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Drew O’Connor had a career year despite Canucks’ season-long struggles: Year in Review
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Jacob Fraser
May 1, 2026, 17:00 EDTUpdated: May 1, 2026, 13:47 EDT
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Coming into this season, there was an expectation that Drew O’Connor would be a key piece to the Vancouver Canucks bottom-six, in hopes of helping this team compete for a playoff spot. 
Fresh off a two-year $2.5-million extension, O’Connor’s first full season as a member of the Canucks began similarly to many of his teammates. Through his first 11 games, O’Connor had registered just one assist and had yet to find the back of the net. 
There was undoubtedly concern within the market, given that he and fellow trade partner Marcus Pettersson had just signed multi-year extensions at the price of a first-round pick that ultimately became the 12th overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. 
O’Connor certainly wasn’t alone in his underwhelming output to start the season, but following that disappointing 11-game stretch, he was fairly quick to turn things around. 
As the season went along, the New Jersey native proved to be a solid depth scoring option for the team and was one of the more consistent players in the lineup night in and night out. One of the narratives that came from this was that O’Connor was feeding off his linemate, Kiefer Sherwood. 
This would make sense, as even though Sherwood was dealt to the San Jose Sharks midway through the season, O’Connor’s most common line combination at even strength this season features Sherwood and Aatu Räty. 
Following that sluggish 11-game start to the year, O’Connor followed up his next 11 games, potting six goals and tacking on three assists. This kind of offensive production seemed to be a theme for him this season, with multiple pointless stretches followed by a few hot streaks. He had eight separate stretches of three or more games where he failed to register a point, while also having five multi-point games this season. 
Despite the streakiness in the point production, O’Connor worked as hard as anyone on any given night and could always be trusted on the penalty kill and in the defensive end. According to Hockey Reference, of the forwards who played 40 or more games this season, O’Connor averaged the third most ice-time on the penalty kill with 1:02 per game behind just Sherwood and Conor Garland. 
Now that we’ve given a bit of an outline on O’Connor’s impact offensively and defensively, it’s important to mention that this was a career year for him in the goal column. 
Finishing the year with 17 goals, besting his previous career high in the 2022-23 season with the Pittsburgh Penguins by one. 
Getting close to 20 goals from a $2.5-million player has to be seen as a big success for the Canucks organization, especially in a year where there weren’t many successful aspects, and of course, a success for O’Connor himself. 
Totalling 17 goals and 12 assists through 82 games this season is a great building block for O’Connor heading into the final year of his deal. Seen as a trade chip at certain points throughout the year for the rebuilding Canucks, there’s a good chance that narrative will continue to follow him in the offseason and next year. 
Overall, he reached a new career high in goals, solidified himself as a player who can play up and down the lineup as needed, and became one of the most consistent players on the team. Though the 29-point total isn’t much to write home about, he still managed to finish top-10 in team scoring, received multiple looks in the team’s top-six forward group, and took home this year’s Unsung Hero Award.
As mentioned, his most common linemates this season were Sherwood and Räty, but a close second was Brock Boeser and Marco Rossi. O’Connor was also forced to play down the middle for parts of the season, centring Sherwood and Evander Kane. As a career winger with over 300 games under his belt, the transition to the middle of the ice couldn’t have been easy. Yet his size, speed, and defensive IQ made it less noticeable that O’Connor was being forced to play outside of his natural position. 
This year certainly had its ups and downs for O’Connor. But despite the lack of positives from the Canucks season, it’s fair to say the play of Drew O’Connor was one of the few bright spots on an overall dark year. 
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