win at any point of what a NHL team needs to succeed in. Feeling bad for Bill Armstrong and the horrible situation he is coming into.

 

[Lakeside]

One important thing to note, Arizona hired Bill Armstrong (Blues) to become the new GM of the team. The stipulation however, he could not participate in the 2020 draft in any fashion. He had been in charge of scouting for the Blues, thus pretty integral to the draft process.

Now that the draft is in the past, he's charged with cleaning up the organization. This will make for a good popcorn moment.

This doesn't excuse the pick, but the organization was essentially declared a disaster and this draft fell between dumpster fire and clean-up effort by definition. I also feel like the headline was click-bait a bit. A casual look would have one believe this was either one of, or the top pick in the draft. In reality it was pretty late (111th).

 

[SindbadtheSailor]

Yeah, late pick and all but that regardless, this was not a person that deserved the apparent honour of being drafted. The lack of ethics in professional sports is embarrassing especially since they lick to play up the warrior angle.

 

[Huey]

Fucking piece of trash. The serial nature of it should definitely mean the end of his NHL prospects.

 

[Alucrid]

Mitchell sent a letter to every NHL team acknowledging what happened and apologizing for his behavior.

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oh well that fixes it. he apologized to the people that really deserve it.

 

[Xeonidus]

Awful. This kid makes it to the nhl and he will probably become a millionaire eventually. Meanwhile his victim will live with his wounds.

 

[firehawk12]

Once again we assemble to note how shitty the NHL is.

Gotta love how Black players like Duclair, Subban, Aliu etc are all pilled on/traded/stuck in the minors for "character issues", but then the white player gets a chance at redemption. Fuck outta here with that shit.

This league is too satisfied with pretending to do things and apologizing when caught red-handed than actually taking lessons from their mistakes.

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Yep, pretty much.

 

[JuicyPlayer]

The Coyotes are a terrible franchise and should be moved to Quebec City just for this garbage.

 

[mreddie]

The Coyotes are a terrible franchise and should be moved to Quebec City just for this garbage.

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As said above, other teams were gonna pick him, Yotes just picked him first.

Yotes offseason has been a mess.

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

Lemme just head on over to HFBoards and see the fine people there condemn this repul...

oh, "boys will be boys". "He was only 14!11!" ...

Fuck the Nazis at that site. Fuck hockey culture. Fuck a sport that is bigoted as fuck and filled with shit human beings and even shittier white trash fans.

 

[rsfour]

Trashy as fuck. Dude shouldn't even be on the ice, regardless of league. Should be locked up.

 

[chimpsteaks]

His team will help him make a statement about how he regrets the actions he made when he was too young to know better and that it's not representative of who he is, and then he'll face no repercussions. They may even make a token donation to an anti bullying organization. The only thing they won't do is cut him from the team.

 

[Minthara]

His team will help him make a statement about how he regrets the actions he made when he was too young to know better and that it's not representative of who he is, and then he'll face no repercussions. They may even make a token donation to an anti bullying organization. The only thing they won't do is cut him from the team.

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Yep, that's pretty much how it'll go. Best we can hope for is that reporters keeping taking the team to task for this and he eventually apologizes in person to the victim.

Not that doing all that will fix anything.

 

[SasaBassa]

When you wrote top pick, my thought was like if this guys t top 10 in the draft, too much money to be held back because of the industry and idolatry that comes with sports stardom in general.

But 111th? 4th round? Even as a 2nd round talent, this can't be worth the shit storm. I hope he gets everything bad coming to him. Coyotes too.

 

[Dullahan]

Wow fuck him.

 

[Kernel]

Once again we assemble to note how shitty the NHL is

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The Nationalist Hockey League.

 

[DopeyFish]

they're walking away from him

 

[Deleted member 2802]

they're walking away from him

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Won't another team just pick him up after this blows over?

 

[Minthara]

Won't another team just pick him up after this blows over?

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Hopefully they all understand that he is PR poison. I'm sure a team will pick him up though, whether it's NHL, AHL or ECHL, teams just can't resist.

 

[Reckheim]

they're walking away from him

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I'm glad they are making example of him. No madder how good you are there are always consequences to your shit behavior.

sounds like he missed out on a few millions (if he was trully good enough to be slotted in the second round).

it really goes to show how big of a turd he was for not even apologizing. Bet you he'll be apologizing now. Fuck him.

 

[RBH]

they're walking away from him

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Good

 

[DopeyFish]

Won't another team just pick him up after this blows over?

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i'd say if it does happen it would be after his "development" like age 22-24 to say "look he's a new man!1!!" no team is going to burn another pick on him and if anything he may get camp invites at most.

right now there's huge blowback in hockey with racism and abusiveness in general... stuff is coming out of everywhere... the CHL, AHL, NHL... and with what has been happening this summer teams are trying to avoid the spotlight and them drafting him after the NHL was trying to make serious strides to improve their image in terms of racism which has been difficult largely because there's so few minority players because the cost of entry of the sport is so high.

but the thing is

they knew about his history... all teams did. he was on most teams DND (do not draft) lists. a lot of fans knew too. there is no excuse. they knew it would look bad and drafted him anyways.

 

[Fubar]

The next step would be my alma mater, UND, dropping him as well.

To be honest, as a 4th rounder or whatever it's unlikely he'd ever get to the NHL level anyway so i doubt any other NHL team picks him up.

Even AHL, ECHL, Euro leagues are probably going to steer away from him because of the bad PR. Dude's playing career is essentially done, id guess.

 

[Minthara]

The thing that annoys me the most about this story is that all this kid had to do, as step 1, is apologize to the victim. He's apologized to the media, apologized to the NHL teams thinking of picking him, everything else - but still refuses to apologize to the victim. That says the most.

The next step would be my alma mater, UND, dropping him as well.

To be honest, as a 4th rounder or whatever it's unlikely he'd ever get to the NHL level anyway so i doubt any other NHL team picks him up.

Even AHL, ECHL, Euro leagues are probably going to steer away from him because of the bad PR. Dude's playing career is essentially done, id guess.

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The kid is talented, was projected to go in the second round if it wasn't for this.

 

[lupinko]

Won't another team just pick him up after this blows over?

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No? This guy was on many teams' do not draft lists, Coyotes included before they fired GM John Chayka. Management afterward just ignored Chayka's notes and drafted him because he was a 2nd round talent available in the 4th round. Also the Yotes are missing draft picks for this year and next year because they traded said picks away and forfeited the rest because they were tampering with draft players before the designated tryout period. Hence their shitty desperation.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

It's good news the kid will never play in the NHL. I legit do not give a fuck whether he gave a proper apology or not either. No one should be rewarded for that type of behaviour.

 

[lupinko]

It's good news the kid will never play in the NHL. I legit do not give a fuck whether he gave a proper apology or not either. No one should be rewarded for that type of behaviour.

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He never gave a proper apology. He had an accomplice, but that other kid properly apologized to the victim and his family, showing great remorse. That boy was forgiven, but this trash kid? Nope. Shame on his jerk face parents too, since they allowed him to continue playing a sport he loves and has fun playing.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

He never gave a proper apology. He had an accomplice, but that other kid properly apologized to the victim and his family, showing great remorse. That boy was forgiven, but this trash kid? Nope. Shame on his jerk face parents too, since they allowed him to continue playing a sport he loves and has fun playing.

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I know he didn't apologize. I'm saying even if he did I wouldn't give a fuck though. The behaviour described shouldn't be rewarded even if the little shit had decided to fake some empathy.

 

[FPX]

It's still shit that the Coyotes defended their decision first, and knew about his actions all along. They had no qualms with rewarding a tormentor and a monster.

Better late than never at least. Sucks that we won't be able to see this kid get slammed into the boards at every opportunity though.

Also what's the under/over on him honestly believing himself to be the victim, and potentially attempt to harass the family even more?

 

[KG]

Fuck this monster. Hope he lives in shame for a long time.

 

[CthulhuSars]

My Coyotes are a dumpster fire right now. I am disappointed they drafted him but glad they let go of him.

 

[Avitus]

My Coyotes are a dumpster fire right now. I am disappointed they drafted him but glad they let go of him.

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You and me both.

Curious to see who gets fired over this, considering Jankowski and Sullivan ran the draft. Meruelo can't be too pleased this is the first thing his new regime does after Chayka's exit.

 

[AcademicSaucer]

atleast put the full name of the dude on the OP, for fucks sake really

 

[Serpico99]

Whew, thank god not Canadian.

 

[PanSexual_Peacock]

Hope this piece of shit never sets foot on the ice ever again.