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Returning to the Ontario Hockey League after a season of pro hockey, Soo Greyhounds defenceman Ryan O’Rourke has taken advantage of the extra hockey he has played since the start of the 2020-21 hockey season.
A prospect of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, O’Rourke spent last season with Minnesota’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Iowa Wild, getting into 33 games with the team in his first taste of the pro game.
Prior to the 2021-22 OHL season, O’Rourke spoke of how his skating improved during his time in the AHL.
“Obviously at that level, the skating is a lot more important,” O’Rourke said in an interview prior to the season. “The guys are a lot faster. Being a defenceman in that league, you have to be a really good skater to keep up and your skating can really help you defend some bigger guys and even faster guys.”
The improvement in that aspect of his game has continued through this season as well.
“My skating and my size and just my strength overall have improved,” O’Rourke said in an interview ahead of the Greyhounds two-game home series with the Windsor Spitfires. “From the beginning until now, my skating has gotten so much better. My tenacity and my consistency have gotten so much better.”
The return to junior hockey also saw the Greyhounds captain get the opportunity to represent his country in the COVID-shortened World Junior Hockey Championship at Christmas.
Greyhounds coach John Dean said the added hockey has had a positive impact on the veteran blueliner.
“He’s played a lot of hockey and it wears and tears on you for sure, but with that hockey came a lot of experience,” Dean said. “It’s clearly worn off on him in a very good way. This past week or two weeks has been his most dominant as a Greyhound. He took over the week. Physically in his own zone, he’s been incredible, and now he’s starting to show some of his mobility with the puck as well. He really asserted himself with the puck and he’s another guy that we’re still scratching at the surface for some more and I say that with love. He’s one of the best defencemen in the league, if not the best. To say that he’s got potentially more is pretty cool.”
Asked about his offensive game evolving further this year, O’Rourke said not much has changed in terms of how he got to that point.
“My game revolves around defence, so it’s really just getting those chances and opportunities and it’s been going my way,” O’Rourke said.
Playing on a Greyhounds team that has been in a battle for top spot in the OHL’s West Division, O’Rourke has seen an improvement in a team that, much like many teams across the league, featured a lot of new faces entering the season.
“From the beginning of the season, we’ve improved everyday, just trying to get better and better,” O’Rourke said. “You can definitely see now, looking back, the things that we’ve changed and the things that everybody has improved on and just the experience that everyone has gained.”