NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said Saturday the Boston Bruins did not consult the league before signing Mitchell Miller and that he would "need to see a whole bunch of things" going forward.

Bettman's comments came a day after the Bruins announced they signed Miller, a prospect defenseman, to an entry-level contract. Miller was a fourth-round pick by the Arizona Coyotes in 2020 until his draft rights were relinquished after a story was published about how he and another classmate were convicted of assaulting and bullying a Black developmentally disabled classmate.

The report revealed how Miller, now 20, and another middle school classmate were convicted in juvenile court in 2016 for racially abusing and bullying Isaiah Meyer-Crothers. In the report, Meyer-Crothers' mom alleged Miller began abusing her son in second grade while using repeated racial epithets.

Bettman said what he had heard anecdotally and understood through media reports about what Miller did was "reprehensible, unacceptable." He said the Bruins did not consult the league but he has since spoken with team president Cam Neely.

"He's not coming into the NHL, he's not eligible at this point to come into the NHL," Bettman said. "I can't tell you that he'll ever be eligible to come into the NHL. If in fact at some point they think they want him to play in the NHL — and I'm not sure they're anywhere close to that point — we're going to have to clear him and his eligibility and it'll be based on all the information that we get firsthand at the time."