Toronto Maple Leafs Lose Key Forward But Welcome Another At Practice

With most of the Maple Leafs back to business, minus Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews, the team is gearing up for the rest of the regular season. They already got a couple faces return to practice in a big spark of optimism toward their return.

But Wednesday's practice saw another absence, as veteran forward Max Pacioretty was not skating with the Maple Leafs.

Whether or not Pacioretty is dealing with an injury or illness is unknown, but it's a worrying sign for a player who's recent career has been plagued with ailments.

But the practice did the see the return of injured forward Connor Dewar, who has been out the last month.

It was a positive sign as Toronto needs as many reinforcements as possible as they head into a critical part of the season.

So what does this mean going forward for the Maple Leafs?

Although the team has Dewar back at practice, Pacioretty's injury stings a lot. Not only because it's another setback as he tries to regain some semblance of his old career, but because he has quietly been impactful for Toronto.

In 37 games this season, he does only have five goals and eight assists but adds a blistering 105 hits only 15 off from breaking his career-high.

Demoted to the fourth line as Toronto looks for offense, his absence makes the bottom six worse. Dewar is serviceable, but he doesn't offer the intimidation factor of Pacioretty.

The veteran forward missed time earlier this season after getting tangled up with Montreal defenseman Michael Matheson, then took a puck to the head against coincidentally, Montreal.

Dewar has been absent since mid-January and his appearance at practice is a positive sign toward Toronto having some insurance some playoff time, but he hasn't been as impactful.

Since making a return in mid-November, Dewar has zero goals and three assists in 29 games but is more than capable of scoring, having 11 goals last year with Minnesota and Toronto.

Toronto's bottom six is already lacking intimidation, and Ryan Reaves is basically a benchwarmer at this point. The returns of Calle Jarnkrok and Jani Hakanpaa will help, but how much?

With the Maple Leafs aiming to make a trade, not only do they need to make sure they get a center and a defenseman, but perhaps look for a cheap bottom-six winger as well.