Report: Jets ‘hope to be in mix’ for Jonathan Toews
Speaking with Jets media Tuesday in Denver, Kevin Cheveldayoff shared that the Winnipeg Jets would be more than open to adding Jonathan Toews.
In late December, three-time Stanley Cup champion Jonathan Toews revealed in an interview with GQ that he hasn’t ruled out giving his NHL career another shot.
And his potential comeback story could end up being a homecoming one, as well.
Speaking with Jets media Tuesday in Denver, general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff shared that Winnipeg would be more than open to adding the former Chicago Blackhawks captain into its mix down the middle.
Cheveldayoff served as the assistant general manager in Chicago from 2009-2011, capturing the Stanley Cup with Toews in the 2009-10 season.
“Knowing Jonathan and knowing what standard he holds himself to as an athlete, and what impact he wants to have in games when he plays, I think it will be an interesting journey to watch how things unfold with him,” Cheveldayoff said, according to The Winnipeg Free Press‘s Mike McIntyre.
“Certainly if he’s progressing to that point in time, it would be a real welcome conversation to see if there’s a fit both ways. I think it would be a great story for his career, too. Not that he needs another story to his career. But I think he’s proud of his roots and would be an interesting fit.”
A Winnipeg native, Toews attended the University of North Dakota to play his amateur hockey before being selected third overall by Chicago in 2006.
He went on to spend 15 seasons with the franchise before stepping away from hockey in August 2023 “to give [himself] the time and space to fully heal and enjoy life to the fullest once again.” That came shortly after he missed the entire 2020-21 bubble season while recovering from COVID-19 and chronic immune response syndrome.
After stepping away from hockey, Toewes travelled to India for an Ayurvedic Panchakarma detox and later detailed his experience in an Instagram post. The detox has seemingly helped him recover physically and return to a position where resuming his NHL career is even a possibility.
He told GQ as much, saying that “there’s a part of me that really doesn’t feel like my career is over yet, and who knows what this next part of the journey looks like, as far as getting back on the ice and trying to make a return to the NHL. There’s never any guarantees in life, but I’m going to give it my best shot.”
So, with the door seemingly open to a return, what would it take for a team to present itself as the right situation for the 36-year-old?
“There’s lots of things to unfold there. He’s an honest player, he’s not going to put himself in a situation… he’s going to want to play to win,” Cheveldayoff said Tuesday.
“These guys don’t want to just say they want to play. He knows the standard he would have to be at, and we would certainly hope to be in that mix.”
The Jets, at least on paper, make an obvious fit. They currently sit atop the Western Conference with a 31-14-3 record — as of Tuesday night — and have a need for a middle-six centreman. Adam Lowry recently got a bump up to Winnipeg’s second line to replace Vladislav Namesnikov, but the Jets captain’s status is currently up in the air after he left Monday’s loss to Utah early.
On Jan. 2, Daily Faceoff‘s Frank Seravalli listed Winnipeg as one of three teams that he thought could be of mutual interest to Toews, with the other two being the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche.
However, while giving his atypical peek behind the curtain on Tuesday, Cheveldayoff straight out said that he has already been having conversations with Toews and his camp.
“I think he’s going to have to push himself to get his body to respond and see how it responds. I think there’s a lot of layers yet from that standpoint,” Winnipeg’s GM shared.
“We haven’t chatted in the last little while, but I certainly had some conversations with his representatives with respect to where things were.”
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