A first-round pick from the 2024 NHL draft could be\u00a0Penticton-bound.<\/p>\n
The Vees’ WHL franchise this week selected forward\u00a0Trevor Connelly from Spokane Chiefs’ 50-player\u00a0protected list. The U.S.-based club was excluded from the original WHL expansion draft on May 7, due to its participation\u00a0in an ongoing playoff series.<\/p>\n
Connelly, 19, is considered Vegas Golden Knights’\u00a0top prospect. The\u00a0Tustin, Calif., native was selected 19th overall in the 2024 NHL draft and has since signed an entry-level contract with the team.<\/p>\n
The 6’1″, 175-pound winger most recently suited up for the Henderson Silver Knights, Vegas’s American Hockey League affiliate.<\/p>\n
Connelly also helped Team USA win its second consecutive\u00a0gold medal at the\u00a0World Junior Hockey Championships, where he recorded four points in seven games this past winter.<\/p>\n
In another roster move this week, the Vees acquired the playing rights to forward Malachi McKinnon from the Tri-City Americans in exchange for a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2029 WHL Prospects Draft.<\/p>\n
The Minnesota-born\u00a0McKinnon, 18, spent parts of last season suiting up for the Sherwood Park Crusaders in the BCHL.<\/p>\n
Penticton’s WHL franchise will begin its inaugural season this September, where it will play at the 5,000-seat South Okanagan Events Centre as part of the league’s\u00a0Western Conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A first-round pick from the 2024 NHL draft could be\u00a0Penticton-bound. The Vees’ WHL franchise this week selected forward\u00a0Trevor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[149,5317,5,4,9550,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-42256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-golden-knights","9":"tag-goldenknights","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-penticton-veeswhl","13":"tag-vegas","14":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","15":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114548421698243193","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}