Toews 'sees the writing on the wall' on possibility of being traded

Ever since the Blackhawks started their rebuild, there has been plenty of trade speculation surrounding their two long-term veterans, including captain Jonathan Toews.  He acknowledged to NBC Sports Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis that he hasn’t sat down with GM Kyle Davidson to discuss if he’ll be willing to waive his trade protection and leave the only franchise he has played for over a 15-year NHL career.  He indicated that as of yet, he hasn’t decided what’s next for him:

“… There’s a part of myself that still doesn’t really want to admit the situation and also wants to continue being a Blackhawk and finish my career here. But at the same time, there’s a part of me that sees the writing on the wall and sees that this team, this organization is trying to hit the reset button and that maybe a change for everybody is not such a bad thing, and that goes for myself as well.”

While Toews isn’t the top center he once was, he’s having a decent season with 12 goals and 12 assists in 40 games while winning nearly 64% of his faceoffs.  Assuming that the Blackhawks will cover the maximum 50% of his contract ($5.25M of a $10.5M AAV), they’ll undoubtedly have several interested teams should Toews decide to make himself available to be traded by March 3rd’s trade deadline.

Elsewhere in the Central:

• The future of the Coyotes’ arena deal will be better known in May with a special election being held on the 16th. Sam Kmack of the Arizona Republic breaks down each of the three ballot items that will require a majority of yes votes to move forward.  Tempe is the desired location for Arizona’s new arena and this is one of the hurdles that will need to be cleared for that project to continue.  Even if it does pass, it will still be several years before it’s up and running so the team will continue to play out of their college arena for the foreseeable future.
• Blues prospect Simon Robertsson has had a decent season in the SHL but his time at Sweden’s top level has come to an end for the time being as Skelleftea announced that they’ve loaned the winger to Vasteras of the Allsvenskan (their second-tier league) for the remainder of the season. The 19-year-old was a third-round pick by St. Louis (71st overall) in 2021 and had five goals and two assists with Skelleftea in 16 games this season, matching his goal output from last year in a third of the games.
• Still with St. Louis, the team announced (Twitter link) that winger Nikita Alexandrov was a late scratch from tonight’s game due to an upper-body injury.  The 22-year-old has played in 16 games for the Blues this season, picking up two goals and two assists while averaging just under nine minutes a night on the fourth line.  Nathan Walker will suit up in Alexandrov’s place.