Bill Maher roasts the Coyotes over the Mitchell Miller debacle.

The NHL making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Bill Maher roasts the Coyotes over the Mitchell Miller debacle.
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The situation surround now former Arizona Coyotes prospect Mitchell Miller has been one that has divided fan opinion in many ways, and understandably so. I think everyone would agree if I were to call this whole situation ugly, and honestly Miller is not the only person involved in this story that will need to do some self reflecting when it is all said and done.

All of this began when the Arizona Coyotes selected Miller in the 4th round (111th overall) of the 2020 National Hockey League Entry Draft. According to many experts Miller had the talent to go much higher than that however given character issues in his past they had all elected to pass on him, all expect the Coyotes. 

Miller was convicted while he was a teenager of viciously bullying a black, disabled, teenager at his school and no doubt teams in the NHL realized how difficult it would be to navigate that public relations disaster, especially in the current political climate. The Coyotes however had lost all of their draft picks up until that point either via trade or through sanctions imposed on them by the NHL due to an earlier scandal. This made getting a player like Miller at that late stage of the draft much more appealing, and they decided to take the risk.

Once the story of Miller's past went public however the Coyotes quickly tossed him to the wolves and cut ties with him, this in spite of the fact that I have yet to speak to a single person who believes the Coyotes were not already well aware of all this when they made the pick. 

Although everyone views Miller's actions in the past as reprehensible, many have been quick to criticize the Coyotes for turning their back on him over a mistake he made as a boy. The latest such critic was, surprisingly, host of Real Time Bill Maher who took the Coyotes to task over their decision to cut Miller loose. 

"The week before the NHL's Arizona Coyotes dropped a player after it came out in the press that in eighth grade he bullied a disabled kid," said Maher. "Yes that is a bad thing to do, but are we really going after people over what they did in middle school now?"

Although there are those who would condemn Miller forever, my general read on the NHL's fan base has been that most feel much the same way that Maher seems to based on his comments. 

If you'd like to here him in his own words, he mentions it around the 4 minute mark of this video.


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