Sam O'Reilly has been voted as the OHL's most outstanding player this season in a year split between London and Kitchener.
Sam O'Reilly is a winner.
Throughout his entire OHL career, the man nicknamed "Peanut" by his teammates has always been a key part of winning organizations, thanks to his excellence all across the ice.
In 2025-26, he's now been awarded the Red Tilson Trophy as the OHL's most oustanding player after another great season split between the London Knights and Kitchener Rangers.
Sam O'Reilly with the London Knights, before a mid-season trade to the Kitchener Rangers. (Photo: Luke Durda/OHL Images)He ranked 21st in the league in points this year, with 71 (29+42) in 56 combined games with the Knights and Rangers, and his value stays just as large away from the puck.
O'Reilly captured 35% of the vote from the media to determine the winner of this award. The other finalists for this award were Barrie's Cole Beaudoin (19%), Brantford's Jake O'Brien (17%), Flint's Nathan Aspinall (13%) and Saginaw's Nikita Klepov (7%).
The Tampa Bay Lightning prospect is one of the league's top defensive forwards, being a key penalty killer, one of the best faceoff men in the OHL, and is just a general menace as an all-situations matchup centre.
There's a reason Dale Hunter is such a big fan of the player, and relied on him heavily during this year's World Juniors. O'Reilly is a player every coach would love to have on their team.
His OHL career has been littered with championships, as well. While he only played five regular season and three playoff games in his first season, that Knights team won the Western conference.
In his true rookie year, London won the J. Ross Robertson Cup, with O'Reilly breaking out as a key piece on a loaded team that lost in the Memorial Cup final. That summer, he was made a first-round pick in the NHL draft by the Edmonton Oilers.
Then, in 2024-25, London ran it back all the way to winning the Memorial Cup, and the Toronto native was an even bigger piece to that team. He was then traded to the Lightning that summer in a prospect-for-prospect swap for Hobey Baker winner Isaac Howard.
This year, in his final year of juniors, he was named captain of London, made the WJC team, and was then traded to Kitchener alongside Jared Woolley. This season, O'Reilly has 14 goals and 22 points in 14 playoff games as the Rangers prepare to face Barrie in the OHL championship series.
Sam O'Reilly has never seen an OHL season end before May. All he does is play on championship level teams, and be a key contributor to them in all three zones. That's why he's been named the OHL's most outstanding player in 2025-26.
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