Winnipeg Jets
Jonathan Toews says he is still considering whether he will return for his 17th season in the NHL.
After two seasons away from the game due to to health complications, the forward, who will turn 38 on April 29, skated in all 82 regular season games for the Jets this season, the first time he has done that since 2018-19 as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks.
“Probably in the next couple of weeks to a month, when you start getting back into it to prepare for next season, obviously I've got a lot to think about, Toews said Friday. “When you're chasing a playoff spot and you're playing every other day, it's been so crazy since the Olympic break, you don't have much time to think about much else. It’s all you really have time and energy for, so it would be nice to have some space to sink into that thought process and think about next steps.”
Toews, who won the Stanley Cup three times with Chicago in 2010, 2013 and 2015, signed a one-year contract to play in his hometown of Winnipeg on July 2; the Blackhawks chose not to re-sign him after he was limited to 124 games after Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome kept him out of the entire 2020-21 season and from Feb. 21-April 1, 2023, when he was dealing with the effects of long COVID-19.
“I think if I'm being honest with myself and I look back to a couple years ago where I was at, yeah, it definitely feels like a huge accomplishment,” Toews said. “I'm very proud that I went after it and did what I could to get back to this level and to play in the NHL again."
Toews had 29 points (11 goals, 18 assists) this season for the Jets (35-35-12), who finished eight points out of a playoff spot.
“I think there was parts of my game that really struggled early on,” he said. “It takes a while to really start to mold yourself back into a hockey player again. And I felt that throughout the year, too, that your strength and your conditioning just continues to build. And so that's definitely a factor, that now we're back up to speed to a certain degree, and I've got to feel that things can only continue to improve from here.”
Center Mark Scheifele has accepted an invitation to play for Team Canada at the upcoming IIHF World Hockey Championships in Zurich–Fribourg, Switzerland in May.
The 33-year-old finished fifth in NHL scoring this season with a League career-high 103 points (36 goals, 67 assists) in 82 games. Scheifele, who has 907 career points (372 goals, 535 assists in 961 games), passed Blake Wheeler (812) on Oct. 18 to become the Jets-Thrashers all-time points leader.
