Penguins A to Z: Drew O'Connor finally arrives

With the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2022-23 season coming to an end without any postseason action, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 49 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until next season — with the organization, from mid-level prospect Corey Andonovski to top-six winger Jason Zucker.

This series will publish every weekday leading into the NHL Draft on June 28 and 29.

(Note: All contract information courtesy of Cap Friendly.)

Drew O’Connor

Position: Left winger

Shoots: Left

Age: 24

Height: 6-foot-3

Weight: 200 pounds

2022-23 NHL statistics: 46 games, 11 points (five goals, six assists)

2022-23 AHL statistics: 20 games, 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists)

Contract: In the final year of a two-year, two-way contract with a salary cap hit of $925,000. Pending restricted free agent in this upcoming offseason.

(Note: O’Connor is eligible for arbitration.)

Acquired: Unrestricted free-agent signing, March 10, 2020

Last season: When Drew O’Connor set a career-high with his 23rd game of the season in February, he wasn’t immediately aware he had reached that milestone.

What was more relevant to him was that he had not made an all-too-familiar trek across Pennsylvania between Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre for several weeks.

“Made a lot of trips from here to Wilkes-Barre and back,” O’Connor said. “So, it’s nice to be here for a longer stretch.”

Salary cap constraints forced O’Connor to open the 2022-23 campaign with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. After putting up six points (two goals, four assists) in his first six AHL games of the season, O’Connor enjoyed a brief recall to the NHL roster Oct. 21 and appeared in three NHL contests with no points before being sent back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton by Nov. 6.

Over the next month, O’Connor served as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s top center and was a dominant producer as he generated 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) in 12 games before earning his next recall Dec. 14.

With the exception of a paper transaction March 3, O’Connor spent the rest of the season on the NHL roster and it doesn’t seem like he’ll be going back to the AHL any time soon.

While injuries hobbled several of the team’s incumbent forwards, O’Connor took advantage of their absences and filled in whatever void existed among the team’s bottom-six forwards. Appearing in 43 of the team’s final 50 games of the season, O’Connor averaged 9:54 of ice time per contest, including 31 seconds on the penalty kill.

While O’Connor’s offensive contributions were limited given his deployment, he did set career highs in goals, assists and points.

In May, O’Connor served as the United States’ second-line center in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship and racked up eight points (three goals, five assists) in 10 contests.

The future: Things seem to be pretty cut and dry with O’Connor moving forward.

The team still has him under contract control and he appears to have found a role on the NHL roster.

Some much larger things must occur with the bottom-six forwards as a whole, but O’Connor definitely seems to be a safe bet to be in the mix on a full-time basis to open the season.

There’s still plenty of room for development. As one of the bigger bodies in the organization, O’Connor can be more assertive in using his size to his advantage with and without the puck. And as an occasional center, he can certainly improve in the faceoff circle having only won 46.2% of his draws in 2022-23.

But after three seasons of mixed results, O’Connor seems to have finally arrived as an NHLer.

Follow the Penguins all season long.