Just In: Canadiens Sends Off Another Strong Player To Maple Leafs.
The Maple Leafs’ top line of Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Todd Bertuzzi did not fare well against the Canadiens’ top line of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Salfkovsky. And, with Mitch Marner out that line was not firing on all cylinders. However, that did not deter the Maple Leafs.
Nonetheless, the Maple Leafs hung in there. They adopted a defensive mindset and capitalized on their opportunities when they arose. Overall, it was a hard-earned and satisfying victory for the Maple Leafs.
The Matthews, Nylander, and Bertuzzi Line Had a Tough Game
The Matthews, Nylander, and Bertuzzi line had a challenging outing. They were the weakest link for the Maple Leafs during the game. At 5-on-5, they let the Canadiens put up a staggering 69.8% of the shots, 75.7% of the Expected Goals, 76.2% of the Scoring Chances, and 66.7% of the High Danger Scoring Chances. They found themselves largely on the defensive, spending much of their ice time in pursuit of their opponents.
However, the Maple Leafs have other players. And, line combinations of John Tavares with Max Domi and Calle Jarnkrok; along with the line David Kampf with Bobby McMann and Matthews Knies, proved to be enough to compensate for the rare lackluster performance of the Matthews’ line. Domi emerged as a standout player, contributing a crucial goal to give the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead in the second period.
Tavares scored the game-winning goal. And, McMann kickstarted the scoring for Toronto using his speed and physicality to create a well-executed play that capitalized on a 2-on-1 opportunity with Matthews Knies early in the second period.
Despite not registering any points, Knies thrived in his new role away from Matthews and Marner. He will soon be able to drive a line himself one day, without having to play a differential role to his elite linemates.
The NHL Trade Deadline was a very quiet day for the Toronto Maple Leafs as the only trade general manager Brad Treliving completed came right in the last minutes.
The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired 24-year old Connor Dewar from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for their own fourth round pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.
Dewar is a former third round pick by the Wild from the 2018 draft (Rasmus Sandin draft) after a 38-goal, 68-point season with the Everett Silvertips.
The Pas, Manitoba native was one of the alternate captains for the Silvertips that season and finished second on the team with 26-points in 22 playoff games helping his club to the WHL Championship where the team would lose in six games to the Swift Current Broncos.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Add a Penalty Kill Specialist
In his first post draft season, Dewar would be named captain of the Silvertips and finished with 81-points in 59 games. The 5’10” center would turn pro in 2019-20 spending two seasons in the American Hockey League with the Iowa Wild before contending for an NHL spot in 2021-22 and becoming a Minnesota Wild regular last year.
Dewar is averaging slightly over a 11-minutes a night this season with the Wild with more than two minutes a night being on the penalty kill. The Sportsnet panel stated he was a strong skater and physical player, which his stats page shows he has already dished out nearly 100 hits this season which would be among the leaders of the Maple Leafs forwards.
The former Wild center comes with 173 games of NHL experience accumulating 18-goals and 38-points. He is in the final year of a two-year deal that he signed in the summer of 2022 that comes with a cap hit of $800,000. He will become a restricted free agent this summer with arbitration rights which the management will need to qualify him at $892,500.
During Brad Treliving’s media availability after the deadline had past, he stated that Dewar was defensively responsible and competitive.
The Maple Leafs will now have a log jam on the fourth line with the only certainty being David Kämpf. Dewar will compete with Pontus Holmberg, Noah Gregor and Ryan Reaves for getting into the line-up. Ideally, Dewar will find himself beside Kämpf and Holmberg.
Due to the recent struggles on the penalty kill you have to imagine that the new addition will have the upper hand on Reaves and Gregor. In a physical game on Thursday night, Reaves was nearly invisible letting his smaller teammates handle the rough stuff.
