BLOG: Toews fitting right in

WINNIPEG – As a homegrown product with three Stanley Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and numerous other awards on his hockey resume, one might think it would be easy for Jonathan Toews to blend into a new room right away.

He doesn't look at it that way. After all, the Winnipeg Jets will be just the second National Hockey League team he's suited up for, with all the 1,067 regular season games and 137 Stanley Cup playoff games coming with the Chicago Blackhawks.

So he's taking things slowly, but the early returns are incredibly positive - on and off the ice.

“In a way you want to show your respect, especially to the veteran guys in the room that set the tone and the example for this team every day,” said Toews following Thursday’s one-hour skate at hockey for all centre. “I got here last week and there were four or five of us and basically everyone started rolling in this week and we’re still almost a week away from camp. It’s been a lot of fun slowly getting to know guys.”

The 37-year-old has made an impression. Teammates like Luke Schenn and Morgan Barron – both of whom have skated with Toews numerous times ahead of training camp’s official start next week – have given Toews credit for the work he’s put in to be ready for his first National Hockey League training camp since September 2022.

It has been a long two years for Toews, but he feels some things are coming back quickly.

“It’s been a long time and, in a way too, it feels like the last couple years have gone by in the blink of an eye. It’s almost like sometimes you don’t even remember what skate you put on first,” he laughed. “It feels good to be on the ice, you do a lot of 3-on-3 and small area stuff where you don’t have a lot of space. Those are the situations where you kind of get a little bit hasty, a little bit excited, and make a play that you wouldn’t have made if you were slowing things down and being a little bit more patient.”

And patience seems to be at the centre of Toews’ approach to Jets training camp. He didn’t want to put a number on it, but he’d like to get into as many of Winnipeg’s six preseason games as possible in an effort to be prepared for the season opener against the Dallas Stars on October 9.

Of course, he’s hopeful that the talents that won him a Selke trophy in 2013 come back quickly. He’ll look to contribute to the Jets in any way he can, and one of those areas could be in the face-off dot. From 2007 until 2023, Toews took the fourth-most face-offs in the NHL (behind only Sidney Crosby, Anze Kopitar, and Patrice Bergeron) and won a staggering 57.3 percent of them.

Of players in that time frame who took at least 15,000 draws, that’s second only to Bergeron’s 58.9.

“I am just trying to remind myself to not overthink it, not to get too frustrated. You have to keep working on your game,” said Toews. “I am a player that always prides myself on always playing a complete game and playing two ends of the rink. You are going to make mistakes but it is not the end of the world. I will be out there with some really good players that will help make me look better and to go out there and have fun and keep working.”

It always seems that when the calendar turns to September, the excitement for the coming hockey season reaches a new level. The fans definitely feel it, the players and coaches do as well.

And when you’ve been out of the game for two years and are on the cusp of a return to play for your hometown team? That excitement is even higher.

“You want to belong, you want to be part of the team. It’s a new experience for sure, especially after being away from hockey as long as I have been to integrate - so to speak - into a new locker room,” said Toews. “It’s easy to pick up on why this team has a lot of chemistry in the locker room and on the ice. A lot of guys with a lot of talent, but also a ton of character in this room too. You can feel that already. It’s fun to be part of something like that.”