Herbert William "Buddy" O'Connor - Born June 21, 1916 in Montreal, Quebec – Died August 24, 1977 in Quebec was a Canadian ice Hockey centre and coach.

- Stanley Cup Champion 1944, 1946 with Montreal Canadiens.
Stanley Cup finalist 1947, 1950.

- Prince of Wales Trophy Champion 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947 with Montreal Canadiens.

- O'Brien Trophy Champion 1947 with Montreal Canadiens, 1950 with New York Rangers.

- Hart Memorial Trophy Winner 1948 with New York Rangers.

- Lady Byng Memorial Trophy Winner 1948 with New York Rangers.

- Turner Cup Champion 1953 with Cincinnati Mohawks (coach).

O'Connor played pick-up Hockey while attending grade school and soon graduated to Montreal's city league and played his first game at the Montreal Forum at 12 years of age when his Bantam Hockey team made it to the city finals.

By his mid-teens he discovered that he could not land a try-out with the Montreal Royal Juniors because the coach thought that he was too small. So, O'Connor took his Hockey talents to the Mount Royal Arena where the "B" league teams played. He earned a position with the Crane Juniors playing on a line with Pete Morin and tore up the league, defeating the Montreal Royal Juniors for the city title. O'Connor was 17 when he and Morin were asked if they wanted to tour Europe with a Canadian Hockey team. Although Buddy wanted to go, his mother insisted that he stay in school and finish his studies at St. Willibrord High School where he was studying accounting. Morin went to Europe and Buddy stayed behind, though he was offered a position with the Royal Juniors, the team that initially considered him to be too small.

O'Connor lead the Royal Juniors with 15 goals and 22 points in 1934-35 and was promoted to the Royals Senior team for the Allan Cup playdowns, scoring a goal in the only game he appeared in. The following year, he was with the Senior Royals to stay and was the Quebec Senior Hockey League's leading scorer in the 1938-39 season, also scoring 15 goals, 14 assists in 18 playoff games.

During his amateur days his rights were held at various times by both the Montreal Maroons and the Montreal Canadiens, as his rights were traded to Montreal Maroons by Montreal Canadiens for Sammy McManus, September 10, 1936, and then traded back to the Canadiens by the Maroons for cash, September 24, 1938.

O'Connor made his NHL debut with the Canadiens on November 29, 1941 vs Boston Bruins, also scoring his 1st NHL goal vs Frank Brimsek at 4:48 of 2nd period at Montreal Forum in a 3-1 Bruins win.

O'Connor played with his long-time senior Hockey line mates Pete Morin and Gerry Heffernan for the 1941-42 season. The trio of O'Connor, Morin, and Heffernan were dubbed the "Razzle Dazzle Line" while with the Royals, but an injury to Morin near the end of the 1941-42 season ended their brief time together in the NHL.

O'Connor scored his 1st NHL hat-trick vs Bert Gardiner of Boston Bruins on November 21, 1943 at Montreal Forum in a 13-4 Canadiens win.

O'Connor was traded to the New York Rangers with Frank Eddolls for Hal Laycoe, Joe Bell and George Robertson, August 19, 1947. At age 31 and in his 1st season with the Rangers, O'Connor recorded career-high for goals with 24, and points with 60. He missed the league scoring title by only one point, finishing second to Montreal's Elmer Lach. O'Connor was named to the NHL Second Team All-Star at centre.

O'Connor did win the Hart Trophy as league's most valuable player as well as the Lady Byng Trophy as most gentlemanly player in 1947-48. He was the first player to win both awards in the same season.

O'Connor missed a significant part of the 1948-49 season due to injuries sustained in a car accident during training camp. He recovered and the next season helped the Rangers to the 1950 Stanley Cup finals, losing in double overtime to Detroit in game 7. He scored in game 7 to make it 3-2 Rangers before Detroit tied the game and then Pete Babando won it for the Red Wings.

O'Connor finished his pro Hockey career with a Second Team All-Star nod as a member of the International Hockey League's Cincinnati Mohawks in 1951-52.

O'Connor payed in 509 regular season NHL games, scoring 140 goals (20 GWG / 1 OTG), 257 assists with 34 penalty minutes and 53 NHL playoffs games, scoring 15 goals (2 GWG), 21 assists with 6 penalty minutes.

O'Connor payed in the 1949 NHL All-Star Game.

O'Connor turned to coaching after retiring as a player.

Buddy O'Connor was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988, becoming the first inductee into the now defunct Veteran category.