Coming into this year, the Penguins were excited about the evolution of Drew O’Connor’s game, with the forward entering his fourth professional season after signing with the organization as a college free agent out of Dartmouth.
“I think he's getting better with every year that he's played with us,” Head Coach Mike Sullivan said. “Drew has a better understanding, I think, of how he needs to play the game in order to set himself up for success. He's a big strong kid, he can really skate. He's got a long reach, and he has some touch. He can score, he can shoot the puck.”
So far, the 25-year-old has done a great job of solidifying himself as an NHL regular in a veteran-heavy lineup through the first quarter of the 2023-24 campaign. O’Connor has been an important part of Pittsburgh’s third line for the majority of that time, also earning opportunities in the top-six. He skated with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel while Bryan Rust was sidelined due to injury, and is now getting a look with Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust in Rickard Rakell's absence.
As O’Connor’s confidence continues to grow on the ice, here are 10 things to know about Pittsburgh’s number 10 off the ice.
- He hated hockey at first.
While Crosby was firing pucks into a washing machine when he wasn’t on the ice as a kid, O’Connor would be fervently trying to get his skates off as quickly as possible.
“I hated it at first. I didn’t want to go back,” O’Connor said about his early days in youth hockey. “The first time I went out there I was with some older kids, and I didn’t know how to stop. I was yelling at my parents, ‘I never want to go back!’ (laughs). But I guess I stuck with it.”
It helped that members of Drew’s family loved the sport, and said that hockey’s constant presence in his life is what allowed him to, as he put it, “naturally fall in love with it”.
“My brother Jack started pretty young, and he was older, so I think I wanted to follow what he was doing. I think just playing in the driveway or in the house like mini sticks,” O’Connor said. “My dad coached me for a long time growing up. I think that helped. He was a huge fan of hockey growing up, so I think he wanted us to play, my brother and my sister and I.”
For more on O’Connor’s path to Pittsburgh with insight from parents Shawn and Meagan, check out this feature.
- He grew up rooting for the New Jersey Devils.
While it should come as no surprise that a kid who grew up in the Garden State in the early 2000s would become a fan of the red and black, there was a chance Drew could have followed his dad’s footsteps into cheering for the Rangers.
“I had been a Rangers fan as a kid, and then the Devils came and the Rangers were terrible. It was the 90s and the Devils were winning Cups, so I switched over,” Shawn said. “I took Drew and Jack to the Meadowlands parking lot to see the Stanley Cup when they won in 2003. Drew had always been a big Devils fan.”
Some of their stars even influenced O’Connor’s game as he got comfortable in his skates.
“They had some good runs, when was pretty young, so it was always fun watching them,” said the Chatham native. “They had Patrik Eliás and Zach Parise, and of course Marty Brodeur was a really good goalie, so it was fun to watch him, too.”
- That being said, the O'Connors did have an Evgeni Malkin jersey in the house growing up.
“It was the blue one from one of the outdoor games. That made our Christmas card one year. They all dressed up in jerseys,” Shawn said with a laugh.
- He’s a country music fan.
Luke Combs sits atop his playlist, and O’Connor singled him out as his favorite musical artist. He was one of a few Penguins who got the chance to see Combs perform this summer at Acrisure Stadium.
“Probably my favorite concert I’ve been to,” O’Connor said. “He’s got some great songs. I think he’s great live, so it was awesome to see him.”
- He wants to travel.
O’Connor has gotten the opportunity to go overseas, as he was loaned to the Manglerud Star, a team based in Norway’s Eliteserien league, during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season. He also represented Team USA at the 2023 World Championship in Finland and Latvia. Moving forward, O’Connor wants to keep adding stamps to his passport.
“Someplace in Europe I think I would want to try,” he said. “I think Japan is also a place I’m interested in going to at some point. I don’t really have a specific bucket list type thing, but maybe just some travel.”
- He’s glad he’s playing hockey for a living. Otherwise, he might be juggling.
If he wasn’t a professional athlete, O’Connor – who completed his degree in sociology from Dartmouth this past summer – isn’t sure what career path he would have taken. “I’d probably be working some kind of job I didn’t enjoy too much,” he said.
Thus, an alternate career for O’Connor is left to the imagination. He did, however, say that his greatest non-hockey skill is juggling, so maybe he’d be starring somewhere under a circus tent.
- He’s flexible with his superstitions.
Unlike most hockey players, O’Connor claims he doesn’t have many superstitions. Besides his pregame meal, O’Connor doesn’t have much that he’s especially fastidious about, unlike his locker stallmate Crosby.
“I have a pretty similar routine every gameday, at least when I get to the rink,” O’Connor said. “But mornings, I don’t have anything super particular.”
He’s not even picky about the number he wears on his back.
“I was 18 at Dartmouth, and when I got here 18 was taken. I think they just gave me 10 because it was closest to 18,” he said. “I like it. I’ll probably stick with it.”
- He tries to read every night before bed.
Even though he couldn’t keep his number from Dartmouth, O’Connor carries his Ivy League habits with him on the road. He tries to carry a book with him as much as possible.
“I don’t really like one genre or anything in particular,” O’Connor said. “But most nights I try to read a little bit to keep my brain sharp.”
That being said, O’Connor’s favorite author is Malcolm Gladwell, which makes sense for a sociology major.
- He prefers TV shows to movies.
He enjoys classic favorites like Game of Thrones and The Office. If O’Connor has to pick a film,
“I pretty much just watch stupid movies like Adam Sandler-type movies to just kind of pass the time,” he said.
- His retirement plans are pretty simple.
O’Connor has got his own Henry Thoreau-esque idea of what his future might look like 50 years from now:
“Hopefully in a cabin somewhere in the woods. Maybe just like hanging out, going on walks, going for swims. Just low-key enjoying life.”
