Bruins hire ex-AG to conduct review of vetting process

The Boston Bruins have retained former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to conduct an independent review of their player vetting process after they signed Mitchell Miller and then cut ties with him.

An independent review of the player vetting process will be conducted by the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

The results of the review will be made public.

The Bruins said in a statement that they strive to live their values and meet high standards. Everyone in our organization should be treated with dignity and respect. We recently fell short of our high standards.

The Bruins signed Miller to an entry level contract and intended to send him to the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League. 6 that it was cutting ties with Miller after intense backlash from fans, the team's players and NHL commissionerGary Bettman.

Miller is still under contract with the team. The Bruins could either pay Miller to stay home for this season and then buy him out at the end of the year for one-third of his NHL salary, or they could work out a settlement with Miller that would allow him to be a free agent.

He was a fourth-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes in 2020, but his draft rights were relinquished when a story was published about how he and another middle school classmate were convicted in juvenile court in 2016 of assault and harassment.

According to the report, the mother said Miller used racial slurs and abused her son. Miller admitted in an Ohio juvenile court that he used racial epithets against Meyer- Cramer and at one point tricked him into eating a candy push pop that Miller and another boy had wiped in a bathroom urinal.

The signing of Miller was met with outrage by fans and disappointment by Bruins players. Miller wasn't cleared by his office to play for the Bruins and "I can't tell you that he will ever be eligible to come into the NHL," said Bettman.

The team's vetting process in signing Miller was raised by the Boston president. The team walked away from Miller in November. The Bruins never reached out to the family of Meyer-Crothers, which was a problem for the vetting process.