Waves of nostalgia hit the Windy City this week, as future Hall of Fame forward Patrick Kane announced his return to the club that he helped win three Stanley Cup championships in 2010, 2013, and 2015.
The Chicago Blackhawks severely overpaid to bring Kane back into the fold, giving him a two-year contract worth $16 million, meaning he’ll make $8 million in each of the next two seasons. While the Blackhawks aren’t realistically expected to compete for the Stanley Cup as they did while Kane was in the prime of his career, Chicago is no doubt looking forward to increased ticket sales at United Center.
While Kane’s career has at least two more seasons, another Blackhawks icon who played alongside Kane and helped usher in the most recent era of greatness for Windy City Hockey could soon be back in the fold as well, despite having already hung up his skates.
The Chicago Blackhawks Could Sign Jonathan Toews To A One-Day Contract
According to Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson, the franchise would “love” to sign former captain Jonathan Toews, who was not re-signed in 2023, to a one-day contract.
“We’d love to have Jonathan back and bring him back,” Davidson said. “We did it with (former forward) Marian Hossa. Nothing is set in stone or anything, but I think it’s likely we’ll go down (that path).”
“He’s a guy we want to recognize and make sure he’s honored like he was when fans got to send him off in a special way in his last game there when Winnipeg visited,” Davidson said. “Certainly, having him back and having him back with ’88’ (Kane) back in a Blackhawks sweater would be a pretty exciting thing to have them both back in the building as Blackhawks.”
Toews missed the next two seasons owing to symptoms of Long-COVID, but signed a one-year contract with his hometown Winnipeg Jets for the 2025-26 campaign.
After the season, in which the Jets failed to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Toews announced his retirement from the NHL.
“I don’t know of any concrete plans,” Davidson said. “I’m sure we’ll have news or something to announce when there’s an announcement to be made. But much like I’ve said in the past with Patrick, Jonathan is a Blackhawk for life with everything he’s contributed to this city.”
Jonathan Toews Retired From The NHL After This Past Season
The Jets won the President’s Trophy as the NHL’s best club in 2024-25, but they weren’t able to follow up that performance with Toews in the fold in 2025-26. During his retirement announcement, Toews said that he was disappointed that he wouldn’t get to live out his dreams of competing for the Stanley Cup with his hometown team.
“I’m not gonna lie, you visualize the dream of coming home and winning a playoff series and going on a run and winning a Stanley Cup and playing the hero and all those things, and when things go sideways a little bit, it was heartbreaking,” Toews said.
“It’s just a kind of intuitive feel that it’s the right time, and like I said, I’m happy I gave it another shot, regardless of how things went this year.”
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