{"id":138974,"date":"2025-09-13T00:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T00:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/138974\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T00:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T00:49:08","slug":"toews-finds-new-experience-returning-to-ice-with-jets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/138974\/","title":{"rendered":"Toews finds ‘new experience’ returning to ice with Jets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Toews<\/a> said he had first-day-of-school vibes stepping on the ice with the Winnipeg Jets for informal skates this past week.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old three-time Stanley Cup winner with the Chicago Blackhawks is making a comeback with Winnipeg after a two-season hiatus because of health issues.<\/p>\n

So far, he\u2019s fitting right in.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you don\u2019t remember what skate you put on first, but then once you get going you don\u2019t even think about it, everything is muscle memory,\u201d Toews said Thursday. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to just get back in that routine and that structure of an NHL camp and an NHL season.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been a long road back for the veteran of 1,067 NHL games and 137 Stanley Cup Playoff games, all with Chicago.<\/p>\n

Toews, a Winnipeg native, signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Jets on July 1, and is navigating his way around a new environment, familiarizing himself with new teammates as the start of training camp approaches Sept. 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of fun slowly getting to know guys, that\u2019s something that I\u2019ll take a little while to get settled and comfortable in the locker room,\u201d Toews said. \u201cIn a way you want show your respects, especially to the veteran guys in this locker room that set the tone and the example for this team every day. I want to slowly find my way and contribute where I can and find ways to earn that respect and my stripes with this group too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just being back on the ice is an accomplishment for Toews, who also missed the 2020-21 season because of health issues. He has not played a game since April 13, 2023. Despite already having a decorated career, Toews was not ready to retire.<\/p>\n

The absence has made him feel like a rookie again, nerves and all.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah, for sure, you want to belong, you want to be part of the team,\u201d Toews said. \u201cIt is a new experience for sure, especially after being away from hockey as long as I have been to kind of integrate into a new locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cMonday when the whole team was here, I was meeting a lot of new people, not just the staff but the players as well, but that\u2019s part of the fun. It\u2019s easy to pick up on why this team has a lot of chemistry in the locker room and on the ice and there\u2019s a lot of talent, but also a lot of character in this room too, so you can feel that already and it\u2019s fun to be a part of something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winnipeg won the Presidents\u2019 Trophy as the best team in the regular season for the first time in franchise history last season, and was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by the Dallas Stars in six games.<\/p>\n

The Jets believe bringing in a proven winner like Toews will help in their quest for the Stanley Cup this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all jumped at the thought of having a player like Jonathan even consider Winnipeg,\u201d Jets captain Adam Lowry<\/a> said Thursday. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge deal and it means a lot to the guys in the room. We feel like we\u2019re a good team and we\u2019re really pushing. To have him consider us as one of those contenders and one of those teams he believes in — a smaller market and generally a market most people don\u2019t consider coming too — I think it\u2019s a testament to his belief in our group and it was nice to see when it was finalized. Now that we have him, we\u2019re super excited to welcome him into the fold.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonathan Toews said he had first-day-of-school vibes stepping on the ice with the Winnipeg Jets for informal skates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-138974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}