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Toronto Maple Leafs get: Forward Connor Dewar.
Minnesota Wild get: Fourth-round draft pick in 2026.
Eric Duhatschek: Dewar spent most of the past three seasons playing as the Wild’s fourth-line center, which is likely where he’ll fit in with the Leafs. It’s easy to talk about all the things he isn’t, because there are a few.
He isn’t a minutes-muncher. His average ice time is 11:17 this season, which is more than he’s played in each of the past two years. He doesn’t have top-of-the-lineup skill, even though he’s managed a respectable 10 goals in 57 games in limited use.
He’s physical for his size — but his size is 5-foot-10, so hardly imposing.
He’s a natural center, but his success in the faceoff circle this year isn’t great, at just 46.9 percent.
What Dewar can do is kill penalties, and for a Leafs team that is currently 22nd in the NHL in penalty-killing at 77.5 percent, that’s a skill worth adding. After landing two defensemen to add physicality to their blue line (Ilya Lyubushkin and Joel Edmundson), the Leafs added the other minor piece they were after: a little extra depth at forward for minimal compensation.
It’ll be up to coach Sheldon Keefe to sort out how this lineup looks going forward, though Dewar will likely find a home as a regular on the bottom line to start, if only to see if he can fill the team’s penalty-killing gap.
But Dewar could become popular with Leafs fans because he plays an energy-bunny sort of style. He’s fast enough to get in on the forecheck, sort of a modern-day Bob Kelly. Popular with teammates, too. He was drafted in the third round in 2018, when the Leafs gave up a fourth-rounder in 2026 to land him right at the 11th hour. He makes a reasonable $800,000 per year on an expiring contract, and then becomes a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. Does he have a future in Toronto beyond this season? Depends upon how the next few months unfold.
All along, Toronto had its managerial hands tied a little by the absence of second-round picks that had been traded away previously — and unlike some of the big swingers, they weren’t prepared to part with a first-rounder. So, this is a minor addition for a modest price. On a day when a handful of consequential moves rounded out a relatively subdued deadline, this deal falls into the category of the small print at the end of the press release.
Maple Leafs grade: C
Wild grade: C
Shayna Goldman: Does Dewar really move the needle for Toronto? No, it’s not that significant of a move. But it is still a pretty solid, low-key add for the Maple Leafs.
Dewar is a fourth-liner who averaged a career-high 11:16 in Minnesota this season, and his role likely won’t be much different in Toronto. In that time, he tends to make an impact with his speed and disruptive play. Dewar tends to be deployed in the defensive zone and can be counted on to retrieve pucks. In the offensive zone, he is a reliable forechecker who can recover dump-ins and extend zone time.
The center brings some energy to the penalty kill as well, which could help the Maple Leafs, who have generated a little less offense while short-handed this year. Maybe that can alleviate David Kampf of some of his workload, considering some of his two-way struggles this season. The Maple Leafs didn’t just buy a rental, so maybe there is a little more potential here than for just a playoff run; he could be cheap depth, which is exactly what Toronto should be looking for around their core (if management learned its lesson after last summer).
A fourth-rounder is not a game-changer, but the Wild did not have too many movable players heading into the deadline. So to get a fourth-rounder for a restricted free agent who was unlikely to extend is probably the route to take, with their playoff odds dwindling over their recent stretch of play.
Maple Leafs grade: B-
Wild grade: B
(Photo of Connor Dewar: Brace Hemmelgarn / USA Today)
