Re: Coyotes won't renounce draft pick who bullied Black, disabled teen
To AustonWilly's, there is a very clear wrong in this situation.
The kids mom said Miller rollerblades in front of their house in a way that they interpreted it as "We may not be in school together, but I'm still here". Just another thing that shows how disconnected he is.
For a thought towards the hockey team and hockey world though:
The Coyotes didn't get ahead of this. They should have said it when they drafted him. They missed the opportunity to be a leader. A Arizona newspaper got ahold of the story, then the player and team responded when they were contacted. If the team really wanted to help him become a better person, wouldn't a smart team get ahead of the reports and say, "we know he has a history, but coupled with the new HDA and our own training, we hope we can make Miller a better person". A month prior to Miller being drafted, Gutierrez (CEO/President of Yotes) was selected to be apart of the NHL Committee tasked to help stop racism. How is your first pick as a teams CEO was someone convicted of what Miller did? Another disconnect was the Coyotes never made a comment about the Meyer-Crothers family by name. It was all about rehabbing Miller's rep and hockey's rep. There's 4 parties involved, Coyotes, Hockey in general, Miller, and Meyer-Crothers. They didn't mention the victim at all.
Miller said he went above and beyond the court ordered letter of apology, Meyer-Crothers family said an in person apology never happened.
I hate to say it though, other teams would have drafted him because USA Hockey, U of North Dakota, and other teams have already said, "Your talent trumps your off ice issues". So an NHL would have drafted him at some point. So the question is, has he changed or do teams still not care about off-ice issues if the talent is worth the risk. Hockey as a sport has shown over the last 2-5yrs of news that the teams are ok with off-ice racial/assault issues if the talent is there.
Coyotes bungled up their execution in drafting an issue, the player bungled up how he dealt with it over the last 4+yrs, the sport has bungled up how it's dealt with POC. This is just another piece of evidence.
12 Team, H2H, Keep 6 (in Bold)
G, A, Pts, PPP, FW, SOG, Hits, Blocks
W, Saves, S%, GAA, Game Started
2C, 2LW, 2RW, 4D, 1Util, 2G, 5BN, 2IR, 1IR+, 1NA
C: Horvat, Trocheck
LW: J. Robertson, Byfield (C), Guenther
RW: Pavelski (C), Giroux (C), Svechnikov (LW)
D: Fox, Makar, Bouchard, Morrissey, Gudas
Util: Meier (LW, RW)
G: Oettinger, Georgiev, Samsonov, Woll