After missing more than two years while dealing with long COVID and chronic immune response syndrome, Jonathan Toews made an NHL comeback this season with his hometown Winnipeg. Whether he’s ready to go through the grind of another year, however, remains to be seen. Speaking to reporters earlier this week (video link), Toews indicated that he’s not yet ready to commit to playing a 17th NHL season.
On the one hand, it was a disappointing year for the 37-year-old. Signed with the hope that he could be Winnipeg’s elusive second center, he wound up struggling mightily in that role, eventually being moved down the lineup. While that seemed to stabilize things, he still managed just 11 goals and 18 assists, the lowest output of his career.
On the other hand, Toews was one of just five Jets players to play in all 82 games. While that makes the lower output that much more striking, getting through the grind of a full season relatively unscathed after being off for so long is an impressive feat. It was also particularly noteworthy on the contract front as the bulk of his one-year deal was tied to games played; suiting up in every one allowed him to go from a $2MM base payout to a $7MM total salary.
In his prime, Toews was a point-per-game high-end two-way threat that was a foundational piece in Chicago on the way to three Stanley Cup titles. That earned him plenty of individual accolades and a spot on the NHL’s Top 100 list back in 2017. He’s well past those days though and coming off the year he had, he’s going to be in tough to command anything close to the deal he played on this season.
If he decides to play again, Toews will be eligible for a bonus-laden contract once more, as long as it’s a one-year deal. Given his uncertainty about 2026-27 as it stands, it’s fair to say that he wouldn’t then turn around and sign a multi-year pact. AFP Analytics pegs a one-year deal being worth a $1.45MM base salary which is reasonable (if not a little low) for his role he’d be likely to fill but with bonuses (games played and/or points-based) tacked on, a potential value could still land around the $4MM to $4.5MM mark realistically.
Toews noted that he will take the next few weeks to decide if he wants to continue playing and if he does, he would want to return to the Jets. With more than $20MM in cap space for 2026-27 as things stand per PuckPedia, Winnipeg would certainly be able to afford him and given how his deal was structured this season, it’s reasonable to think they’d be willing to do a similarly structured contract to keep him in the fold for next season. They’ll just have to wait a few more weeks to see if that will indeed be an option for them.
The league is getting younger & faster,time for Capt.Serious to hang ’em up. Props for coming back after a 2yr + hiatus(health setbacks).
Younger, Bigger, Better, Faster.
Toews should look at his stats, And go take a seat on the end of the bench, And, Take the next few plays off, He has turned into a 4th line center at best, It’s embarrassing, I said it last summer when he got his deal with the Jets.
Nothing says “embarrassing” like being slightly less of a world class athlete than you used to be. Personally, I think it was crazy he was even moderately effective this year after his health issues the past few years. But can’t please everyone.
“slightly less”?
@ James 1:19 – I think @DarkSide830 putting embarrassing in quotes meant that it is fake embarrassing. As in, Johnny Toews shouldn’t be ashamed that he gave it his all on a long-shot comeback, but the team fell a little short. To manage a full season with his previous health problems was a pretty solid accomplishment.
Grapes you should look at your comments And give us all a break and leave
7M for 11 goals. Ouch!
2M plus 550K*5 for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 GP = 4.75M. Other bonuses are for playoffs.
The writer got it wrong.
@ Jolly Roger – Looks like you’ve been reading the same PuckPedia page like me. Their explanation of the performance bonuses doesn’t add up to the $7MM that JT’s AAV is (per PP), so it seems some info is missing or possibly misstated. And, it doesn’t show a signing bonus, so something is not quite right in the WPG accounting department or at PuckPedia. @Brian may have it wrong, but I can’t expect every writer to audit the information on a trustable site like PuckPedia. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have any time to write the articles.
I did check that before writing.
$500K for playoffs + 50 GP
$250K per series win (Rd 1-3) = 750K
$1M for Stanley Cup + 50% GP
These playoff bonuses total 2.25M. Adding the 4.75M that he actually received gives you the 7M.
@ Jolly Roger – The problem with the playoff requirements is they can’t be counted, since they missed out, so we still have an accounting error somewhere. When you use a “+” that is supposed to mean “and”, not “or”, so it’s still off by a considerable amount. This looks like the NHL counts incentive clauses toward the AAV, whether they are met or not. If that’s how the system works, then so be it, I guess.
At PP, the AAV is “The average annual compensation over the term of the contract (total contract value / contract length) including potential performance bonuses.”
For the purpose of cap compliance, the Cap Hit value is used (2M). Any bonuses actually hit (2.75M) are added at the end of the season and in case the team ends up over the cap, it is charged an overage penalty the following season.
Actually, Gbear, Only 2 million, But, Still way to much.
Surprisingly, Toews only had one true point per game season and it was the lockout shortened 2012-2013 season. Otherwise no other season was a 1.00 PPG for him.
This was the worst decision by Cheveldayoff in a long while.
Whoever is stupid enough to sign Toews will regret it.