With the Penguins in the midst of their offseason, the Tribune-Review is looking at all 48 players currently under NHL contracts to the organization in alphabetical order, from mid-level prospect Niclas Almari to top-six winger Jason Zucker.

Drew O’Connor

Position: Left winger

Shoots: Left

Age: 23

Height: 6-foot-3

Weight: 200 pounds

2020-21 NHL statistics: 10 games, one point (zero goals, one assist)

2020-21 AHL statistics: 20 games, 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists)

2020-21 Eliteserien statistics: Seven games, 10 points (six goals, four assists)

Contract: First year of a two-year entry-level contract with salary cap hit of $925,000. Pending restricted free agent in 2022

(Note: Per Cap Friendly, O’Connor is exempt from waivers should he be assigned to the AHL.)

Acquired: Undrafted free-agent signing, March 10, 2020

2020-21 season: After signing O’Connor out of Dartmouth in the late winter of 2020, the Penguins sought an avenue to get him some much-needed development playing time last fall while most leagues in North America were on hiatus due to the pandemic.

As a result, he was loaned to Manglerud Star of Norway’s Eliteserien league Nov. 12. In just over a month in what is a fairly low-level league, O’Connor was dominant in his first taste of the professional game, scoring goals in six of the seven games he played in the land of the midnight sun.

O’Connor’s loan was terminated in mid-December and he attended the Penguins’ NHL training camp in early-January, often practicing with members of the projected NHL roster while other prospects skated with candidates for the American Hockey League roster.

Opening the season on the taxi squad, O’Connor was recalled to the NHL roster Jan. 26 and made his debut that night. In a 3-2 road loss to the Boston Bruins, O’Connor recorded a secondary assist while primarily skating on the fourth line.

A steady presence in the lineup until Feb. 11, O’Connor’s ice time began to wane before he was a healthy scratch on Feb. 14. After four more games and a handful of transactions between the NHL roster, taxi squad and the AHL, O’Connor did not see any other NHL action after March 27.

O’Connor made his Wilkes-Barre/Scranton debut Feb. 6 and was one of that team’s most productive players throughout a disjointed and abbreviated season. A steady presence on the power play, O’Connor finished as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s third-leading scorer despite playing in only 20 of that team’s 32 games.

On May 18, O’Connor was recalled to the NHL roster again to serve as a “Black Ace” during the team’s postseason.

The future: O’Connor was seen as being ready for the NHL under former general manager Jim Rutherford, but those lofty projections quickly waned once he saw some playing time under current general manager Ron Hextall.

In the AHL, he got some much-needed seasoning playing top-six minutes and showed he could adapt to the professional game, albeit at a lower level.

A power-forward with some size, O’Connor is one of the largest players in the organization, admittedly in a field of mostly compact bodies. That said, he’s not a particularly vicious or physical entity on the ice.

After some growing pains during his cup of coffee at the NHL level, he showed he could be a productive entity in the AHL. Does that mean he’s ready to graduate to the NHL full time?

Further development in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton certainly wouldn’t hurt O’Connor in 2021-22. But with the possible departures of reserve forwards such as Frederick Gaudreau and Mark Jankowski this offseason (via unrestricted free agency) and the possibility of losing someone such as Teddy Blueger or Zach Aston-Reese via the expansion draft, there appears to be a legitimate opportunity for O’Connor to stake out a regular NHL role next season.

(Note: As a first-year professional, O’Connor is ineligible to be selected in the expansion draft.)

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