PITTSBURGH — Let’s start with the silver lining, because Logan O’Connor’s journey back to the Colorado Avalanche lineup was an arduous one filled with twists and frustrating turns.
Through 69 missed games and long periods of uncertainty, O’Connor also got to experience one of the great joys of his life. Brooks O’Connor was born in mid-November, the first child for Logan and his wife, Kendra.
“If there was any time to be injured, it’s been this year for sure,” O’Connor told The Denver Post. “As challenging as things have been professionally for me, at home has been remarkable. My wife’s been an absolute machine. She’s been unbelievable through it all, dealing with what I’ve been dealing with professionally, and being a first-time mother and father.
“It’s helped to be able to keep my focus on family at times, opposed to the challenges that I’ve been facing personally with being out the whole year. … It definitely puts a lot more things into perspective, and I just enjoyed the extra time at home I had that I wouldn’t be getting otherwise.”
O’Connor is back with the Avs now. He made his season debut Tuesday night in a 6-2 win over the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena.
Colorado coach Jared Bednar said the plan was to get O’Connor about 8-10 minutes in his first action since Game 7 of the 2025 playoffs in Dallas. It went so well that he ended up logging more than 15 minutes.
He forechecked all night. He killed key penalties. He set up a goal with a perfectly placed pass.
He was “OC” again, back like he never left.
“Yeah, not bad,” O’Connor said after the game. “I think you shake a lot of the rust off early. Especially the first couple shifts, things feel like they’re going a little fast. You’re not used to certain types of situations, so definitely nice to get the first one under my belt. It’s been a long time coming. Hopefully, as the games go on, I’ll feel more and more comfortable and continue to find my game more and play to my identity more and more as it goes on.”
The Avalanche’s Logan O’Connor fights with the Penguins’ Rickard Rakell (67) and Anthony Mantha (39) during the third period of an NHL game Tuesday night in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
‘The hardest part was the unknown’
O’Connor is a quintessential “glue guy” in the NHL. An undrafted free agent from the University of Denver, he’s been an easy player for Avalanche fans to root for and watch grow up as a quality NHL role player.
Colorado rewarded him with a six-year contract, at the time a rarity for a guy who typically plays on the third or fourth line. But there’s no question about O’Connor’s value to the Avs. It goes well beyond the goals and the assists on the back of his hockey cards.
“It’s huge. It’s hard to describe to the people that aren’t in this locker room, what he means to this group,” Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog said. “Not everybody knows what he’s been going through, but I think I can relate a little bit. So much respect for him and what he’s gone through, and the road that he’s been on. He continues to just put the work in, and it’s just awesome to see him back.”
We haven’t known what was going on with O’Connor. Still don’t, really.
The Avalanche announced O’Connor was going to have offseason hip surgery in early June. The timeline was 5-6 months. When training camp began, coach Jared Bednar said O’Connor was on track for an early November return.
That timeline came and went. Bednar said O’Connor had a separate issue pop up just before he was ready to return. The Avs have never offered what it was, aside from the coach calling it a soft-tissue injury.
Even as O’Connor prepared to play his first game in more than 10 months on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, he sidestepped a couple of chances to reveal what the actual problem was. He and Bednar both detailed the long process to get here, though.
Lots of doctor visits. Second and third opinions. Tests, then more tests. “Trial and error, at times,” as Bednar put it.
“Something else came up, pretty unrelated to the hip surgery that took us, I want to say, months to figure out what it was exactly,” O’Connor said. “It was definitely a tough process to go through. It got to the point where it didn’t even matter what it was. It was just like a, ‘Tell me what it is,’ type of thing. I ended up getting clarity months into the process, and then had a game plan in place to return to play.
“The hardest part was the unknown. I knew I would play again. Very different to (Landeskog’s) situation. His was … didn’t know if he’d ever play again. Mine was, I knew I’d play. It was just a matter of when, but the uncertainty of not knowing what it was for the longest time was definitely challenging. … Once we got (clarity), the process was pretty smooth from there on out, but it just took a lot of time to get to that place.”
Not an easy re-entry
There were times during the season when the local media would report that O’Connor was skating at Family Sports Center. There were times when that was just to test something out, not a next step forward in his recovery process.
That entire process was a grind, mentally as much as physically. Then came the next challenge.
O’Connor was ready to return, but the Avs have stopped staging traditional practices. The compressed schedule due to the 2026 Winter Olympics, combined with Colorado being an older club still trying to fend off the Dallas Stars for the top spot in the Western Conference, has meant the Avs are trying to rest as much as possible.
If they do go on the ice on the day before a game, it’s been an optional workout. O’Connor never got to take part in a 5-on-5 drill before his return. He had very little contact in a practice environment. Players rarely come back from long-term absences without checking off those boxes.
“We tinkered with plans along the way. There was a chance I was going to go down with the Eagles, but things changed with that plan” O’Connor said. “My game and mindset doesn’t change. It’s all about the details. It’s just that much more important, because I will have a lot of that rust that I’ll have to shake off. There is a time frame here to shake that off, but there’s not a ton of games left.
“Better late than never, but there’s definitely going to be challenges that will come along the way as I try and get back in the groove of things.”
One the ice, it didn’t look like there were many challenges for him Tuesday night. He got into multiple post-whistle scrums and ended up in the penalty box after one.
There was one moment where the layoff showed up. O’Connor did the second intermission interview with Altitude Sports’ Kyle Keefe. There were some heavy, deep breaths.
At one point, he had to steady himself against the wall outside the visitors’ locker room.
“A couple of those PKs gassed me out a little bit,” O’Connor said through a laugh. “You can do whatever you can do in practice, but at the end of the day, until you’re in a game, nothing will ever replicate the intensity, the battle, the shift length, how dynamic the game is.
“There’s a lot more to it. I think the legs will come back quickly. When the mind’s thinking a little quicker, the legs don’t have to do as much. But when your mind’s behind, you feel like you have to play catch-up at times.”
When he wasn’t catching his breath, O’Connor made an obvious impact. He played on a line with Nazem Kadri and Parker Kelly. He was the second forward over the boards after Brock Nelson during a 3-on-5 situation.
It was a long time coming. It’d be hard not to call it an overwhelming success.
“I thought he was really good for not having played all year long. Obviously, he did a great job with his conditioning,” Bednar said. “The conditioning wasn’t an issue. He wanted to keep playing, so he ends up with 15 minutes and had a great night.
“It was really nice to have him back.”
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