Monday night in Chicago won’t just be another game on the NHL calendar-it’ll be a moment steeped in emotion, legacy, and full-circle storytelling. For the first time since stepping away from the game, Jonathan Toews returns to the United Center.
Only this time, he won’t be wearing the iconic red, white, and black of the Blackhawks. Instead, he’ll take the ice in the colors of his hometown team, the Winnipeg Jets.
Toews’ path back to the NHL has been anything but conventional. After the 2022-23 season, he stepped away from hockey to focus on his health, revealing he was battling long COVID and chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS)-a condition that had seriously impacted his ability to play.
What followed was a deeply personal journey of recovery, including a five-week Ayurvedic detox program in India known as Panchakarma. That process, rooted in traditional healing and focused on resetting the body’s inflammation and immune responses, played a pivotal role in helping Toews return to form.
And now, after missing two full seasons, he’s back-skating for the Jets and playing meaningful hockey again.
“I’ve been thinking about it, especially since Kaner went back and scored the overtime winner,” Toews said recently, referencing longtime teammate Patrick Kane’s emotional return to Chicago earlier this season. “I’m excited to go back.
It’s going to be strange, happy and sad at the same time. Obviously, life goes on, but I’m happy to be right where I am right now and definitely very thankful for the years I got to spend there.”
Those years were nothing short of legendary.
Toews was selected third overall by the Blackhawks in the 2006 NHL Draft, and from the moment he arrived, he became the heartbeat of the franchise. Over 15 seasons in Chicago, he helped lead the Blackhawks to three Stanley Cups-in 2010, 2013, and 2015-cementing the team’s place as a modern dynasty.
He wasn’t just a passenger on those runs, either. Toews won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2010 and added a Selke Trophy in 2013 as the league’s top defensive forward.
He was named captain ahead of the 2008-09 season at just 20 years old, the youngest in franchise history at the time. The nickname “Captain Serious” followed him throughout his career-not because he lacked personality, but because of his intense focus, leadership, and the way he carried himself in the locker room and on the ice.
“The send-off from the fans (after the final game in Chicago) was completely unexpected on my end,” Toews said. “I’m so thankful to have played in a city like that with hockey fans like that, where we won championships.
It exceeded so many expectations. No one really knew how crazy it would be.”
Toews already had a reunion with Kane on New Year’s Eve in Detroit, where Kane is now in his third season with the Red Wings. But stepping back into the United Center-this time as an opponent-is a different kind of homecoming.
Toews actually faced the Blackhawks earlier this season in Winnipeg, but Monday night will carry a different emotional weight. A packed arena, a standing ovation, and a flood of memories from a career that helped define a generation of Blackhawks hockey.
“I’ll be excited to go play and just relive some of that this week,” he said. “At the end of the night, the old hockey interview answer is we’re going in there to get two points. We’re trending as a team right now, so it’ll be a fun one to go get a win in that building.”
Through 1,114 career games, Toews has tallied 379 goals and 522 assists-901 points in total. This season, he’s added 18 points (7 goals, 11 assists) with the Jets, showing that even after everything he’s been through, there’s still plenty of game left in him.
And while the focus Monday night will be on the now-two points on the line, playoff races heating up-it’s impossible to ignore the history. Toews didn’t just play in Chicago; he helped build something there.
A culture. A standard.
A legacy.
So when he steps onto that ice, in a different jersey but the same familiar building, it won’t just be about what comes next. It’ll be a chance to reflect on everything that came before-and to celebrate one of the greatest to ever wear the Blackhawks crest.