Toews committed to NHL return, Jets among suitors
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Free agent centre Jonathan Toews is 100 per cent committed to coming back to the NHL next season, according to TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun.
LeBrun says Toews reached out to his agent Pat Brisson yesterday to inform him he is ready for an NHL comeback. He adds that Brisson will start taking calls from NHL teams on Toews leading up to July 1.
TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger notes that Toews is expected to have a "long list" of suitors, but notes the Winnipeg Jets will be front and centre when the time comes. He notes the Jets pursued pending unrestricted free agent Brock Nelson ahead of the trade deadline, before he ultimately chose to go to Colorado and Toews could now fill the team's search for a second-line centre.
The 37-year-old is attempting a return to the NHL after he announced he was stepping away from the game when his contract with the Chicago Blackhawks expired after the 2022-23 campaign.
The 6-foot-2 centre recorded 15 goals and 31 points in 53 games with the Blackhawks during the 2022-23 campaign and was trying to recover from the effects of long COVID and chronic immune response syndrome.
Toews told The Athletic in March that he wasn’t satisfied with the way his career ended in Chicago and has been putting himself through conditioning skates in Arizona.
In November, he revealed that he spent some time in India "undergoing an Ayurvedic detox called a Panchakarma" and told GQ in December he was planning to attempt an NHL comeback.
Drafted third overall by the Blackhawks in 2006, Toews has 372 goals and 883 points in 1,067 career games.
He helped the Blackhawks break a 47-year Stanley Cup drought when his team won in 2010 and went on to win two more times in 2013 and 2015. Toews won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2010 after registering seven goals and 29 points in 22 games.
Toews also won the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward in 2013 and named as one of the NHL’s all-time top 100 players as part of the league’s centennial anniversary in 2017.
The Winnipeg native represented Canada twice at the Winter Olympic Games, winning gold in 2010 and 2014. He also has a gold and silver medal for Canada at the World Championship in 2007 and 2008, respectively.
Toews also helped Canada to a first-place finish at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.