Golden Knights select Connelly with 1st-round pick, who brings controversy with him

By Jack Williams (contact)

Friday, June 28, 2024 | 6:24 p.m.

The Vegas Golden Knights have selected left wing Trevor Connelly with their 19th overall pick in the NHL Draft. 

This is the first time since the 2020 NHL Draft that the Golden Knights have selected an American in the draft.

"I'm just happy. I love the game of hockey more than anything in this world, and I'm just excited to be drafted into the National Hockey League," Connelly said. "It's been a been a dream of mine. I don't have words for how excited I am." 

From Tustin, California, at 6-foot-1 and 156 pounds, he spent the last two years with the Tri-City Storm (USHL) in Kearney, Nebraska. This past season, he recorded 31 goals and 47 assists for 78 points over 52 games. 

"I think that I do both of playmaking and goalscoring," Connelly said. "I like setting up teammates, and when I get a chance to put one in, I use my shot...I want to get better as well this summer. I think my skating is the biggest thing for me that's gonna help me translate my game [to the NHL]." 

Connelly competed on the United States national team at the 2024 IIHF World U-18 Championships. He recorded four goals and five assists for nine points over seven games and helped Team USA to a silver medal. 

"Trevor [Connelly] is a tremendously talented forward," Vegas Golden Knights General Manager Kelly McCrimmon said. "He's a great playmaker, a lot of dimensions to his game and really high end skill. When you draft in the first round in the top 20 you really want to come away with talent. I feel that we did that today." 

Connelly won't join the Golden Knights organization immediately as he'll play for Providence College (NCAA) in the fall. He believes that going to college will help him grow a lot as a person. 

"I think being in a college setting is going to help me a lot," Connelly said. "I didn't go to in-person high school, so I think that's gonna help." 

He's considered to be one of the top American skaters in this draft, but many teams passed on him due to his controversial past. 

In 2022, he posted a picture of his teammate posing with a swastika made out of children's blocks. He removed the post and apologized. 

Connelly was allegedly suspended from his league in California for using a racial slur but has denied this claim. The suspension was overturned by the league due to a lack of evidence. 

McCrimmon explained why the organization looked past Connelly's past mistakes and selected him. 

"There's some growth and some recognition of areas where he made mistakes and he recognizes that," McCrimmon said. "He was very candid and transparent. Didn't didn't duck any of the questions that we asked him." 

McCrimmon and the Golden Knights have confidence that Connelly is a player that can grow to be successful in this league. With Connelly not immediately joining the team next season, McCrimmon said a lot of responsibility will be on Golden Knights Director of Player Development Wil Nichol. 

"I'm really confident we'll do everything we can to help this player to be a great player and a great person," McCrimmon said. "Does that mean that's going to unfold that way? We don't know, but we sure feel that he is going to help himself.

"We've all learned lessons along the way. If we weren't comfortable that there's a good person there, we wouldn't have made the selection." 

When it's come to speaking with prospective teams about his past, Connelly said that big thing for him has been trust and moving on from the past. He wanted to show to teams that he's "a different person." 

"Trust has been the biggest thing for me," Connelly said. "In this process, it's just about being with people you trust putting yourself in situations that you trust. That's been a big thing for me during this process. I don't want to hold myself in the past and kind of just keep moving forward."

"I've had many talks with Vegas, and they're great organization and great people. They [Golden Knights] really care about character." 

Connelly talked about how he's given back, through community service and finds a lot of happiness in helping others. He says that kind of community service has helped him throughout this process. 

"I think everything happens for a reason," Connelly said. "I've been put through a lot these past couple of years for a reason. I think that it's all gonna work out for the best." 

Las Vegas is not an unfamiliar place for Connelly as he grew up four hours away from his future home. He's been to a Golden Knights game before and thought it was "awesome." 

"The fans and just how into the game they are is so awesome," Connelly said. "I can't wait to play in front of it." 

There was a lot of flexibility in talent after the first two picks in this year's NHL Draft, meaning that some players could've gone in the top 10 or top 20. McCrimmon said that if Connelly's off-ice actions weren't an issue he could've gone "considerably higher"

"There's a group at the top there, and I don't mean three or four or five," McCrimmon said. "There's a large group of really, really good prospects that I would suggest have bright futures... I think he [Connelly] was talented enough, skilled enough to be in the conversation with those players." 

This is the Golden Knights' earliest draft pick since it picked at No. 17 in the 2019 NHL Draft. The Golden Knights were also eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs that year as they were this year. 

McCrimmon said multiple teams asked for the Golden Knights to trade down their first round pick, but they declined every offer. Vegas did not consider trading any rostered players for draft picks. 

The Golden Knights will pick three more times in the draft, which continues from Las Vegas' Sphere starting at 11:30 a.m. Saturday: once in the sixth round and twice in the seventh round.