Colorado Avalanche’s New Forward, DU’s Logan O’Connor

The Colorado Avalanche continued to deepen their prospect pool by signing college free agent Logan O’Connor to an entry-level contract.

The Colorado Avalanche are continuing to increase their depth. Today they have signed 21-year-old center Logan O’Connor to a two-year deal.

O’Connor has spent the last three years playing for the University of Denver Pioneers. He was even slated to be their captain for the 2018-19 season. He was part of the 2016-17 DU team that won the NCAA championship.

Logan O’Connor doesn’t have the highest of points totals. In 108 Pioneer games, he has 23 points (16 goals, 27 assists). The 6-foot, 179-pound forward didn’t miss a single game last season, so he’s pretty durable.

Indeed, the DU hockey blog describes O’Connor thus:

“He isn’t the flashiest player on the ice, but he may be the most consistent. Known for his penalty killing and relentless forechecking, O’Connor was one of [head coach Jim] Montgomery’s favorite forwards to put out on the ice, and it showed when he was out there when games were on the line. He can also score some pretty nice goals.”

Here’s an example of one of those “pretty nice goals:”

O’Connor caught the Colorado Avalanche’s eye when he attended the team’s prospect development camp earlier this month. In fact, he really put on a show Sunday night during the three-on-three scrimmage up in Fort Collins. He scored an impressive four goals.

Here’s his first period goal, a backhand rebound:

His second goal came later in the first period on the rush:

Here he comes in for the hat trick — first by making Avs draftee Sampo Ranta look a little foolish, which I don’t necessarily condone:

By goal #6, he was just hot dogging it:

Ok, that was a shootout goal so the prospects could further showcase their talents. That’s exactly what Logan O’Connor did.

GM Joe Sakic and the rest of the Avs front offices were clearly impressed — impressed enough to offer the undrafted O’Connor a two-year entry-level contract. The contract carries a cap hit of $925,000, but he’s slated to make $70,000 at the AHL level, where he’s sure to start.

Sakic said of the acquisition:

“Logan is a hard-working player who brings leadership, energy and speed every night. His game has continued to develop each season, and we are excited that he has decided to pursue his professional career with the Avalanche organization.”

While the team is sure to be proud of O’Connor, the signing is something of a tough break for the DU Pioneers. They had some outgoing seniors and even lost coach Jim Montgomery to an NHL coaching position. (He’ll be taking over as head coach of the Dallas Stars.) DU believed in O’Connor enough to name him captain for what would have been his senior year.

Next: Brett Clark Retrospective

Going pro is the dream, though. I’m sure when the Colorado Avalanche approached him, accepting the contract wasn’t a hard decision to make. As I mentioned, O’Connor is sure to start with the Colorado Eagles. Who knows, though — maybe the kid will get a call-up to the NHL team.