Neely: Miller signing ‘by far’ biggest regret
Bruins president faces music after player's contract rescinded
An ashen-faced Cam Neely, who looked like he hasn’t gotten a whole lot of sleep in the last three days, stepped in front of the podium at Warrior Ice Arena and took the flak for his organization’s controversial signing of prospect Mitchell Miller.
It’s a since-rescinded signing on which Neely signed off. It’s a regret he felt was “by far” the worst of his tenure as Bruins’ president and it was one that, for all the vetting that GM Don Sweeney said the club did leading up to the signing, might have been prevented with one simple phone call.
“The fact that we didn’t talk to the (victim’s) family was disconcerting to me,” said Neely, unusually clipped in his answers.
Asked why that didn’t happen, he said, “It’s a great question. That’s something I’m going to find out.”
Nobody in the organization had reached out to the family at the time of Monday’s press conference, but Neely said he planned on doing so. Contacted on Monday morning, the victim’s mother, Joni Meyer-Crothers, said that while she still has a problem with some of the comments Sweeney had made in his Zoom conference at the time of the signing on Friday, she said, “I would be happy to speak with (Neely).”
While the organizational buck stops with Neely — the fact that he and he alone was out front on Monday was telling — he feels there were dropped balls throughout the process. He didn’t exactly say ‘heads will roll’ but it seems that there could be some uncomfortable people in hockey operations over the next few days and possibly weeks. Discipline could be coming.
“It something I have to deal with this week and see where it takes me,” said Neely.
But the upper reaches of management did not go into this with blindfolds on. Neely himself met with Miller, his mother and his agent, Eustace King.
“I felt that he was remorseful, I thought that he had changed, I felt that at the time, a second chance was warranted,” said Neely, who said he was first made aware of hockey ops’ interest in the player back in August.
On Saturday, commissioner Gary Bettman, speaking in Finland, said that he did not know the signing was going to happen, but Neely said that Sweeney spoke with Bettman’s second in command, Bill Daly, on Wednesday, two days before the signing.
“From what I gather, he said that Mitchell would have to get in front of Gary Bettman if he was going to play in the National Hockey League,” said Neely.
While Neely was very much a part of the vetting process, he feels that was an organizational failure.
“I made it clear that we have to vet this out properly. When it first came to my attention in August, I said, ‘We have to vet this out properly. This is something that is a massive decision for the organization to make,” said Neely, who admitted there was some “trepidation” within the organization about the signing.
“From everything I had heard, he was working on himself, working in programs to better himself. I was under the impression he was a 14-year-old kid who made a really, really bad decision and did some horrible things. And he’s 20 years old now, and I was under the impression that in the last six years had done a lot to (better) himself,” he said.
On Sunday, King released a statement explaining why he had taken on Miller as a client. In the statement, King — one of the few Black agents in the league — listed numerous agencies with which Miller planned to work. At least one, The Carnegie Initiative, felt the need to clarify that Miller, though he did indeed approach the group, had not worked with it.
Asked if he felt misled at all by Miller’s camp, Neely declined to answer, nor did he spell out the process for terminating the contract. He could be anticipating a legal battle over the attempt to cancel out of the deal. If the NHLPA decides to file a grievance and the B’s can’t show sufficient cause for what is essentially a firing, they may be forced to buy him out.
But it’s pretty clear that, no matter how it plays out, Miller will not be a Boston Bruin.
Neely admitted that he did not expect the level of public blow-back.
“Initially I thought it (would be), ‘OK, this kid deserves a second chance.’ I thought there would be some people that would be upset about it. But to the extent of this, I misread that,” said Neely, who also said the push-back from his own players was just a part of what led to his decision to part ways with the player.
.Now the B’s need to mend their hard-earned reputation as an organization that values character. How long that takes is anyone’s guess.
“Obviously, it’s a concern,” said Neely. “We like to take pride in what we do in the community and how we hold ourselves accountable. We dropped the ball and I’m here to apologize for that.”
In the Bruins’ dressing room, it felt like there was a sense of relief that the saga was over, at least as far as they were concerned.
On Saturday in Toronto, some prominent players expressed their displeasure with the signing and nothing has changed since then. Captain Patrice Bergeron’s feelings remain the same.
“What it comes down to is I think it’s important to stand up for what you think is wrong,” said Bergeron, who agreed that it was a distraction for a few days. “I think the situation, it goes back to what we’ve built here as an organization, as a team, as a locker room. It’s to be inclusive and a locker room of respect and integrity.”
Neely said he and Sweeney met with the team in Toronto on Saturday. Bergeron did not want to go into specifics about that meeting but, with the end result, he felt it was fruitful. He said the signing was almost universally rejected by the players.
“In a way, yes. It’s not like everybody had something to say, but I think the general feeling was that. And I’m glad that we were heard,” said Bergeron.
Brad Marchand said that he wasn’t surprised with the end result. But he also threw a lifeline to the management team that is currently under the searing heat lamp.
“We appreciate the support of the fans. They’re the reason we’re able to do this job,” said Marchand. “But again, I think it just goes back to the management and staff to make the decisions they best feel are going to help the team now and down the road. Look, no one’s perfect, we all make mistakes and this was one of those mistakes and, again, they’re now going back to the decision they feel is best for the team … we appreciate and love the fan support and I think why everyone is so upset is because they feel so passionately about the group. With the beliefs and the way we handle the room and the type of people we want to have in here, that bleeds throughout the culture of not just the organization but the fans as well.”