Drew O’Connor seems to have a penchant for wearing green.
Five years ago, the Chatham, N.J., native skated briefly for the Delbarton School’s Green Wave in his home state. Now he’s the leading scorer for the NCAA Division 1 Big Green as a sophomore forward at Dartmouth College.
“He had 17 goals last year, and he was our leading returning scorer,” said longtime Dartmouth head coach Bob Gaudet. “He was one of the top three freshmen in the country in goals last year, and he brings a lot to our team.”
As a freshman, O’Connor led Dartmouth in goals and was second with 26 points en route to earning ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week honors three times, along with All-Ivy League second-team accolades.
O’Connor is pacing Dartmouth with 13 goals and 11 assists for 24 points through his first 23 games this season, including three game-winning goals. His performance was topped by a two-goal outing against Boston University on Jan. 11, in which he notched the game-tying and game-winning goals just 47 seconds apart midway through the third period, in the Big Green’s 5-4 victory.
“Things are going well so far,” said O’Connor, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound forward. “We’ve won some big games, including our holiday tournament, and I’m happy with that.”
He also notched the winning goal in overtime at Princeton on Jan. 3 in his return to his home state, which had the bonus of being Gaudet’s 1,000th career game as a coach.
“He’s an outstanding offensive player and a fabulous athlete,” added Gaudet of O’Connor.
O’Connor would like to keep improving as the campaign continues and the Big Green battle for ECAC Hockey playoff position.
“I think I’d like to try to produce a little more consistently,” said O’Connor. “I’ve played with (linemate) Quin Foreman the whole year, and he’s been a huge part of my success this season.”
To say the least. Foreman sat right behind O’Connor in team scoring with 10 goals and 21 points in the Big Green’s first 23 games.
After playing most of his formative hockey in New Jersey, O’Connor, 21, headed to New England to play for the Junior Bruins for one winter before deciding to attend college in the Upper Valley of New Hampshire.
“Dartmouth was the first place I visited,” he recalled of the recruitment process. “I came here and really liked it. I felt comfortable with the coaching staff, and it’s an incredible school with a great culture.
“It was an easy decision for me when I got to campus,“ he added. “It was kind of the first place that showed a lot of interest in me, and it’s kind of the place I wanted to go.”
Though known for his scoring prowess, O’Connor has worked diligently on refining other areas of his on-ice repertoire.
“I can play a 200-foot game and in all situations,” he said. “One of the things I’ve tried to improve is working on my defensive game. I’ve played a little bit of center this season, and last season the offense came a little bit easy.”
Although offense might have been a little tougher to come by this year, after the rest of ECAC Hockey and the NCAA got to notice him as a freshman, it’s still his bread and butter.
“I focus on all three zones, and on getting to the net, playing in the dirty areas, and forechecking hard,” said O’Connor. “If I’m doing all that, I have the most success.”
That success included O’Connor’s move to center in late December, a position which Gaudet explained that Dartmouth’s No. 18 probably hadn’t played since his youth hockey days.
“He's been a left winger most of his career, and has played both sides for us,” said Gaudet, himself a Dartmouth alumnus who has helmed the Big Green since 1997. “He adapted quickly, and helped us win our tournament.”
In the 2019 Ledyard Bank Classic held at Dartmouth on Dec. 28-29, O’Connor scored two goals and an assist in the opener, a 5-2 win over Colorado College. He followed up the next night with a goal and an assist in a 4-3 triumph over Connecticut, and also sparked the Big Green’s comeback that evening by scoring the first goal of his team’s three-goal third period.
Growing up in the Garden State, O’Connor naturally gravitated toward rooting for Jersey’s NHL team.
“I was definitely a Devils fan,” he said. “I’d go to games with my dad and my brother, and he got us both into hockey growing up.”
O’Connor got his competitive start on ice with the New Jersey Colonials organization and skated with their Bantam minor and major programs in the early part of the 2010s. He also was a key contributor to their 2011 USA Hockey 12-U national title team, as he scored a goal in both the Colonials’ national semifinal and championship game victories in Hackensack, N.J.
“We won a national championship, and it was a great team,” he said. “I later switched to the North Jersey Avalanche to help my career.”
He remembered he how he got “a lot of opportunities” under head coach Mark Lotito of Staten Island, N.Y., while skating for the Avalanche’s 18-U team in the Atlantic Youth Hockey League, plus the U-18 squad in the Eastern Hockey League, both out of Hackensack.
“It was a place I really liked,” said O’Connor of playing with the Avs. “A lot of great players have gone through that program.”
The list of Avalanche alumni in the college ranks this season includes Harvard’s Jack Badini (Old Greenwich, Conn.), Sacred Heart’s Marc Johnstone, and Princeton’s Michael Ufberg and Adam Robbins.
O’Connor also toiled for New Jersey prep school powerhouse Delbarton in his scholastic career, but that was basically a pit stop along the way.
“I only had one full year of varsity high school hockey,” said O’Connor. “I thought it was a better opportunity to play for the Avalanche. There was more opportunity there, and that’s why I switched over.”
In 28 games with Delbarton in 2014-15, he contributed a goal and seven assists. He was also a member of the Green Wave’s state prep runner-up squad that season before later graduating from the school, but his on-ice lessons at that point were learned with the Avalanche, plus a cameo with the North American Hockey League’s New Jersey Junior Titans.
After two full campaigns with the Avs, in which he netted over 30 goals in all, O’Connor set his sights north for the first time and played one season with the Junior Bruins of the National Collegiate Development Conference, the tuition-free junior development arm of the United States Premier Hockey League. That lone campaign in the NCDC proved invaluable to his development and his initial scoring prowess at the NCAA level.
“Coming out of U-18, I wanted to play in a place where I could develop my game, get stronger and get playing time,” said O’Connor. “We had a pretty good team, and the focus was on development. It definitely prepared me well for going to Dartmouth.”
In 49 games with the Junior B’s in 2017-18, he collected 13 goals and 39 points before heading to Hanover, N.H., where’s he’s suited up ever since for the Big Green, who finished 13-17-4 overall a year ago. Dartmouth is 10-9-4 overall.
“Every game is a battle,” said O’Connor of ECAC Hockey. “There’s a lot of great teams, and a lot of top teams, but we feel we can compete with anybody. There’s no one we take lightly, and we’ve set ourselves up well in the first half. Now we hope to get into the top four for home ice, and get good position for the playoffs.”
Before that, he’s navigating the New Hampshire winter, mostly between athletics and academics, while waiting for the New England weather to eventually warm up.
“Right now, there’s a lot of snow, so there’s not too much going on,” he chuckled of the campus scenario in January. “In the spring you’ve got the (Connecticut) river to swim in. You hang out with the guys on the team, and that’s always fun. You miss out on skiing and stuff in-season, but it’s fun playing hockey.”
Undrafted by an NHL club, O’Connor hopes to suit up somewhere in the pros once he skates off the ice at Thompson Arena for the final time as a competitive college player.
“I would definitely like to play pro,” said O’Connor, who was on the verge of choosing his academic major as January came to a close, with an interest in possibly studying economics. “Right now I’m focused on Dartmouth, and having successful teams here, but I would definitely like to continue playing after college.”
Don’t bet against him doing that, and more, says his current coach.
“He’s a bona fide pro prospect, without question,” said Gaudet, who noted that O’Connor regularly sees duty with both the Big Green’s power-play and penalty-killing units.
“He plays a 200-foot-game as a center for our team now, and he’s a great kid and a really high academic student,” said Gaudet. “He’s a really smart kid, and a player with a bright future.”
