I was going through some website cleanup when I came across an old story from 2020:
To quickly sum up the story, the NHL's Arizona Coyotes came under a lot of pressure in 2020 for drafting the highly rated, but very problematic, prospect Mitchell Miller. As soon as the glare of the national media shone upon the Coyotes' franchise, everyone associated with Mitchell Miller dropped him like a hot potato.
I never defended Miller or his actions, they were deplorable, but my question was, why was he facing adult repercussions for an incident in the 8th grade? I wrote my story and moved on.
Revisiting the Mitchell Miller Story, the digital tar and feathering has apparently continued two years later. Doing lazy journalism, I went to Wikipedia first, something I know I should never, ever do. Here is the screen shot, because information on Wikipedia tends to "evolve."
Supposedly Miller called a Black, special needs student the n-word in first grade and the bullying continued on and off through middle school.
I want to step back for just a brief moment. The internet seems to agree that this kid shouldn't play pro hockey because he used the n-word.
In 1st grade?
There are 2 fundamental points that need to be made here:
If a six year old uses the n-word, I don't blame the kid, I blame the parents. Period.
You cannot place adult ramifications on a person for what they did when they were in grade school. I have good parents who taught me not to use the n-word, so let's use a different example. Also in 2020, I made an analogy between Alex Jones and defication. Let's say Alex Jones was insulted and dragged my sorry ass to court. During the court proceedings, Jones' Crack Lawyer Team stepped up to the podium and said "it's ironic that Fred Hunt made an analogy about bowel movements, because, let it be entered into evidence...THAT FRED HUNT POOPED HIS PANTS IN FIRST GRADE! You see how absurd that is? Whether it is true or false is immaterial, now it's in the public domain and even if it was true, it has no bearing on my writing skills or whether my Alex Jones Analogy was valid.
So I tried to track down Mitchell Miller, not in real life, but where he's actually playing hockey. When drafted, Miller was playing hockey at one of the highest levels of amateur hockey in America, the USHL. His team was the Tri-City Storm and he was bestowed with First Team USHL honors before he was drafted. After the controversy, Miller quietly returned to the Storm.
You're raising your hand and want to know about the Tri-City Storm?
Okay, they are based in Kearney, Nebraska...
You're raising your hand again and want to know about Kearney, Nebraska?
Okay, Kearney is a small city in central Nebraska, population of around 30,000.
The Tri-City Storm had the best record in the USHL in the 2021-2022 season at 47-11-3-1.
Mitchell Miller was the third leading scorer in the USHL in the 2021-2022 season with 83 points, a stunning 1.38 points per game average. He also led the league in goals and +/-.
Surprisingly, Wikipedia says the 2021-2022 season didn't exist.
Where did I get Miller's stats from then? Directly from the USHL website. Which means either Wikipedia is scrubbing Miller from their site, or the USHL was shielding Miller and the league and not entering stats. The USHL doesn't have the cachet to dictate anything to Wikipedia.
I went on over to the Storm website and it said that Mitchell Miller was the 2021-2022 USHL Player of the Year.
Okay, but where is he NOW? In September of 2022? Because the USHL is a junior league, their players have age requirements, which is between the ages of 16 and 20. According to the USHL's own ladder of development, Miller has aged out of the juniors.
Because I was hitting walls researching at Google, I tried Bing. More articles popped up, but none were current. Let's try some reckless speculation.
Because of Miller's past, I don't think another Division I college is going to give him a chance. If Russia didn't invade Ukraine, I think a KHL team might have given him a chance and put him on their bench, but not now. As time ticks away on his hockey career, I thought maybe he'd sign with the ECHL's Toledo Walleye, but I don't think a city so close to his hometown is going to give him a chance either-
You're screaming at your monitor that he doesn't deserve a chance? Mitchell Miller is a horrible person.
Okay, let's all be in agreement, Mitchell Miller, and all other horrible people, are going to be removed from pro sports.
That goes for the NBA.
That goes for the NFL.
That goes for MLB.....
Where do I predict Miller will end up? I think with a team that's unaffiliated to an NHL parent, like the Huntsville Havoc in the SPHL. If he dominates there, someone will sign him on a free agent deal by Christmas and put him in their minor league system on the down low. If I was Miller's agent, I would suggest Ligue Magnus in France or the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in Germany.
Let's see what happens...
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