Whether or not Jonathan Toews plays hockey next season, it won’t be in Chicago.
Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said Thursday the Hawks will not re-sign Toews this summer when he becomes an unrestricted free agent, marking the end of his 16-year career in Chicago and 15-year tenure as team captain.
The Hawks’ season finale Thursday night against the Flyers will officially be Toews’ final game as a Hawk.
Davidson said he decided not to bring back Toews to create a clean slate for the Hawks’ next core of young players to mold themselves. It’s the same decision he seemingly made with Patrick Kane, too, which contributed to Kane’s decision to request a trade to the Rangers last month.
Davidson believes this will provide that next generation the same opportunities to quickly grow into leadership roles that Toews, Kane and their generation received when they entered the NHL in the mid-2000s.
With Toews and Kane around, the trees were arguably too tall for any saplings to grow past a certain height underneath, and there was nothing even Toews or Kane could do about it.
“It was time to clear the deck and start building some new leaders,” Davidson said.
“[This will] allow the organic growth of leadership skills and provide this new wave the same opportunity that this past era was granted when they entered the NHL. [It’s] an opportunity to step up, step in and work through the leadership development on their own terms, rather than deferring and just leaving that to someone else.”
Those leadership skills apply not only within the locker room but also in terms of forming one-on-one relationships with Davidson and coach Luke Richardson, Davidson said.
The earliest pieces of the new wave — guys like Lukas Reichel (whose season Davidson described as “dynamite”), Alex Vlasic, Wyatt Kaiser and Arvid Soderblom — are expected to move into the NHL full-time. Prospects such as Frank Nazar, Kevin Korchinski and plenty more who have yet to be drafted will then hopefully trickle in over the years ahead.
There will still be veteran leaders on the roster, of course. Connor Murphy, Seth Jones, just-extended Jarred Tinordi and Tyler Johnson, for some examples, all remain under contract for next season. But the idea is they aren’t such towering presences as to overshadow Reichel and Co.
“I get the potential disappointment because [Toews and Kane] are legends,” Davidson said. “They’ve...brought so much success that [that reaction is] only natural. But we’ve got to do what we think is best for the growth of the team.”
Davidson and Toews culminated weeks’ worth of discussions about this subject last weekend in Seattle. He said Toews then caught up with chairman Rocky Wirtz and CEO Danny Wirtz to reminisce about all the years they experienced together.
Toews has maintained he doesn’t know yet whether he’ll retire this summer or try to play again next season, but he believes that decision will become very clear to him by July or August based on how his body feels.
Davidson, conversely, said the Hawks “believe he is going to play” somewhere next season. Given how determined, confident and resilient Toews continues to be — at least mentally — that wouldn’t be too shocking.
But whenever Toews’ playing career does end, he seems like an obvious choice to move into coaching or another hockey-related role. Davidson said the door would be open to him, when that time comes, to look at Hawks front-office jobs.
“We can’t thank him enough for everything he’s done,” Davidson added. “The Blackhawks organization and the city of Chicago will be forever indebted for him for the amazing ride that he took us on. Wherever he goes and wherever he plays next, he’ll be a Blackhawk forever.”
