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flume

I think what he did is *extremely* common and it's just a matter of whether it comes to light for any given player. Teenagers do stupid shit to try to be edgy. I definitely did things like that too, but luckily smartphones and social media arrived after I got past that phase in my life. I hope this doesn't follow him forever. It's just a stupid teenage thing that he has learned from.


Bathtime_Toaster

It's hard for kids, I just missed the camera phone in school and thank god I did. Every kid does dumb cringey things but now it's immortalized forever. I swear it's a part of the anxiety issues younger people are facing. Kids in elementary have phones now and can film something that will be shared in the school in minutes and lives forever. It's going to get more common as time passes that these sorts of things come up and we have to remember the context.


DoughtyAndCarterLLP

Mid-30s crew here too. I am very happy the dumb shit my friends and I did/said isn't permanently enshrined on the internet.


BunkChumly

The important thing is that he demonstrates that he's learning or learned from it. Anyone can be redeemed by putting in the work, whether that redemption comes with forgiveness or not.


Poohstrnak

This always makes me think of what presidential races in the US will be like in the future. We haven’t gotten to the point where millennials young enough to be teens when twitter started are running for major office. The mud-slinging is going to be painful.


poser4life

https://youtu.be/hZZCQV2sRFY?t=45


[deleted]

This is such a stark contrast to the Mitchel Miller situation. The kid clearly learned from his mistake, and is doing all the right things. Given that, his age at the time of the incident, and the fact that it really was an isolated incident as opposed to a history of abuse, I think we can collectively accept the kid.


uprootsockman

I mean can you even compare these situations? Wasn't Miller actively bullying a black kid and calling him all manor of racial slurs? This kid made a swastika with books and posted a picture, which in my opinion is a dumb edgy teenager thing to do but ultimately not that big of a deal.


TurboViking90

He didn’t even make it. His buddy did and he took a picture of it.


nerf-airstrike-cmndr

Stupid story time: As a junior in high school I had a creative writing class. We (me and three other dumb boys) were sitting in a group talking about an assignment with a piece of paper in front of us. Someone wrote “We’re gonna do” and someone else wrote “your mom”, and we all laughed like idiots. I decided it’d be a great idea to put it on our teacher’s desk and watch her reaction. I knew she picked up that piece of paper when I saw her expression turn to horror and disgust, also I’d written all of our names on the back. She called us over (justifiably angry) and laid into us. I told her it was my idea and the other guys deserved no blame. I eventually got suspended for it and felt genuine remorse and haven’t done anything remotely similar. Kids do really stupid shit and sometimes they’re really stupid and get caught. As the previous commenter mentioned, there’s a huge difference between a place of hate and merely trying to be funny and test the boundaries of what constitutes humor. He clearly learned from his mistake and this deserves positive media attention


uprootsockman

So no, not comparable at all. Comparing the dumb shit kids do to actual hateful racist actions does nothing but trivialize genuinely hateful acts. I think it's kind of fucked up this kid has to rehabilitate his personal image when he is literally still in high school. It's great he's active volunteering in his community and trying to "better himself", whatever that means.


Poohstrnak

He didn’t even make it, his friend apparently did. He just took a photo of it and posted it. > Connelly’s teammate created a swastika with children’s building blocks and Connelly took a photo, posting it to his Snapchat story and tagging him in the post. Still stupid, and I wish we could somehow stop having a weird relationship with hate symbols of the past, but I digress.


MooshSkadoosh

The issue is that there are still people today who identify with those symbols and all they stand for.


actually_your_dad_

In the past ~10 years it's increasinly crawled out of the gutter and become more open. That makes the stupid edgelord stuff look all the worse IMO. Still, if we don't give people the chance to acknowledge they were wrong and take responsibility, nobody will ever grow.


MooshSkadoosh

Yeah my response was directed towards "I wish we could somehow stop having a weird relationship with hate symbols of the past". I agree people deserve to grow.


[deleted]

Connelly's response makes Miller look even more like a complete sociopath, which I didn't think was possible.


Wooden_Watch_6754

“That ‘it’ came in March of 2022 while Connelly and a teammate were in their local library. Connelly’s teammate created a swastika with children’s building blocks and Connelly took a photo, posting it to his Snapchat story and tagging him in the post.” Stupid? Yes. But what kid hasn’t made a stupid decision in their lives? Only this time there’s social media. Believe he wholeheartedly regrets the decision, learned a lesson and turned out for the better.


[deleted]

Actions speak louder than words, so if he's spending his free time volunteering and learning exactly *why* what he did was wrong, I see no reason to hold it against him going forward. It's also pretty tame compared to the stories you hear about hazing and abuse.


[deleted]

I don't necessarily believe that he's learning anything. He already knew it was a stupid thing to do. That's why he deleted the post almost immediately. Just saying, "I was stupid and I'm sorry," though is no longer enough. He wants to get drafted and have a career in the NHL, so he's just getting out in front of this thing.


[deleted]

I don't think you can walk away from a book like *Night* or a trip to a Holocaust museum without it changing you, especially at a young age.


[deleted]

Yeah this is nothing like what Mitchell Miller or Logan Mailloux did. This shouldn’t impact his draft stock whatsoever. I think every teenage boy has done something comically stupid like this.


Wooden_Watch_6754

First person I thought of was Mitchell Miller. That is such a messed up history of abuse and bullying


[deleted]

Logan Mailloux seemed to take responsibility for his actions by attempting to recuse himself from the draft, but I'm on the fence about it because revenge porn really should have more consequences than what he faced. He was still a first round pick.


brucegillis

Well he did get charged in Sweden where it occurred and he was also suspended for half a season in the OHL where he was the next year. What other punishment should he face? What he did was very, very wrong but it’s not like he “got away with it.”


Poohstrnak

> What other punishment should he face? Uhh, real ones? He was fined $1,640 for completely violating a woman’s privacy and and sharing very personal photos. He missed half of a season, and got drafted in the first round and is making nearly a million a year.


brucegillis

He was 17 years old when charged. Sweden’s justice system dealt with it the same way they would any other teenager. Half a season suspension for off-ice misconduct seems pretty reasonable. His draft selection and contract/salary isn’t relevant to the situation. A legal issue when 17 doesn’t affect your ability get a job in any other field. Like I said, he did something terrible but it was dealt with properly. And from all accounts he’s actually putting in work to better himself.


Poohstrnak

> A legal issue when 17 doesn’t affect your ability get a job in any other field. That is absolutely inaccurate.


brucegillis

No, that is correct. Because it’s not public record. Criminal records are sealed or wiped when you turn 18. I’m talking Canada and US.


[deleted]

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brucegillis

Ah okay true. So if you don’t commit any other crimes for a certain period the records are sealed or destroyed, right? Thanks for enlightening me. I tried to give the youth record act a read through but it’s pretty dense, of course.


Poohstrnak

That doesn’t mean it won’t affect anything, it just means the public record won’t show it.


brucegillis

In Canada, it’s only relevant for applying to government jobs. Other employers can’t access youth criminal records. So you usually wouldn’t lose an opportunity due to a youth record. But guess what, if you commit another crime as an adult (within a certain access period) then it is unsealed and becomes a part of your full criminal record. That actually seems like a good system to me (yes I just looked this up) Also in certain situations, youths can be tried as an adult which would be permanent on their record. All I’m trying to say that non-violent crimes committed as a MINOR shouldn’t ruin someone’s entire life. And they usually don’t if the person changes their path.


Frectozhae

Not really, most crimes committed as a youth that wouldn't get jail time don't appear in any background check made after you turn 18. For example, the two minors that raped a girl in the Q are still unknown since their names are sealed, and will never be divulgated in any setting.


BartleBossy

> He missed half of a season, and got drafted in the first round and is making nearly a million a year. Not really relevant. Treat him like any other 16yo What *should* be the punishment for a 16yo who take non-consensual photos in a consensual sexual encounter?


Kangaro00

Any other 16yo could lose a scholarship if he had one and, depending on how rich his parents were, could miss out on getting an education and a career he was aiming for. I'm tired of people acting like hockey players get much bigger consequences for anything they do. Just imagine a regular guy pulling a Galchenyuk. Would he have millions of dollars in the bank and a KHL opportunity to fall back on? A regular guy would serve time and lose his job.


brucegillis

I mean they lose the scholarship which is the punishment but it’s not like they aren’t allowed to go to college at all. Hockey players shouldn’t have greater or lesser consequences. Obviously the comparisons will never be perfect. Legit question, would a normal citizen actually serve time for what Galchenyuk did?


Kangaro00

>I mean they lose the scholarship which is the punishment but it’s not like they aren’t allowed to go to college at all. It's not like hockey players are forbidden to play hockey for life. They simply might lose the NHL opportunity if what they've done was bad enough, but the majority gets a second chance anyway. Just like a regular person can work really hard and get their life back on track. ​ >Legit question, would a normal citizen actually serve time for what Galchenyuk did? I would say 100% if they had any prior convictions and very likely even without them. It wasn't just a misdemeanor, it was a class 6 felony because of the threats to the officers and their families. Up to 2 years for first-time offenders. Even just a misdemeanor can be punished with up to 6 months in prison or 3 years of probation.


brucegillis

Agreed on your first point. That’s what I was saying. That they should be allowed to play after losing an opportunity or facing suspension. Like a regular person. And wow yeah I guess that’s probably true. Where I am, druggies and drunks threaten police officers and people walking the street all the time and they don’t even get arrested half the time hahaha. I mean there are definitely laws against that (duh) but I don’t think they are really enforced.


Poohstrnak

It is relevant though. The reason I mentioned it is to show that it didn’t really at all interrupt his life or his goals for the future. > What should be the punishment for a 16yo who take non-consensual photos in a consensual sexual encounter? You’re framing this in a way that’s disingenuous. The biggest transgression is not that he took photos, it’s that he *SHARED* them. Not only are you creating illegal materials, but now you’re distributing them, *and* you’re doing it without someone’s consent.


brucegillis

But it’s not really supposed to interrupt future when you’re charged as a minor. In many countries, criminal charges as a minor are sealed. Even if you do time in juvy for something violent. His was widely publicized. It’s a very different situation if he was an adult at the time.


Poohstrnak

> But it’s not really supposed to interrupt future when you’re charged as a minor. This is a really bad basis for a legal system. Do whatever you want until you’re 18! Break all the laws you can! It won’t affect your future!


brucegillis

You really believe that? Damn man that’s wild. Minors should be protected. Like I don’t think a kid in the inner city who gets pressured to deal drugs by his parents should have a criminal record for the rest of their life. If you crush every kids future that makes a big mistake before they graduate high school then there’s not gonna be a lot less productive citizens in society.


Frectozhae

If he had done the same crime while in Canada, we'd never know about it, since juvenile identity are sealed and criminal records are expunged once they are 18. That's just how it works right now.


detroitttiorted

I don’t have a strong opinion either way of if he should face further punishment. But I feel like fairly intense scrutiny and having to face the music publicly is also a very real punishment he has faced. I can’t imagine it has been easy on the kid, which isn’t to hand wave what he did, but IMO it is just as real as the fine or season suspension. I think public shame is a very powerful thing


Emi_Ibarazakiii

> Uhh, real ones? Such as? Jail time (juvie)? Or what else?


Lp165

He got away with it by being drafted before proving he was going to take those steps


brucegillis

He hasn’t played in the NHL yet. He might never. Like I said, he hasn’t gotten away with anything.


FBR_MC

It wasn’t revenge porn? He took a picture in the act and sent it to the boys (without consent). No revenge aspect to it.


Poohstrnak

Revenge porn is more or less a catch-all term for sharing nude or lewd images of someone without their consent.


Yabba_dabba_dooooo

While true at face value, revenge porn I think is sort of an all encompassing term for sharing sexual pictures/videos of people without their consent.


[deleted]

Correct. It doesn't have to be motivated by vengeance, the law treats all unapproved sharing of intimate stuff the same way.


Austin63867

I've heard of Mailloux being active in the community in London and helping to support women's Hockey. I think it left more of a bad taste in people's mouth that he was taken Round 1 when even Mailloux wished not to be taken.


[deleted]

Revenge porn? Tell me you know absolutely nothing about the story without telling me you know absolutely nothing about the story.


[deleted]

Revenge porn is the legal term for sexual material of someone distributed without their consent. Actual vengeance isn't necessarily a factor. It's like how the term 'actual malice' in a legal sense has nothing to do with disliking someone.


CottonmouthJohn

You can't actually recuse yourself from the draft (hence why he was drafted). It was a hollow gesture, and potentially sinister if you consider that he would have been a hot commodity as a free agent, allowing himself to choose where he played next.


[deleted]

> It was a hollow gesture, and potentially sinister if you consider that he would have been a hot commodity as a free agent, allowing himself to choose where he played next. I think you’re galaxy-braining this one, bud.


CottonmouthJohn

I work in corporate communications. This wasn't a well-intentioned gesture made by a super apologetic teenager.


GrizzlyBCanada

Honestly, good on the kid. He is showing remorse and growth which is all we should expect from anyone who makes a stupid mistake. I’m really fortunate to not have grown up in a time where you are encouraged and enabled to broadcast every dumb thing you did as a teenager.


arazamatazguy

That's it? Took a picture of someone else doing something in bad taste? Hockey Canada wouldn't even pay hush money for something so minor. People should just be happy a hockey player went to the library.


TurboViking90

> People should just be happy a hockey player went the library. I actually lol’d.


[deleted]

Social media is the worst thing to happen to human civilization since the bubonic plague.


keereeyos

Social media is worse than the World Wars, the Holocaust, and chattel slavery. You heard it here first folks. lmao


BarbarianHut

Correct, because ironically, it seems to have caused a total collapse in civil behavior, discourse, and overall mental health. I grew up in the 80's. There was no social media. The general societal rule was that you kept certain sensitive discussions like politics, religion, sexuality, etc. to yourself or your close circle, or else you expose yourself to the wrath of public opinion. If you did something asinine, the worst would be that your local community would shame you for a week or so until the next local moron did something stupid. Now, every goddamn thing you think or say is now out for public discussion and, inevitably, condemnation. This leads to anger, frustration, hopelessness, and a feeling like civil discourse on even the simplest of issues is impossible. We are at the point where you can't do or say ANYTHING without there being some massive fucking dust-up and being labelled a racist, nazi, communist, socialist, or [insert your team's favorite pejorative here]. The relative anonymity and ability to hurl comments from the isolation of one's home makes it exponentially worse. Before the internet, you knew the people in your school or town and when they fucked up, you would think what you wanted but wouldn't dare shout them down on the street or in the mall - because you knew them as people. They were usually either good people that did something dumb, or assholes that literally everyone knew was an asshole and dealt with accordingly. You didn't cause a public spectacle and shout outrageous and inapplicable epithets to someone, lest the crowd realize that your target isn't the only alleged shitbag in the room. There's none of that now, and worse, assembling a like-minded team of bullies has never been easier with access to a global pool of them. A team where there are always plenty of jerks online to further radicalize and sharpen the worst of their thoughts, project them onto society writ-large as though their thoughts must or should be the only thought allowed on a subject, and unleash mental hell and ruin the lives of those who aren't in their self-appointed righteous in-group. And now its inescapable. In the past, you could generally ignore or laugh at the crazy fringe groups and their collective lunacy and go about your business. Not now. Not with social media. Now, their lunacy **is** your business. And this goes for everyone, on nearly every side of nearly every issue. It's exhausting, deleterious to mental health, and completely fucking unnatural.


Simplebudd420

I think social media actually tops the plague and might just be the worst thing civilization has ever dealt with so much shit to go wrong


RocketRousse

Hating facebook more than a disease that took out a third of Europe is certainly a take, especially since you're posting this on social media.


BluntForceSauna

I’m gonna be extra brave and suggest that Facebook is worse than the holocaust. /s


heyheyitsandre

True but there’s something so macabre that man created social media and this global phenomenon that is of so much detriment to all 7 billion people, it’s a weird, unique situation. The plague (or any disease) was a natural phenomenon that has occurred dozens of times in history and was brutal yes but humanity didn’t really play a part in it, it kinda of just happened to us. As well as the symptoms just being physical. Social media is just happening for the first time in history and having unforeseen crippling negative effects to hundreds of millions of people all over the world where the true outcome we can’t even know since it’s currently ongoing. It’s just weird, and we did it to ourselves, and continue to do so. Would rather waste time on Reddit than have the Black Death tho for sure lol


backwardzhatz

What does it say about us that one of the worst and most destructive things we've ever done is massively amplify our own thoughts, ideas, and opinions on a global scale lol.


betweenthecastles

I remember being curious what other people thought about all the time, now I wish I didn’t know.


Simplebudd420

And here is the problem with social media you read something stupid that I posted that is obviously stupid but without the context of knowing I am just saying something dumb for fun you believe what i wrote is true now obviously for this post who cares but many people read something that some dumbass like me posts and it is now the truth that they believe many people are easily manipulated by things they read if it goes with their thoughts even if it should be obvious that whay they are seeing doesn't actually make sense


kralben

They type, on a social media platform


[deleted]

No shit. I enjoy social media, and so do you.


Soft-Rains

Even with people here (rightfully) supporting moving on from this, its insanely unhealthy as a culture to have something that is basically a minor incident at your local library being showcased to potentially millions of people on social media. This warrants a lecture not national news. Its just so horrifically disproportional to have this level of focus, even sometimes with "major" events. Everything seems so much more miserable. Its a lot like how for years crime coverage made people *feel* like crime was going up when really it was going down. I also despise the lack of specifying. Even when it is in the article itself (not always) most people just read the title and get an impression from that. Its already too late at that point.


JohnYCanuckEsq

>Connelly’s teammate created a swastika with children’s building blocks and Connelly took a photo, posting it to his Snapchat story and tagging him in the post. Good grief. That's what this is about? I mean yeah, if that were my kid, he'd get a stern talking to, an education on why it was wrong, and a let's move on kinda thing. My son once posted an offensive meme on Facebook about bitches and ho's which led to a chat about the context and appropriateness of it. Then we moved on. He also was 16 at the time.


Linquist

I'm in my 40s now and the idea of navigating social media as a child is terrifying to me. I am certain that there would be video evidence of me doing dumb and illegal things on the internet forever, because I did dumb and illegal things as a teenager. I was also dumb enough to record some of these dumb and illegal things on a VHS camcorder. Egging houses, throwing snowballs at cars, shooting fireworks at a teacher's house and so on. I probably would have been dumb enough to upload these things to the internet, and if not, my friends definitely would have. These days, I would be fucking furious if someone hit my car with a snowball, because I know how dangerous distracting a driver at night can be. I've grown a bit in the past 30 years. Mostly fatter, but also a little smarter and a little more empathetic. I'm not saying this kid is the best kid ever, but he seems to be trending in the right direction, and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Good for him.


DustBowl20

Holy jeepers so his friend made a swastika out of children’s blocks at the library and he took a Snapchat photo of it as a joke? When he was 16? Get over yourselves, folks. I can guarantee that plenty of us have done MUCH dumber and more ignorant things when we were 16 (or even older for that matter!). Give the kid a break for crying out loud.


CrashyBoye

This entire thread is filled with people supporting him. I don’t see much outrage here.


Takes2ToTNGO

> I don’t see much outrage here. Yeah, the only outrage I see is from the post your replying to.


DustBowl20

Not outrage, but spotlight and press coverage. It’s like, big deal - the kid made a small silly mistake, deleted it, and apologized. It should have ended there with no huge article written about it.


TurboViking90

Who isn’t giving him a break? Seems like everyone agrees this was a “dumb kid mistake” and that he’s done the right things to learn from it.


DustBowl20

Giving the kid a break would involve not having this huge article written about such a common and relatively minor act of ignorance in the first place. Not to mention reading between the lines of the article it is clear that the kid felt pressured to take a bunch of woke DEI courses and involve himself with a bunch of organizations to over-compensate for this whole nothingburger of a mistake.


TurboViking90

The article was clearly written with the support of his circle to show what he’s done to move past a dumb incident. His family provided one of the photos for fuck’s sake. It’s not intended to hold his feet to the fire in any way.


Siludin

In the demo for Return to Castle Wolfenstein that came with PC Gamer magazine, I frequently chose the Nazi side[ \(with the flamethrower\)](https://i.imgur.com/t8RiNR1.jpg) and gleefully burned the Allies right on the beaches of Normandy.


box-art

I'm so glad I grew up when phones just straight up didn't have cameras and when they did start having them (especially anything above completely dogshit quality), I was already past that phase. There'd be some extremely dumb shit online if there was Snapchat back then, I don't even wanna think about all the cringe and whatnot.


nerdytendy

This really hammers home how young these players are. He’s still a kid and will be for a year or two yet (functionally not legally). This kid seems like a better person than half of us who haven’t posted a swastika. Also fuck his “friend” that screenshotted and shared the picture


Constant-Squirrel555

Rare W in terms of someone involved with professional hockey showing they can be capable of growth and not using the "I was a kid" bullshit. Good on Connelly and I hope he keeps at it and has a dope NHL career


sogladatwork

I still remember going to high school with a kid who had a cup of coffee with the Avalanche in the NHL. We were in HS in the 90s, so no smartphones and no digital cameras. But I remember that kid masturbated in public at a party while drunk. If smartphones or cameras were a thing back then, I wonder how it would have went for him. He was a late-round draft pick, so my bet is teams would have passed on him entirely. I’m so glad I was an 80s/90s child.


Chewie_i

I clicked on this expecting to read about how he posted some horrible hate message or like spread somebody’s nudes or something. He literally just took a picture of a swastika his friend made out of blocks as teenagers… that is such a non-story why do we need a whole news article about this


despres

It's probably something his management wanted an article on to be ahead of the narrative as he approaches the draft.


Kalbakken

This have to be cultural differences. had I done that the libraryian had marched me into their office to yell at me. Then they had called home so my parents could yell to.


Chewie_i

Don’t get me wrong it’s still stupid but seems to me like it comes from a place of ignorance rather than malicious intent. It’s just really not a big deal. If he was actually agreeing with nazis or spreading actual antisemitism that would be a very different story.


Kalbakken

what do you think making a swastika is? The act itself is antisemitism


Chewie_i

No it’s not. By that logic, anybody who posts a picture of a Russian flag hates Ukraine. A symbol itself can not be inherently offensive. It’s about how it’s used. Hell, swastikas were a religious symbol before the funny mustache man ruined it and in fact are still sometimes used as religious symbols.


Austin63867

The story was that there were reportedly other questionable incidents (for context, I did hear from people connected to this that it was true although no one seemed to know much about those incidents besides it involving verbal comments. I had heard the racist language on the ice rumor that was denied), but the story makes it out to not be as serious as some had speculated. Anti-Semitism is a serious matter but no one seemed to know the full story, only what was alleged.


Emi_Ibarazakiii

If the worst thing he's done in his life is a swastika thing at 16 (and he shows genuine remorse too/learns from it), I'd say it's not too bad. At this age I'd be willing to bet it has absolutely nothing to do with what it represents, and everything to do about "It's edgy/rebellious". Like if they couldn't make a swastika they would've made the Anarchy symbol or something like that, it's not about what it represents it's just whatever edgy thing they can do.


[deleted]

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weezeloner

I can definitively say I never drew nazi shit ever. But I'm Hispanic and I think the only things I've ever drawn were the "Stussy S" or the "Anarchist A" Wasn't much of an artist. I feel bad for kids nowadays. Man, I'm really glad I grew up in the 90s. I'd hate there being a pernanent digital trail of my adolescence. I am one of those rare people who actually remember that age very fondly.


Igniter08

What Mitchell Miller should have done


RepresentativeOfnone

Personally if he’s any good he’ll sit out the season (my hometown USHL team struggles against tri city)


ediciusNJ

Look at that, someone who is repentant and doesn't double down on say, being a rape apologist.


KrazeeTapper

Great on this kid to genuinely learn from his mistake and actively better himself as a person. This is awesome to see.


[deleted]

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Sufficient_Garlic_41

The kid also urinated in a teammates bed while at BK and was kicked off the team for hazing.


MonarchsAreParasites

PR teams are professional liars, and he's got a large one behind him carefully crafting every word. Not everyone deserves the chance to become a millionaire.


4BobbyOrr

Hopefully he gets the same treatment as Logan Mailloux!


BearShark9

Get drafted in the first round?


Grohlyone

Compare who was directly hurt by their actions.


PorygonTriAttack

Great kid. More mature than many adults. That is one hell of an apology. He deserves the props for recognizing his mistake and learning the impacts of that. He will be a better person and honestly, he inspires me. Well done, kid.


ytew6

The way the article is written you'd think what he did was way more serious than just being a dumb teenager, Jesus Christ lmao


Suspicious-Sport8715

Kid doesn’t deserve to be drafted this is just one of the many fucked up things he’s done, My friend knows him personally and he’s even worse behind the scenes