Drew O’Connor

O’Connor became the first player in the brief five-year history of the National Collegiate Development Conference to reach the NHL. A star player for the Boston Junior Bruins in the inaugural NCDC season of 2017-18, he scored 39 points in 49 games before moving on to a two-year career with the Dartmouth College Big Green. In 2020-21, he signed pro with the Pittsburgh Penguins and played in his first 10 NHL games that season, registering one assist. He has also played in 53 games for the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins through 2021-22.

He has played in 241 NHL games through the end of the 2024-25 season, which he started with Pittsburgh and ended with Vancouver.

‘I was only going to play one year of juniors, so I wanted to be in a place where I’d play a lot and really work on my game and the on-and off-ice training, and the Junior Bruins and the USPHL were a perfect fit. We had a lot of good players