As a University of Denver freshman in 2015, Logan O’Connor was scratched from his first 13 games with the Pioneers, and doubt started to swirl in the forward’s head.
“That was the first time in my career that the vision of making it to the NHL was blurred, and I wasn’t exactly sure it was going to work out,” O’Connor recalled on Tuesday. “But I focused on being a good teammate, on what I could prove in practice, and I used that offseason to make sure that didn’t happen again.”
Fast-forward eight years, and LOC’s come-up is on full display early in the season for the Avalanche.