It’s not just Mitchell Miller who will have to get the green light from Gary Bettman if he ever wants to play in the NHL.
Posted at 5:48 p.m.
Logan Mailloux, of the Canadian, will also have the obligation to “talk” with the commissioner of the circuit before skating on the ice of the Bell Centre. His progress is closely followed, confirm the league and the organization.
Usually wary of the decisions made by the league’s 32 teams, Bettman made a sensational exit last weekend against the Boston Bruins, who offered an entry contract to Miller.
The American defender, when he was a teenager, was convicted of assaulting a schoolmate with an intellectual disability. He had also uttered racist insults. The legitimacy of his remorse, in particular, is questioned.
Although the faults committed are different, Miller’s case “is no different” from that of Mailloux, acknowledged NHL assistant commissioner Bill Daly during a press briefing held with Bettman in Winnipeg at the start. evening, Tuesday.
While playing in Sweden in 2020, Mailloux distributed an intimate photo of his sexual partner to his teammates. The local court found him guilty and fined him. The Canadian created a scandal in July 2021 by making him his first-round pick in the draft.
However, Mailloux signed his first professional contract with the Canadiens on October 5. The defenseman has since been traded to the London Knights of the Ontario Junior League, but we can assume he’ll join the Laval Rocket or even the Habs next year.
If Bettman did not immediately comment publicly on this new stage in the rehabilitation of Mailloux, it is because he “is aware of everything that is happening with Logan”, indicated Jeff Gorton, vice-president to the Canadiens’ hockey operations, during a short interview with The Press tuesday.
Daly and Bettman confirmed hours later that Mailloux was “not eligible” to play in the NHL at this time. Without ever determining the precise criteria, the duo insisted that a player could be eligible to sign a contract under the collective agreement and simultaneously be ineligible to play in the eyes of the commissioner, who has the last word.
Molson in the know
Before the young man put his signature on the bottom of a three-year agreement, two elements were “very clearly” laid out for him, according to Gorton. First, while he has “worked very hard” on himself to become a better person, he will have to “keep on doing it” over the next year in London. This contract, “it’s just the beginning”, recalls Gorton.
Then, “when he is ready to become a pro and he gets closer to the NHL, he will have to speak with Gary Bettman”, underlines the manager, who warned the commissioner of the evolution of the file after the signing of the contract.
I always knew Gary would be part of the conversation, and Logan understands that too.
Jeff Gorton
Despite his request to all NHL teams not to draft him, Mailloux was selected by the Canadiens in July 2021, at the 31e and penultimate row of the first round. This decision by the Habs shocked the hockey world as well as the political class and civil society. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, among others, denounced the decision, as did Bettman himself. Sponsors had threatened to disassociate themselves from the team.
Under high pressure, Geoff Molson spoke to calm things down. Taking “responsibility” for his own “lack of judgment”, he insisted that drafting Mailloux was a “mistake”.
A year later, the club’s president and owner was part of “long conversations” leading to Mailloux being signed, Gorton claims.
Recovering from a serious shoulder injury, the Ontarian spent the entire summer in Montreal so that the organization supervised his rehabilitation. The management thus had the opportunity to discuss at length with the young man. It was thus judged that he had demonstrated that he understood the scope of his “serious error” and that he had “made efforts to improve individually and to be more aware”, said general manager Kent Hughes a few days after the announcement of the agreement.
Like Hughes, Gorton insists today: this is not a blank check. “We will continue to work with him. “And when the time comes, “we will organize the meeting” with Bettman.
Reviews
The controversy surrounding Miller dates back to 2020. His selection in the fourth round of the draft by the Arizona Coyotes created such an uproar that the team quickly cut ties with him.
His recent association with the Bruins also only lasted a few days. Interviewed last weekend while he was in Finland for an NHL promotional tour, Bettman expressed surprise that the organization had not notified him sooner.
After signing his first professional contract, Miller was about to report to the Providence Bruins of the AHL. Good for him, but he wasn’t going to play in the NHL anytime soon, Bettman said.
” If they [les Bruins] want him to play in the NHL, we will first have to give him the authorization, and this, in light of the information that we will have in hand at that time, ”said the commissioner. On Sunday, after a 48-hour storm, the Bruins announced they had reversed their decision and severed ties with him.
Bettman hadn’t been kinder to the Habs during the summer of 2021. In an interview with Sirius XM in the weeks following the draft, he said he was “stunned” by the choice of the Canadian. “I am the father of two daughters, I have four granddaughters, and what has been done is horrifying,” he said.
“No one should lose sight of the impact of what happened on the victim and his family,” he continued. While the Canadian and Mailloux had promised to make amends, “we will have to see what that means,” said Bettman.