Miller Still Under Contract With Bruins; NHLPA Grievance Likely

The Boston Bruins may have announced that they have parted ways with defenseman Mitchell Miller but the controversial 20-year-old rearguard is still technically under contract with the Bruins.

“Technically, they haven’t parted ways [with him] just yet,” TSN NHL Insider Chris Johnston said on the latest edition of TSN Insider Trading Tuesday night. “Mitchell Miller remains a part of the organization. Functionally, he’s still being paid as of this point in time and the Bruins have been quite, you know, I guess deceptive about how they intend to, you know, go about this.

And it’s important because if they were to just try to terminate his contract, which at this point they haven’t done, sources say the NHL Players’ Association would almost certainly file a grievance on Mitchell Miller’s behalf. You know, really, their contention would be nothing changed between Friday when he signed the deal and Sunday when he decided to walk away from it. They might also just continue to pay him through the year and buy him out this summer at one-third [of] the cost. But if they do that, there’ll be a cap charge the next two seasons beyond this one.”

Johnston is absolutely correct. Sportsnet NHL Insider and host Jeff Marek and yours truly discussed this Monday on Marek’s daily radio show just hours after Boston Bruins team president Cam Neely addressed the media.

The Boston Bruins have announced that they have parted ways with Mitchell Miller.@JeffMarek and @MurphysLaw74 discuss the controversial signing.#NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/kBHycxbHoA

— Sportsnet 590 The FAN (@FAN590) November 7, 2022

At that point, it was an almost certainty that the NHLPA would file a grievance on Miller’s behalf and the Bruins, and like Johnston, Boston Hockey Now has confirmed with an NHLPA source on Wednesday morning that this will definitely occur if and when the Boston Bruins choose the contract termination route. In fact preparation for the grievance was already in the works. If the grievance was successful then the Bruins would be forced to pay all of the remaining $2.85 million remaining on Miller’s contract from the point of termination and on. As it stands now, Miller is still being paid by the Bruins. Wonder how that or the potential of another Don Sweeney buyout is going over with Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs?

For those wondering, filing a grievance on behalf of Miller does not mean that the NHLPA condones Miller’s previous actions and lack of remorse since; it is simply standard procedure.

In a recent episode of the ‘Cam And Strick Podcast’, Eustace King defended his handling of courting and negotiating with teams.

“I can tell you that every team that I talked to had detailed information about what happened between Mitchell and Isaiah,” King told co-host Andy Strickland. “And also what my thoughts were of the scenario; why I decided to take him on as a client, and then most importantly, which is most important here, and I didn’t touch on this before, that they were able to do their own investigation, but I wanted to make sure that they knew that we had a plan, and we were trying to do stuff.”

Everyone knew what was at stake, everyone knew the risks they were taking, everyone knew everything. Nothing has come up or resurfaced that has been different from everything that you’ve seen before. And that’s why I put a timeline together because I have not been able to find any new information or new accounts that have happened.”