Jonathan Toews Returns to the NHL with the Winnipeg Jets
Veteran hockey player Jonathan Toews plans to sign with the Winnipeg Jets when free agency opens on July 1. The team announced this on its social media on Friday.
Toews’ contract with the Jets will be for one year and will include several performance-based bonuses, according to sources close to the situation. The former captain of the Chicago Blackhawks, who led Chicago to win three Stanley Cups, will return to the NHL after missing the last two seasons due to inflammatory and immunological problems.
Toews, 37, chose Winnipeg from among several teams interested in him, driven by his desire to win again. The Jets are the current winners of the Presidents’ Trophy, but were eliminated in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs by the Dallas Stars.
Toews retired from hockey in 2023 after the Blackhawks announced they had no intention of re-signing the captain after his eight-year contract expired. Chicago also traded his longtime teammate, Patrick Kane, as the franchise began a new era and a complete rebuild. Toews was limited during his last two seasons in Chicago, dealing with the effects of Chronic Immune Response Syndrome and long COVID.
In November 2024, Toews shared on social media details about a “healing journey” of five weeks that he took in India, where he stated that he was “happy to say that things are going well”.
Toews has intensified his training in recent months in preparation for his return to the NHL.
Toews, the third selection of the 2006 NHL Draft, also helped Canada win gold at the consecutive Olympic Games in 2010 and 2014. The center scored 883 points (372 goals, 511 assists) in 1,067 career games with Chicago. During the NHL’s Centennial celebration in 2017, Toews was named one of the 100 best NHL players, along with Kane and Duncan Keith.
