Bruins have limited options with Mitchell Miller under contract

The Boston Bruins have limited options with Mitchell Miller, the defenseman they signed on Friday and cut ties with him two days later following the public outcry.

The Bruins signed Miller, 20, with the goal of sending him to AHL Providence. He is still under contract with the team and is still technically a member of Providence.

According to NHL sources, there are several ways to remedy this situation in Boston:

• Bruins could simply decide to pay Miller to stay at home this season and then buy him at the end of the year for a third of his NHL salary. According to Cap Friendly, his salary in NHL status is $750,000, with $95,000 in signing bonus and a maximum of $105,000 in performance bonuses for the 2022-23 season.

• The Bruins could work with Miller, Agent Eustace King and the NHLPA on a settlement that would allow him to become a free agent. While Miller is at the AHL, this will be within the jurisdiction of the NHLPA.

• The Bruins or the NHL may seek to terminate the contract due to Miller’s history. A collective bargaining agreement gives Commissioner Gary Pittman the powers to expel a player from the NHL, for example. But a source told ESPN that the NHLPA is expected to file a complaint in the case. The same is true for any kind of multi-year suspension to essentially cancel the contract.

Miller was in the fourth-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes in 2020, but his draft rights were abandoned when a story broke about how he and another middle school classmate were convicted in juvenile court in 2016 of assault and bullying Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, a black classmate with developmental disabilities . In the report, Meyer-Krothers’ mother alleged that Miller began abusing her son in second grade and repeatedly used racial insults.

The Bruins informed the NHL last Wednesday that they are interested in signing Miller. They signed a deal recorded by the league on Friday. Immediately, fans were outraged. Veteran players like Bruins Nick Foligno And the Patrice Bergeron He expressed his disappointment in media interviews.

Bettman said last week that Miller was not eligible to play in the NHL, and that “I can’t tell you he would be eligible to enter the NHL.”