Water damage or faulty digitizer?

I’ve been all through the forums, so forgive me if this has been answered.

Our iPad mini 2 (I know, it’s super old) fell into water. I immediately shut it off, opened it up, and pulled everything out. There wasn’t much water inside, but the digitizer connector did have a droplet of water in it.

Meanwhile, I cracked the LCD. Left the iPad open to dry and ordered a new LCD. It works perfectly. But the touch screen no longer works. There is no visible sign of water damage.

Is the digitizer likely damaged by water? Is there any point in ordering a new digitizer? I didn’t damage the digitizer when I opened it, I don’t think.

This is my son’s iPad and he uses it for school, so I’m pretty eager for it to work. We can’t afford a new one, so thanks for any advice.