A longtime locker room leader, Cal O'Reilly crossed 900 AHL games with the team that gave him his first taste of professional hockey
Last night Cal O'Reilly suited up for his historic 900th regular season AHL game alongside the Milwaukee Admirals, becoming the 15th player in league history to crack the milestone. Though his road through the junior ranks to the life of a pro has been anything but linear.
O'Reilly, a fifth-round pick of the Nashville Predators in 2005 and brother of fellow Pred Ryan O'Reilly, returned to the Admirals this offseason, the team he began his pro career with for four seasons from 2005-09.
Coming off a scintillating 99-point final junior year with the OHL's Windsor Spitfires, in a year in which he suited up for two games with the Admirals, O'Reilly would play a full 78 games with the club in 2006-07, putting up 18 goals and 65 points and another three points in four playoff games.
He would earn a pro-best 79 points in 2007-08 and follow that up with a pair of 69 and 40 points seasons, the latter of which (2008-09) saw him make his NHL debut with the Predators, where he'd put up three goals and five points in 11 games.
The Toronto native would stay in the Preds system until 2011-12 before bouncing between the then-Phoenix Coyotes and Pittsburgh Penguins.
Two seasons in the KHL from 2012-14 with the Magnitogorsk Metallurg would follow before a two-season return to the AHL for 45 and 61-point campaigns with the Utica Comets, of which he cemented himself as a locker room presence, where the C for the then Canucks affiliate.
For two seasons beginning in 2015-16, O'Reilly would ping pong between the Buffalo Sabres and their affiliate in Rochester, logging 31 games with the Sabres with eight points, before splitting time between the Marlies, Minnesota Wild, and their affiliate in Iowa from 2017-18 to 2019-19.
Four straight years with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms would follow before an offseason homecoming with the Milwaukee Admirals this past summer, the team that gave him his start in the pros.
At 37, O'Reilly seemingly has embraced a veteran leadership role with the club, playing on all parts of the lineup and putting up five points through the first 15 games of the 2023-24 season as an assistant captain.
With 900 games and counting, one of the AHL's true ironmen continues to be a heart and soul player loved by both teammates and fans for his grit and desire to play the game at all levels.