Jonathan Toews’ return to NHL ice will proceed as scheduled tonight. Despite being listed on injured reserve due to an undisclosed issue on the Jets’ opening night roster, Toews was a full participant in morning skate and is expected to be added to the active roster before tonight’s home opener, according to the team’s Mitchell Clinton. Winnipeg has a full 23-man roster and will need to make a corresponding transaction – presumably demoting one of their two waiver-exempt scratches in Parker Ford or Brad Lambert to AHL Manitoba.
The 37-year-old has carried a day-to-day designation for the past week after getting banged up in his final preseason appearance against the Wild on Sep. 30. Toews did not record a point in any of his three exhibition appearances but skated heavy minutes in the first two, around 18 minutes per game. The elite faceoff man showed no rust in the dot, going 28-for-46 on draws for a 60.9% win rate.
Toews will be anchoring Winnipeg’s second line between rookie Nikita Chibrikov and fellow offseason free agent signing Gustav Nyquist in his debut for his hometown team. The three-time Stanley Cup champion and future Hall of Famer last played a regular-season game 910 days ago on April 13, 2023, the final game of the Blackhawks’ 2022-23 season.
The longtime Chicago franchise cornerstone became a free agent the following summer and spent the last two seasons on the sidelines while dealing with the combined effects of chronic inflammatory response syndrome and long COVID. Back in May, he made clear his intent to return to play in 2025-26 and fielded calls from the Avalanche and Lightning as well before opting to sign in Winnipeg.
In his most recent NHL showing, Toews churned out a 15-16–31 scoring line in 53 appearances for the Hawks. With Winnipeg needing Toews to shoulder top-six minutes out of necessity to kick off the campaign, they’ll need at least that level of production – if not more – to help their offense stay afloat behind their dominant first line of Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, and Gabriel Vilardi. In addition to losing top-six fixture Nikolaj Ehlers to free agency, the club is also without Cole Perfetti to begin the campaign after a preseason ankle injury and is missing captain Adam Lowry until later this month in the best-case scenario after he underwent hip surgery at the beginning of the offseason.
Will have this one up on my computer while watching the Hawks tonight. Will be great to see him back on the ice again even if it’s not for us.
I can see why Cheveldayoff signed Toews, He’s 37, Overpriced, Slow, Hasn’t played in two years, And he’s a local kid done good. The Jets need to shore up the bottom pairings on the blueline, And they had all summer to do it, And they ignored that glaring problem instead.