From the Athletic:
"A junior league like the USHL could also be an option in the event Miller wanted to revisit the idea of playing in college. His USHL rights are owned by the Tri-City Storm. Miller played last season with the Storm, under coach Anthony Noreen, after spending his first season in the USHL with the Cedar Rapids Roughriders.
Noreen said it is still too early to determine if Miller could return to the Storm. He said that what Miller did to Meyer-Crothers was “completely wrong, inhumane and completely inexcusable” while adding he is concerned for Miller’s well being.
“I have talked to Mitchell quite a bit. It’s about as you’d imagine,” Noreen said. “He’s going through every human emotion. It’s been very tough on him. Tough on his family as well. With all respect to the victim, I don’t think there is anyone who has won in this situation. All anyone can want is the reconciliation to move forward. Is that possible? I don’t know. I just know my thoughts are with all of those who are involved.”
Before the draft, Miller wrote a letter of apology to all 31 NHL organizations in which he expressed “extreme regret” for what happened. He assured teams that he had changed. He provided character references from different hockey coaches along with his USHL billet family. And he detailed how he attended counseling, cultural diversity classes and also volunteered with physically disabled youth.
Noreen said Miller was “honest about what happened” from the moment he was traded, saying Miller knew “he had two strikes against him” and that he was seeking a chance for a fresh start. Noreen, who said repeatedly he does not condone what Miller did, wanted to help someone who was trying to show he was a different person.
He described Miller as respectful to everyone in the organization, his teammates, the Storm’s fan base and his billet parents. Noreen’s time with Miller went beyond the Storm. He coached Miller in two international tournaments for USA Hockey. Noreen said Miller, who was a seventh defenseman on one of those teams, never complained about playing time despite the fact he was a first-pairing defenseman in Tri-City.
“When we won that gold medal and he only played two shifts, there was no one more proud of what we did than him,” Noreen said. “Win or lose, he brought energy. He was an absolute joy to coach and be around. The billet family he had loved him. His teammates loved him. He wore a letter for us because he was a leader. He was someone who took a second chance and took off with it. As a person, this was one of the best people I have ever been around in my immediate dealing with him. That is what I can speak to.”
Noreen said there was never a question about Miller’s talent. But everyone involved knew NHL teams would eventually ask about what happened with Miller when he was 14 and, along with classmate Hunter R. McKie, rubbed a push-pop inside of a urinal at their middle school during a girls’ basketball game and then urged Meyer-Crothers to put the piece of candy into his mouth. McKie and Miller were suspended by the school.
Miller’s punishment was more severe because, according to a police report about the incident obtained by The Athletic, he repeatedly lied to school administrators, who confirmed the reports of other students by using the school’s security cameras.
Noreen said he told any Division I program or NHL team that asked, that Miller “owned” what he had done to Meyer-Crothers and that he was one of the “elite character human beings” he has been around. But Joni Meyer-Crothers said, in a letter she wrote to the Coyotes after the draft, that Miller never apologized to her son. She recounted in her letter what a magistrate said to Miller in 2016: “I don’t think you are remorseful for what you did more than you are upset for the negative attention you are getting.”
“When you give (teams) your word, it not only affects that player but every player I have in the future,” Noreen said. “If his character is not what I said it is, that not only affects him but the hundreds of players that I have after him.”"