Jets to introduce Toews at 2pm ET/11am PT on TSN.ca
Published
The Winnipeg Jets will officially introduce Jonathan Toews as a member of the team Friday, three days after registering his contract with the NHL.
Toews agreed to join the Jets on June 20, but could make not the deal official until July 1. Now, he's set to lace up his skates for the first time in two years this fall and do so with his hometown team.
Watch Toews' media availability LIVE on TSN.ca at 2pm ET/11am PT.
The 37-year-old signed a one-year deal with a $2 million base salary and an additional $5 million available in bonuses. Bonuses of $550,000 can be achieved with games played marks of 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60, with another $500,000 if the team makes the playoffs with Toews appearing in 50 games. He will also receive a $250,000 bonus for each playoff round victory and a $1 million bonus if the Jets win the Stanley Cup.
“I'm grateful to be making my return to the NHL with the Winnipeg Jets," Toews said, per the team. "It's very special to come home and play in front of my family and friends in Manitoba.
"The Jets have been on the rise over the last few seasons and I'm eager to join the group and help however I can.”
Toews 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.
In November 2024, he revealed that he spent some time in India "undergoing an Ayurvedic detox called a Panchakarma" and 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.
TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun reported on May 29 that Toews reached out to his agent Pat Brisson to inform him that he was 100 per cent committed to coming back to the NHL next season. Brisson began taking calls from teams in May before Toews eventually settled on making his return with the Jets.
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.