The Colorado Avalanche have been relatively healthy this season when compared to the 2024-25 season, when they had the most call-ups of any team, but one player in particular has yet to see the ice. Logan O’Connor, who has been out due to hip surgery, has missed the entire year so far, but head coach Jared Bednar has given some positive news regarding the fourth-line center.
Logan O’Connor is back on the ice skating again.
— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) February 3, 2026
“We feel confident in the plan and he feels good about it. He’s starting to ramp up here again,” Bednar said.
Said LOC will be taking advantage of the break by skating to the point where he “hopefully” joins the team later.
O’Connor was expected to to miss 5-6 months because of the surgery. In June, it was reported that he was undergoing a second hhip surgery. Fast forward eight months, and here we are. Fans have wondered for some time now what in the world happened with LOC? It’s a fair question given that there aren’t many details that get leaked when it comes to injuries.
Oftentimes, we only know a predicted timeline. After that 5-6 months came to an end, it just left fans wondering even more.
O’Connor had two goals and four assists during the team’s lone playoff run last postseason. He had 10 goals and 11 assists in 80 regular season games last season, and led all Avalanche forwards in shorthanded ice time with 157:44. While the Avalanche are second in the entire NHL in penalty kill percentage (84.4 percent), adding O’Connor into the mix is only going to benefit the Avs.
It’s been a superb season for the Avalanche thus far, minus their power play flaws. Once O’Connor gets back into the swing of things, it could help the Avs get in more of a rhythm.
On December 31, Bednar openly admitted that “it isn’t going well” in terms of LOC’s status. Hopefully, two months later, things are starting to trend in the right direction.
It is probably not smart to assume that O’Connor will be ready to go immediately after the Olympic break. Injured players often have to take some time to get right and into hockey shape. With O’Connor being out so long, I’d imagine the case will be the same. As stated in the post above, he’ll get some on-ice work in during the Olympic break and go from there.
Unfortunately, it’s still a wait-and-see situation, but this is some positive news that hopefully only gets better from here.