Chicago Blackhawks Won't Re-Sign Captain Jonathan Toews After Season

CHICAGO — With a full rebuild effort in place and with their long-time captain’s health in question, the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday announced that they will not re-sign three-time Stanley Cup champion Jonathan Toews once the season concludes.

General Manager Kyle Davidson said Thursday morning that Toews will not be offered a contract after the season, which makes the 34-year-old veteran an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career. Toews recently returned to the team after missing 25 games bouts with long COVID-19 and chronic immune response syndrome after he missed the entire season last year with health issues.

Toews will appear in his final home game on Thursday night with the United Center on Thursday night against the Philadelphia Flyers. Toews is in the final year of an eight-year ,$84 million contract, which expires at the end of the season.

Davidson called the decision “incredibly hard” and said that it is the latest in difficult choices he has made in recent months, including the decision to trade Patrick Kane to the New York Rangers earlier this season. He said he told Toews of the organization's decision while the Blackhawks were recently in Seattle.

“To kind of take that step and have that conversation was not easy because of all he's done and the status that he holds,” Davidson told reporters on Thursday. (It’s) not easy at all, but we look forward to watching what he does next and where he might go next and what he does. Tough decision, but something we felt was the right step to take in our rebuild."

Toews was the overall No. 3 pick of the Blackhawks in 2006 and has served as the Hawks captain since 2008. He has appeared in 52 games this season and has tallied 30 points (14 goals and 16 assists).

Toews said recently that his health issues have taken a physical and emotional toll and weigh heavily on his decision to continue playing past this season. He told reporters that he was not yet ready to make a final decision on whether he will retire, but said that his health has become his top priority moving forward.

Davidson said Thursday that he didn't see moving on from Kane and Toews wasn't so much about putting the past behind the team, but more of a "clearing of the deck." He said that the moves allowed "organic growth" to take place within the organization and to allow a new generation of leaders to emerge.

Speaking to reporters in New York on Thursday, Kane said Toews has become like a brother after the two paired to help guide the Hawks to Stanley Cup titles in 2010, 2013 and 2015. The Hawks will miss the Stanley Cup playoffs for the third straight season and have toiled near the bottom of the NHL standings for much of the season while rebuilding for the future.

"I mean, for me, when it was my last game, I didn't know the situation, so I didn't know it was going to be my last game or my last game at home, anything like that," Kane told reporters in New York. "He's obviously in a situation now where he knows this will be his last game as a Hawk and he's had an amazing career. I really hope he enjoys tonight because he deserves it and puts on a show for the fans. He gave a lot of people a lot of great memories."

Davidson, who is the same age as Toews, said that the team's leader will "always be a Blackhawk and will forever be Chicago's captain." Davidson and that he has had a number of conversations with Toews throughout the season about his future with the team and that team officials decided the time had come to move on from the captain.

"This was strictly a decision for what we thought was best for the young players that would come in to step into that role," Davidson said Thursday.

"Just a clean slate, an opportunity to step up and step in and work through the leadership development on their own terms rather than deferring and just leaving that to someone else. It forces some people to step up and experience things that they wouldn't experience if Jonathan were in the room."