Playing his game
O’connor making his mark by being tenacious, relentless
At age 8, at the family’s outdoor rink in Calgary, Logan O’connor applied weights to his skates. The added resistance helped intensify his morning workouts before school. He liked it so much he often used the weights during team practices later in the day.
From an early age, O’connor was determined to work harder than anyone else around him, according to his father Myles.
And sometimes that meant pulling members of his own family into the training regimen, with his mother, Cathy, donning goaltender pads after little brother Owen decided he’d had enough.
“Hockey was on his brain his whole youth,” Myles said. “He was all in at a young age. I coached him when he was young and he always wanted to be the first to the rink, first on the ice, first in the drills.”
That attitude has served Logan well throughout his career — one that’s seen him go from undrafted out of the University of Denver to become the rightwinger on the Avalanche’s top line this season. His father, a 1985 third-round draft pick of the New Jersey Devils who played 43 NHL games, said his son’s relentless nature led to his battle to make it as a professional.
“We always talked about adversity and that hockey owes you nothing,”
Myles said. “Logan never made any of the U14, U16, etc., all-star teams. Never drafted in (major-junior), the NHL.
“I know that quietly drove him.”
Stubborn success
Logan O’connor, the 6-foot, 175pound hockey player, is defined by his exceptional drive.
A skilled skater, he’s tenacious without the puck and is always trying to get better with it. His forechecking and penalty killing made him stand out as a bottom-six forward at DU for three seasons from 2015 to ’18, until the Avs invited him to a development camp and fully appreciated his under-valued skills. A maximum two-year, free-agent entry-level contract ($925,000 cap hit, $92,500 annual signing bonus) was required to make him forgo his senior season in which he was named captain.
Avs coach Jared Bednar never envisioned O’connor as a top-line NHL forward, based on the fact he was never a top scorer at DU, but O’connor developed a fantastic wrist shot and kept gaining confidence making plays with heralded linemates Gabe Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen.
Perfecting his wrist shot is the result of constant work. Before the Avs practice as a team, O”connor often goes out with goalie coach Jussi Parkkila and shoots on the netminders.
“I’m always looking at puck placement, accuracy. Goalies are so good
nowadays, you have to be deceptive. You have to change the angle. You have to have a quick release,” O’connor said. “It’s taken me a while to get here. I still don’t think I am where I want to be but it’s slowly coming.”
O’connor, 25, replaced the injured J.T. Compher on the top line five games ago after Compher stepped in for star center Nathan Mackinnon, who has missed the past seven games with an injury.
Currently in his second contract and fourth professional season, O’connor is Colorado’s lowest-paid player with a cap hit of $725,000 — a whopping $8.3 million less than Rantanen and $6.275 million less than Landeskog. But he fits in nicely with those two because he’s a right-shot speedster like Mackinnon and Compher and he emulates those guys in many other ways.
“OC’S been playing well all season and he’s earned that right to play on the top line,” Landeskog said Wednesday after the Avs extended their winning streak to six games with a 5-2 triumph over Anaheim. “He’s playing really well for us.”
Growth from adversity
There was a time, however, when O’connor wasn’t deemed good enough to play for DU, let alone the Avs.
Pioneers’ head coach David Carle recruited O’connor in 2014 when he was a Pioneers’ assistant coach and O’connor was playing with Sioux Falls of the United States (junior) Hockey League. O’connor joined DU in the fall of 2015 and was immediately a depth forward. But he was a healthy scratch in 21 of the last 22 games as the Pioneers advanced to the Frozen Four.
“It’s a great story of adversity,” Carle said.
O’connor combated his benching with a determination to get into the lineup and not leave. And as a sophomore, he was one of six Pioneers to play in all 44 games as DU went on to win the 2017 national championship.
Troy Terry of the Anaheim Ducks was O’connor’s roommate when they were freshmen. They remain close friends and Terry is not shocked O’connor has developed into a front-line NHL forward.
“He was always a very good college player. He’s had that skating ability since we were in college,” Terry said. “He works hard. Does everything right. I was a little surprised, but now that I think about it — I was his roommate, I got to see how hard he works firsthand, he’s a guy that’s truly had to work for everything he’s gotten. That’s why I say it’s not surprising when I think about that now. He’s always had that drive.”
Terry collected himself before adding: “I almost get emotional talking about it. I’m so happy for him. He won’t go away, basically. He just keeps working and now he’s built himself a huge role. I couldn’t be more proud of him.”
Underpaid future
O’connor played a career-high 22 NHL games last season before undergoing sports hernia and groin surgery. He returned to play in the final two games of the playoffs.
This season, he has contributed three goals and seven points and played in all 17 games entering play Saturday. He feels like an Avalanche regular for the first time.
“I always felt like I had the abilities to do it,” he said of playing on an NHL’S top line. “When you’re in college it’s sort of tough to think that far ahead. What’s helped me is finding my identities as a player. It’s taken me time, coming up and down, going in the minors, developing, to fully understand what gives me success in this league.
“Chipping pucks in, being tenacious all over the ice, a relentless forecheck — those are all staples of my game that revolve around speed. That’s my game. That’s how things are generated.”
O’connor signed a three-year extension with the Avs in September — a team-friendly deal that will pay him $1.05 million annually beginning next season. He doesn’t regret it, despite acknowledging he probably could have gotten more money if he had waited for his current contract to expire.
“It’s nice to have that security,” O’connor said. “Things have gone good as of late, but there are lots of ups and downs throughout the season and just having that security has been nice, not worrying about that. Just going out there and playing hockey is big. You don’t have to worry about that next contract.
“You can sort of relax a bit and just play your game.”