(Photo Credit: @GoldenKnights on X/Twitter)

Over the last few seasons, the Golden Knights have made waves with some dubious signings and draft picks because of off-ice concerns in their backgrounds. There’s no need to rehash the past of each of these three players, but Carter Hart, Trevor Connelly, and Kai Uchacz each came to Vegas with past controversies that many other teams would have likely passed over.

On a recent episode of the Cam and Strick Podcast, President of Hockey Operations George McPhee offered a bit of insight into why the Golden Knights are willing to take chances on players who have had issues in the past.

You can’t stop young people from being young, right? They’re going to make mistakes. I think George Bush, former president, said, ‘When I was young and reckless, I was young and reckless.’ And you know, there’s a big difference between someone who might be a bad seed and a young person who made a mistake. –George McPhee on Cam And Strick Podcast

He continued by saying people should not be defined forever by mistakes from their past.

If we start cancelling good people who made a mistake, it’s not the right thing to do. Just imagine some of these good kids who made a mistake and people forgave them for it and they turn out to be really good adults. I just don’t believe in cancelling young people like that because if they get cancelled, they can become a problem because now there’s no hope and there’s nothing out there and they could go the other way for a long time. –McPhee on Cam And Strick Podcast

He added that he does not expect the Golden Knights’ approach to change.

We’re willing to give young people who make mistakes a second chance, and God help us if we ever stop doing that. –McPhee on Cam And Strick Podcast

There’s a fine line between “second chance” and “doing whatever it takes to win,” and the Golden Knights have never been afraid of walking it. They’ve shown they’ll go to places and do things others feel uncomfortable doing, and thus far, it has worked extremely well.

And, it doesn’t appear they’re going to veer from that style any time soon.