Fully healthy, Penguins forward Connor Dewar chipping in offensively, fitting in on 4th line

With four points (three goals, one assist) through 11 games, the start of Pittsburgh Penguins forward Connor Dewar’s 2025-26 season has gone much better than how he began the 2024-25 campaign.

But forget about the solid offensive figures.

Simply being healthy registers as an improvement.

As a member of the Minnesota Wild, he suffered a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder during the early stages of the 2023-24 season. After being dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the 2024 trade deadline, he underwent surgery by May after being eliminated from the postseason.

That led to him opening the 2024-25 campaign on long-term injured reserve. And while he did get back into the lineup by Nov. 8, his damaged shoulder wasn’t back to complete strength just yet.

That didn’t appear to happen until this past spring. On March 7, the Maple Leafs dealt him to the Penguins and Dewar found a role with a team stocked with misfit toys.

“I kind of had a slow start to the (season) last year coming off shoulder surgery,” Dewar said Oct. 3 in Cranberry. “Missing camp, missing the first month and a half or so of the season. I was kind of behind the eight ball. Then I came here and got some opportunity and a bit of runway. Just tried to make the most of it.”

Dewar largely did that. Seeing time on the team’s bottom three lines and the penalty kill, he collected seven points (four goals, three assists) in 17 games over the final six weeks of the season.

He was a pending restricted free agent entering the offseason, but the Penguins opted not to formally extend a qualifying offer, briefly allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent. That maneuver was a formality, however, as it avoided the possibility of an unappetizing arbitration award. Ultimately, Dewar signed a one-year deal with the team worth $1.1 million on July 1.

“We kind of had a sense that at the end of (last season) with how things finished up,” said Dewar, 27. “We thought this was a good fit for me and also the Penguins.”

It has largely played out that way so far this season as Dewar has helped form a trusted fourth line along with Blake Lizotte and Noel Acciari.

“His game is driven by his work ethic,” coach Dan Muse said Oct. 21. “His quickness, the way he gets on pucks, the way he hunts, he’s got a good stick and I think a lot of his game is driven off of that. You see that line, they’re able to, one, get into the offensive zone. … They can make plays off the rush, they can make plays.

“Then from there, you can see, they can be a line that’s tough to play against because they’ll buzz around there in the offensive zone, they possess the puck, then they’re really quick to it.”

Dewar sees cohesion with the trio existing through common characteristics.

“We played a handful of games together last year,” Dewar said. “We played really well, too, I thought. Our communication was great. We’re predicable off each other and know where each other are. We want to be hard to play against and chip in offensively when we can.”

Dewar did just that during a 5-3 road victory against the Florida Panthers on Thursday. He scored the winning goal in that contest.

Controlling the puck in his own zone, Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson allowed linemates to make a change, then advanced to the defensive blue line before lobbing a pass to the offensive blue line. Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola tried to bat the puck down with his left hand but wound up directing it right to Dewar’s stick in the right circle. Cutting inside Panthers defenseman Seth Jones, Dewar shuffled a forehand shot by goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky’s right skate.

Make that 4️⃣ goals for the Pens tonight

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— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) October 24, 2025

“Actually, I didn’t get the shot off that I wanted to,” Dewar admitted Saturday. “I opened it up to my forehand and he got his stick on me. So, I kind of fanned on the shot and then it just kind of trickled through. I think the change-up threw the goalie off and helped me. I’ll take it.”

No matter how he gets them, Dewar has gotten several of them.

Since he arrived March 7, only first-liners Sidney Crosby (22), Bryan Rust (13) and Rickard Rakell (nine) have scored more goals for the Penguins than Dewar (seven).

“This league is a little bit streaky at times for every player,” Dewar said. “There’s stretches where you have a lot of great looks and they don’t go in. Then there’s some times where maybe you don’t get a whole lot of looks and they go in. Hockey’s a weird game like that.

“Lately, I’ve gotten some bounces. I go to the net, and I just try to find pucks around there and scoop them in.”

All of this is easier, of course, with the benefit of good health.

“It’s a sixth-month recovery for a rotator cuff,” Dewar said. “A lot of it is about four months where you can be on the ice and you’re not shooting or not handling the puck. I don’t know if there’s ever been that long of a stretch of my life where I’ve been away from the game in that sense. That was a bit of an obstacle and a hurdle.

“And also just the mental side of having a major surgery. In a sense, you get a bit of a new lease on your career when you have an injury of that severity and just how fast things can be taken from you.”