{"id":198426,"date":"2025-10-08T18:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T18:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/198426\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T18:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T18:42:07","slug":"toews-set-to-resume-nhl-career-provide-contagious-work-ethic-for-jets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/198426\/","title":{"rendered":"Toews set to resume NHL career, provide \u2018contagious\u2019 work ethic for Jets"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO — Jonathan Toews<\/a> made an immediate impact on Patrick Sharp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight away, there was this presence around him in the room,\u201d Sharp said of the former Chicago Blackhawks captain and his former teammate. \u201cHe knew what he wanted to accomplish, he knew how much work he needed to put in and was willing to do and he was as motivated and as headstrong as anyone I\u2019ve ever played with. So, that\u2019s kind of how I remember him, and not a lot has changed over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he puts his mind to something, who am I to tell him it\u2019s not going to work?\u201d<\/p>\n

That presence, focus and leadership became a staple for the Blackhawks under Toews, their captain from July 18, 2008, to April 13, 2023. Those attributes will be there when Toews and the Winnipeg Jets open their season against the Dallas Stars at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; TSN3, Victory+).<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old, who signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Jets on July 1, is back in the NHL after a two-year hiatus because of health issues. Toews skated for the second straight day Wednesday after Jets coach Scott Arniel said he \u201ctweaked something\u201d during a preseason game against the Minnesota Wild on Sept. 30, but it appears his regular-season debut with Winnipeg is imminent.<\/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 last month. \u201cIn a way you want to 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

Winnipeg won the Presidents\u2019 Trophy last season as the best team in the regular season (56-22-4, 116 points) but is still looking for its first Stanley Cup championship. The Jets have qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in seven of the past eight seasons but haven\u2019t advanced farther than the Western Conference Final in 2017-18.<\/p>\n

Enter Toews, the future Hockey Hall of Famer who grew up in Winnipeg and helped Chicago win the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded to the most valuable player of the playoffs, in 2010. He also won the Selke Trophy, awarded annually to the League\u2019s best defensive forward, in 2013.<\/p>\n

He had 883 points (372 goals, 511 assists) in 1,067 regular-season games and 119 points (45 goals, 74 assists) in 137 playoff games with the Blackhawks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge deal and it means a lot to the guys in the room,\u201d Jets captain Adam Lowry<\/a> said. \u201cWe feel like we\u2019re a good team and we\u2019re really pushing.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo 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 to — 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":"CHICAGO — Jonathan Toews made an immediate impact on Patrick Sharp. \u201cRight away, there was this presence around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-198426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198426","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=198426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}