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It’s not far from Magness Arena to Ball Arena, but a path to a day like Monday looked a million miles away for Logan O’Connor as a freshman at the University of Denver.
O’Connor was not drafted by an NHL team. He spent a chunk of his freshman year at DU as a healthy scratch for the Pioneers. The Colorado Avalanche was the only club to offer him an invite to a summer development camp.
That same guy signed a six-year, $15 million contract Monday. The Avs secured one of their key glue guys through the 2030-31 season and O’Connor wrote another chapter in his remarkable local hockey story.