Connor Dewar has been a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins for just more than a year, and he’s been perfect.
Not in terms of how he plays, mind you. There’s always room for improvement with any fourth-liner.
But he has had perfect attendance.
Since he debuted with the Penguins on March 9, 2025, Dewar has yet to miss a game. As such, he has cobbled together the longest active streak of consecutive games on the Penguins at 83.
Such a figure is nothing to brag about, to be certain. But it’s nothing to dismiss, either. Especially for a player who was hobbled by all sorts of injuries over the previous two seasons while skating as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Minnesota Wild.
“Last season, coming back late from shoulder surgery, I tore my oblique later in the season,” Dewar said last month. “It’s nice to be healthy and not have to be worrying about your body every game, every night, just trying to get by and stay (in the lineup). It’s a little bit of luck, I think, staying healthy and being available every night.”
With that health has come what Dewar estimates has been the best hockey he has played in his five-year NHL career.
And the base offensive figures would buttress that postulate.
With about a month remaining in regular-season play, Dewar has already set career highs in goals (14), assists (11) and points (25) in 66 games while averaging 13 minutes, 43 seconds of ice time, also a high-water mark for his career.
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And those tabulations have come while he has been almost exclusively deployed in defensive situations rooted in his duties on the fourth line and the penalty kill.
“He’s a relentless player,” Penguins coach Dan Muse said. “He creates a lot of his offense off of that. Generating, whether it’s off the forecheck or stripping pucks, working his way to the inside. You see where it comes from. He gets short-handed chances, he gets five-on-six chances … five on five. He doesn’t take a shift off. I can’t think of a moment there where you don’t know what you’re going to get from Connor Dewar.
“It’s a credit to him and the way he’s played.”
For his part, Dewar cites the union he has forged with his partners on the so-called LAD Line — which includes Blake Lizotte and Noel Acciari — for his success this season.
“It’s honestly all their credit, I think,” Dewar said of his accomplices. “As a line, we’re very proud of what we bring, what we contribute and the minutes that we give this team. Every night, we go out there and take a lot of pride in what we do and enjoy doing it, too. We’re just excited to be there for each other.”
As the 2025 trade deadline approached, the Penguins largely operated as sellers as they were on their way to a third consecutive season without a playoff appearance. But one trade saw them actually add pieces to their NHL roster.
That transaction saw them add Dewar, along with defenseman Conor Timmins, from the salary cap-constrained Maple Leafs, on March 7 in exchange for a fifth-round selection in last year’s draft.
To that point of his career, Dewar was something of a lost soul. With the Penguins, he found something.
“I came here and was given an opportunity to find a role,” Dewar said. “I’ve done that. It’s been a great spot for me. It’s exciting that we’re in a playoff race now.”
There is a business component to all of this excitement, as Dewar, who turns 27 on June 26, is a pending unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason.
Presumably, a player on the right side of 30 who has just hit new career highs will be in demand as the NHL’s salary cap is scheduled to rise.
Having gone through the rigmarole of being a restricted free agent each of the past two offseasons — the Penguins did not extend a qualifying offer this past June but ultimately re-signed him as an unrestricted free agent in July — Dewar has developed an effective method for approaching the uncertain nature of the sport’s business.
“That stuff will take care of itself,” Dewar said. “I’ve been through a few summers in a row now where there’s stuff going on. I’m better to just putting it in the back of mind and just focusing on the task at hand.”
And Dewar has certainly had a hand in the Penguins’ success this season by playing his game, every game (literally).
“Since I broke into the league, I’ve been trying to prove myself that I can be an impact NHL player every night and contribute to a good team and help a team win, play winning hockey,” Dewar said. “We’ve been able to do that this year, and it’s been a lot of fun.”
Note: The Penguins quietly assigned defenseman Alex Alexeyev to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Saturday before recalling him to the NHL roster on Sunday.
