Former Everett Silvertips head coach Kevin Constantine once told me that while Connor Dewar was just 17 year old, he already thought of him as a veteran player. The drive with which he played and his willingness to do anything it took to win may have played large roles in Constantine saying that.
Now that he is a veteran player, Dewar has been named the team captain of the Silvertips for the 2018-19 season. Dewar will be entering his 19-year-old campaign after playing all but five possible games over three seasons with Everett. He has improved every year with his 68 points in 2017-18 being a 38 point improvement on the 30 he put up in 2016-17.
In the playoffs this season Dewar took his game to another level and not only played a role in shutting down the top lines for the Seattle Thunderbirds, Portland Winterhawks and Tri-City Americans as the Silvertips won the Western Conference, he piled up 12 goals and 14 assists for 26 points.
The announcement comes fairly early in the process as most teams wait until training camp begins. However, when they appear to have a team-player like Dewar who may speak softly, but leads by example on the ice, taking any longer would be pointless.
Dewar was an assistant this year with Everett. He is faced with a tough task next year as Everett will be likely missing four of their top eight scorers from this year’s team and will also be without stout blue-liner Ondrej Vala and three-time WHL goalie of the year Carter Hart. Dewar, along with center Riley Sutter and wingers Sean Richards and Bryce Kindopp, as well as d-men Wyatte Wylie and Jake Christiansen and young goalie Dustin Wolf, will need to lead the way for a young Silvertips team.
Dewar said in a team release “From age 16 to now I got the chance to play with and learn from leaders like Matt (Fonteyne) and Noah (Juulsen) that came to the rink everyday with goals in mind. They knew exactly what needed to be done.”
