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The Toronto Maple Leafs after making a depth addition on the blueline on Thursday with the acquisition of Joel Edmundson from Washington waited until the last seconds before Friday’s NHL Trade Deadline to add a bottom-six forward in Connor Dewar.
The 24-year-old center was acquired from the Minnesota Wild for minor leaguer Dmitry Ovchinnikov and a 2026 fourth-round pick. Dewar is having his best offensive season, with 10 goals in 57 games, but more importantly the Leafs, he was a primary penalty killer for the Wild, averaging over two minutes per game on the PK.
Toronto has been struggling on the penalty kill this season (currently ranked 22nd in the NHL with a 77.5% success rate), but have been the vulnerable position of having to use star players Auston Matthews and William Nylander during short-handed situations. That is not a fortuitous position with Matthews and Nylander so important in five-on-five and power-play situations and exposing them to a greater chance of injury.
Newly acquired Leafs forward Connor Dewar has 10 goals this season. Here are all of them (minus the empty net goal) pic.twitter.com/2uVtFGTttP
Edmundson should also help with his size and sandpaper, cleaning the front of the net on the penalty kill, which will be more important next month in the playoffs against either Florida or Boston.
Toronto completes their tour of the Atlantic Division with a visit to the Bell Centre against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night. The Habs are once again near the bottom of the division and Eastern Conference with a 24-29-10 record, but as is the case with Ottawa, Buffalo, and most
of the division, the record is unimportant when facing the Leafs. The traditional rivals have not faced each other since the opening night of the season when Toronto rallied from a late two-goal deficit to tie the game and win 6-5 in a shootout.
Ilya Samsonov is expected to get the start after Joseph Woll played in the 4-1 loss in Boston on Thursday. The news from Saturday’s morning skate was the absence of Mitch Marner. Marner struggled to get to the bench in the second period after falling awkwardly in the offensive zone and head coach Sheldon Keefe indicated that the All-Star winger is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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