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Who is Connor O'Reilly?
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TheNextGreatOneRegistered Mango
Who is Connor O’Reilly?
By Jeff Campbell, Hockey News Today. Today was like every other day for more, or so it seemed. I went into work checked out the latest hockey news, texted some of my sources, you know the usual, until my editor Harry Austin called me into his office. This can only mean one thing, a requested article to right. After I enter his office he tells me what my next assignment is, an article on a new SMJHL draft eligible player by the name of Connor O’Reilly, who I never heard of until he signed up to be in the SMJHL draft. I had no time to do research on him and had to go to the interview immediately. I get to the interview and sit down, waiting for him to show. As soon as he showed up I had to let the cat out of the bag. “I’m sorry about this but I don’t know much about your,†I said, “So could you possibly explain yourself to me and the readers?†“Sure,†he replied, “Hi, I am Connor O’Reilly, 6’5†defenseman from Kilkenny, Ireland. I consider myself as a shut-down defenseman, that is also able to move the puck, and can get that long pass out of the zone to setup an odd-man rush. I’m not afraid to shy away from the physical game, however being 6’5â€, and my style, some people have said I've been weak on the physical game.†I then asked him about his style and who he would compare it to. “I don’t know,†he said, “it’s really tough for me to compare my play to others, to be honest, as I've never watched much hockey in North America. I like to consider my play style to be different from others and hopefully that’s true.†Next I asked him what he thinks his strengths and weaknesses are, “I think my strength would be my ability to play a shut-down role, had a +54 last season, with an average of 30 minutes for my TOI. As for my weakness, it might be my fighting ability. Growing up playing hockey in Ireland, not many players fought and I didn't need to, and according to some people I have talked to they told me I should work on fighting, should I want to make it far in the SHL. I also would like to improve my shooting, just keep on shooting the puck wide when I take a shoot. Had a .200 shoots on target last season, haha.†Next we talked about how he got into hockey. “Growing up in Ireland I played soccer during the summers,†O’Reilly said. “However once the soccer season was done I didn't have sport to play. My parents got me into both hockey and basketball during the off-season to help me when soccer season started up. I original player center in my first few years, but in my 4th season of hockey, my coach moved me back to defense as I wasn't playing well at center, and it turned out fantastically. Then a few years ago I had to choose between soccer, basketball and hockey. Soccer was my passion, but I knew it would be hard to go far as a pro in soccer and for basketball I wasn't that good at and I didn’t grow much after that, so I choose hockey and I’m lucky I did. After I choose hockey, my parents got me a hockey agent to help me on my path to pro. After a couple of good suggestions, he finally told me to come to North America and try to get into the SMJHL, so here I am.†Next we talked about his time in North America. “So is this your first time in North America, and if not how are you liking it so far?†I asked. “Good,†O’Reilly responded. “It’s a different culture from Ireland, but not by much. Although I am lucky I’m not a tea drinker, or else I’d be having troubles staying here.†Next I asked him what is his favourite and least favourite part about North America. “Favourite has to be the hockey, lots and lots of hockey on TV. In Ireland you are barely able to catch a game on the television and when you do, it’s typical not the best players. Least favourite has to be my tinder game, I mean if I’m going to live in here, might as well try to meet some ladies, unfortunately, they don’t like the same pickup lines as the laddies back home.†We then start to talk about the current SMJHL & SHL finals [EDITORS NOTE: this was done before the results of the finals]. “I've been lucky to go to some of the SMJHL final games, I personally think the Knights will win, however I would like to see Detroit come back and force a game 7, maybe even win it. As for the SHL finals I haven’t been following it much, so I’m going to go with Hamilton.†I then asked him about the SMJHL and where he thinks he will be picked. “Hopefully number 1,†he said. “But realistically I hope to go 3rd to 5th round, but it all depends on the GMs. I think some GM might reach for me and hopefully that will pay off for him, but not being well known should and probably will hurt my draft rankings. Right now I just hope to get drafted, let alone where I end up.†That’s the end of my interview with him. I may not be a GM, but he seems very confident and seems like a hard worker, if I were one of them I would use a 2nd to 3rd round pick on him, but like I said I’m not a GM. I wish Connor luck and the draft and look out for him on the ice in the upcoming SMJHL season.
TheNextGreatOneRegistered Mango
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