A man with many miles on him stood smiling in front of a TV camera behind the Nashville Predators' bench Saturday night, in a hallway a few feet from the team's locker room inside Bridgestone Arena.

The star of his team's 3-2 overtime victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs had just left the ice but the euphoria had not yet left him.

Center Ryan O'Reilly had just spent 23 minutes, 3 seconds on the ice, second on the team only to defenseman Roman Josi (25:45) among skaters. He scored two goals on two shots. He won 12 of 19 faceoffs.

During the 23:03 he spent on the ice, O'Reilly skated a season-high 3.85 miles, according to the NHL's new Edge tool. That's more than a mile above the league average for his position and nearly a mile more than his per-game average (3.09).

By the time he reached the locker room, O'Reilly wore a smile that blended with hints of exhaustion.

"I'm probably going to go work out," he said. "I'm pretty juiced right now."

The man whose 20:29 average ice time trails only Josi and goaltender Juuse Saros, and ties him with defenseman Ryan McDonagh, was joking.

"I was out there for a bit," he continued. "Definitely quite a few (miles). You always feel better when you win, you know?"

Filip Forsberg on Ryan O'Reilly: 'Lucky to have him'

Winning and racking up the miles are nothing new to O'Reilly, who is in his 15th NHL season and is just 32 years old. He will play his 1,000th regular-season game Tuesday when the Predators begin a five-game road trip against the Vancouver Canucks. He has played 19,570 minutes during the first 999 games, an average of 19:35 per game.

Throw in 75 postseason games and 1,574 minutes and you have the totality of Ryan O'Reilly.

The NHL's Edge tool goes back to 2021-22 and doesn't allow league-wide comparisons. But O'Reilly skated 269.22 miles in 90 games (2.99 per), the first year such information is available. He went 178.55 in 64 games (2.74 per) last season.

He's at 24.73 this season, an average of 9.08 miles per 60 minutes of ice time.

As if his changing-clothes-16-times-on-game-day routine wasn't tiring enough.

"I'm definitely not doing as much as he is, that's for sure," Predators all-time leading goal scorer Filip Forsberg said. "To do it for 999 games . . . I don't know how many faceoffs he's taken, probably about a billion.

"It's really cool to see firsthand. Just the details he plays with every night and every day in practice as well. Lucky to have him."

999 and counting

How does O'Reilly just keep going and going?

Perhaps it helps that he grew up with 50 brothers and sisters.

Maybe because he has two young children of his own.

Possibly because he lives in the now, not looking too far ahead or behind.

O'Reilly wasn't willing to completely assume the 1,000th-game milestone waiting for him Tuesday is a certainty, interrupting a reporter's question about the subject.

"We'll see," he said. "I'm walking real safe around the house now, careful as I pick up the kids and stuff.

"But yeah, it's exciting — not just for myself but for my family and my parents. It's been a long, long road."

A road O'Reilly hopes has many miles left ahead.

FAMILY MATTERS: How music, parents and 50 siblings shaped new Nashville Predators center Ryan O'Reilly

DRESS REHEARSAL: The strange, time-consuming dressing routine of Nashville Predators' Ryan O'Reilly

TRICK OF THE TRADE: Nashville Predators' Kiefer Sherwood goes from Paul Kariya handshake to Gordie Howe hat trick

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Count the miles Nashville Predators' Ryan O'Reilly skates in a game