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The Toronto Maple Leafs placed forward Connor Dewar on injured reserve on Saturday because of an upper-body injury.

The move is retroactive to Monday, when Dewar sustained the injury in a 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Dewar, 25, didn’t play in the Maple Leafs’ 5-1 defeat to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday.

“It’s going to take a little bit of time,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “I can tell you that from past injuries I’ve seen, the same. It’s hard to put a timeline on it because you think it’s a week and then it’s two weeks and then it goes on.

“I’m not saying that is going to be two weeks; I’m saying it’s hard to figure that one out, that injury,” the coach continued. “It’s a feel thing. Once he gets on the ice, when he starts to get on the ice and get practicing a little bit, we’ll know a lot more about where he’s at.”

In a corresponding move, the Leafs recalled left winger Nikita Grebenkin from the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League ahead of the Maple Leafs’ game Saturday against the Ottawa Senators. Grebenkin, 21, has no points in seven NHL games this season.

Dewar has three assists, five penalty minutes and a minus-2 plus-minus rating and averages 10:07 of ice time in 29 games this season. He had a delayed start until November after undergoing shoulder surgery in May.

For his NHL career, Dewar has 19 goals, 27 assists, 108 penalty minutes, a minus-19 rating and a 10:55 ice time average in 219 games for the Minnesota Wild (2021-24) and Maple Leafs (2024-present).

He also notched an assist in six playoff games last season for Toronto in the first round against the Boston Bruins.

Minnesota selected Dewar in the third round of the 2018 NHL Draft and traded him to Toronto on March 8, 2024.

The Maple Leafs re-signed Dewar to a one-year contract valued at $1.18 million in July.

–Field Level Media