Hockey Diversity Alliance releases scathing statement on the Arizona Coyotes and Mitch Miller

The story regarding Arizona Coyotes draft pick Mitch Miller and his conviction of bullying a developmentally disabled, Black schoolmate when both were 14 has hit the radar of the Hockey Diversity Alliance. Needless to say, its comments provide a scathing rebuke of how the situation has been handled by the athlete, the team and the NHL itself. You can read it in full below:

The statement makes an interesting point that has also been made by the mother of the bullied boy, Isaiah Meyer-Crothers. While many would agree that most people deserve a second chance, Miller has reportedly failed to apologize or show remorse for his actions towards Meyer-Crothers, which involve racial slurs, punching and tricking the boy into licking a lollipop that had been wiped in a urinal. Another unnamed party was involved in one or more of the incidents but the mother, Joni, states he apologized to her son's face. Her son accepted that apology and forgave him. The mother also pointed out that the Coyotes statement revealed Miller had written every NHL team personally in advance of the draft to apologize for his actions four years ago, yet there's been no attempt to contact her son on Miller's part to offer his personal apology.

"I respect you stating he sent all the NHL teams an apology," said the mother. "But wouldn't it make sense if he was truly remorseful to send a letter to the kid he brutally bullied both mentally and physically?"

Miller was drafted using the Coyotes first pick in 2020, which actually came in the fourth round after trades and punishments from the NHL for running its own draft combine outside of the only official one allowed a few days before the draft itself.

The Hockey Diversity alliance, formed recently by BIPOC players across the league, consists of names like Ryan Reaves, Evander Kane, Wayne Simmonds, Anthony Duclair, Nazem Kadri, and Matt Dumba. It has pledged to make the game of hockey more inclusive, find impactful social justice initiatives and execute educational programming to increase awareness of racism in hockey.

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