Colorado Avalanche News

Home

Quizzes

Newsletter

Jonathan Toews would take something away from the youngsters if he came back to the Chicago Blackhawks. (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Avalanche Should Sign Jonathan Toews During 2025 Offseason

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Marko Zlomislic | Last updated Jun 17, 2025 9:05 AM ET

While the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers continue to do battle in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, the Colorado Avalanche are among the 30 other teams preparing for the 2025-26 season.

After general manager Chris MacFarland locked up center Brock Nelson for three additional seasons, all eyes have turned towards the rest of the roster. The hefty extension solidifies the center position on Colorado’s second line, but it also likely signals that more moves are coming to alleviate roster congestion and salary cap concerns.

Adding another wrinkle to the Avalanche’s offseason plans is the news that veteran center Jonathan Toews, who made his last NHL appearance in 2023 for the Chicago Blackhawks, was pushing towards an NHL comeback for the 2025-26 season as per his agent.

Toews’ potential comeback comes on the heels of several difficult years for his health. The 37-year-old sat out the entire 2020-21 season while suffering from chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS) and missed 40 games over the next two seasons due to the aftermath of both CIRS and the effects of long-haul COVID-19. In late 2024, Toews shared his healing journey and now appears intent on concluding his Hall of Fame career on his terms.

The Avalanche are not the only team reported to have interest in Toews with the Winnipeg Jets (his hometown team) also mentioned as a potential suitor.

Why the Avalanche Should Sign Toews

Let’s start with the positives. Toews is widely heralded as one of hockey’s greatest leaders for captaining the Blackhawks to three Stanley Cup championships in 2010, 2013 and 2015, a position he earned before his sophomore season. He also boasts two Olympic gold medals (2010 and 2014 with Canada), a Conn Smythe Trophy (2010), and a Selke Trophy (2013) among his career accolades, and was once in contention for the sport’s best player with Sidney Crosby in the mid-2010s. That argument has long been settled, but it’s a testament to Toews’ legacy that he was ever legitimately involved in such conversations.

The veteran center is one of the best players in the history of the storied Blackhawks franchise, ranking fifth in games played, sixth in goals, eighth in assists, and sixth in points in the regular season. Toews’ historical standing is amplified by his excellence in the playoffs. Only franchise legend Stan Mikita has made more playoff appearances, while only four other players have accumulated more points in the postseason. Toews is a hardened playoff warrior who was involved in some of the most competitive series in league history across Chicago’s dynastic run from 2010 to 2015.

Toews has also forged a reputation as a demon in the faceoff circle, with a career win-rate of 57.3%, ranking 16th among all players to have taken at least 500 faceoffs since 1997-98, the first season the NHL began tracking the statistic. He also won faceoffs at a 63.1% clip during his last active season (2022-23), the highest mark of his 15-year career.

Assuming Toews is only looking for and expecting a short-term deal at league minimum, that’s a small price to pay for one of hockey’s most impactful two-way players of the 21st century.

Why the Avalanche Should Not Sign Toews

While Toews’ accolades and career statistics are certainly eye-catching and worthy of praise, readers will note that most of those honors were earned over a decade ago. The Blackhawks have failed to advance past the second round of the playoffs since the 2015 Stanley Cup win, and are currently in the midst of a five-year playoff drought. Fairly or not, the last meaningful sample of games we have of Toews is his 2022-23 campaign with the rebuilding Blackhawks, at which point he’d already been struggling with chronic illnesses for almost three full seasons.

Even with that context in mind, Toews’ on-ice numbers from that season are not pretty and should give pause to any general manager tempted by the center’s career accomplishments and intangibles.

Statistic (5-on-5)	Toews (2022-23)
Shots	41.7%
Expected Goals	38.5%
Scoring Chances	38.3%
High-Danger Chances	35.4%

The Blackhawks used 38 different skaters and six different goalies, and only had seven players play 70 games or more in a season that saw them finish with 59 points in the standings. Patrick Kane had yet to undergo the hip surgery which has since rejuvenated his career. Max Domi led the team in scoring with 49 points in 60 games. All eyes were on the Connor Bedard sweepstakes (which they would end up winning), and the contending years had long bypassed Chicago’s United Center.

Toews also ranked eighth among Blackhawks forwards in average ice time at five-on-five, so it wasn’t as if he was being deployed like a first-line option. His relative numbers (how the team fared without him on the ice) were also among the team’s worst and only added to the misery of a difficult season on and off the ice. He finished with a respectable 15 goals and 31 points in 53 games, but that was the second consecutive season in which he failed to eclipse 40 points. Over two years have passed since then, so his journey of healing aside, the passage of time is a significant factor in any contract discussions.

The Avalanche also have Nathan MacKinnon, Nelson, Charlie Coyle, and Jack Drury as options at center ice, making it difficult to slot Toews in without other trades happening. One of the latter two could slide over to the wing to temporarily assume Logan O’Connor‘s spot in the lineup (he will miss the start of next season due to recovery from hip surgery), but it still seems like too many cooks in the proverbial kitchen.

Risk of Toews Contract Worth It On Short-Term Basis

While Toews’ sterling reputation precedes him and two full seasons of recovery benefit him, signing the former Blackhawks captain carries significant risk. He will not have played a game in two-and-a-half years by the start of the 2025-26 season, and will be six months from his 38th birthday. There is also no guarantee that Toews can perform at an NHL level, even if he and his agent argue otherwise.

Avalanche fans can be encouraged by the successful return of captain Gabriel Landeskog, who played his first NHL game in over three years this past spring. Even so, Landeskog is five years younger and has nearly 400 fewer combined regular season and playoff games on his odometer.

A professional tryout agreement (PTO) could act as a compromise between Toews and the Avalanche, which takes risk out of the equation for Colorado while giving him a chance to showcase his current abilities to any interested parties. If a guaranteed contract is the sticking point in any negotiations, tacking on performance bonuses on a one-year deal at league-minimum could straddle the line of being an incentive while acknowledging the possibility of a failed comeback.

Toews may no longer be the player he once was in his prime with the Blackhawks, but there is sure to be heated competition for his services among multiple Stanley Cup hopefuls, and the Avalanche should give the signing serious consideration at the right price.

Data courtesy of Natural Stat Trick, the NHL and PuckPedia.