Yahoo Sports 'It Just Had To Get Taken Care Of': Connor Dewar Reveals Reason Behind Shoulder Surgery Following First Full Practice with Maple Leafs
Connor Dewar's first full practice with the Maple Leafs under new head coach Craig Berube was in a Muskoka community arena filled with fans.
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The 25-year-old forward has spent his training camp thus far skating mostly with Jani Hakanpaa as the two work their way back from prospective injuries. Dewar had offseason shoulder surgery — a week after Toronto's season ended — to repair a torn labrum.
John Tavares, Calle Jarnkrok, and Alex Steeves (lower body), Jani Hakanpaa (knee), and Connor Dewar (shoulder) are skating before Maple Leafs practice (all in red non-contact jerseys).
Ben Danford is also out there wearing a white jersey. pic.twitter.com/J2JcTpfnMN— Nick Barden (@nickbarden) September 30, 2024
"It was fun, it was exciting. It's a little different. Better than skating on our own like we've been," Dewar said on Wednesday after his first full practice with the Maple Leafs since last season.
"It's nice to be back out there with the group moving along with the system."
The Maple Leafs acquired Dewar in the final minutes of the NHL trade deadline in March for Dmitry Ovchinnikov and a 2026 fourth-round pick. The forward played 17 regular season and six playoff games with Toronto, scoring one goal and five assists in that span.
Dewar revealed on Wednesday that he had been playing with the torn labrum for a part of last season.
"Earlier in the year, it was kind of a thing a lot of guys play through," he said when asked when the injury occurred. "But mine got to the point where it would just stop flexing almost every night and it just had to get taken care of."
Toronto and Dewar (a restricted free agent at the time) avoided arbitration this summer after the pair agreed on a one-year, $1.18 million contract, and will again be an RFA at the end of the 2024-25 season.
The bottom-six forward has played 190 career NHL games — split between the Maple Leafs and the Minnesota Wild — and has 19 goals and 24 assists for 43 points in that span. Dewar was drafted in the third round (92nd overall) by the Wild in the 2018 NHL Draft.
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