Jonathan Toews Officially Retires After Historic 17-Year NHL Career
The legendary Blackhawks captain returned to Winnipeg to bid an emotional farewell, reflecting on three Stanley Cups, a golden dynasty, and his storied partnership with Patrick Kane .
Video Transcript
For me it's the Cups, and it's that- Yeah time in Chicago where Chicago was the pinnacle of NHL teams.
And there was a time where during that period, Sidney Crosby only had one Stanley Cup and Jonathan Toews had three.
Yeah.
And there was a big conversation, is Jonathan Toews better than Sidney Crosby?
Is he the best Canadian player?
Um- Mm-hmm because when you looked at it, he was sort of a, I don't wanna say a, a better version of Sidney Crosby, but he was a strong two-way player, kinda like what we see now in I guess, you know, when we look back at Patrice Bergeron.
Um- Yeah but he was a winner.
And, you know- Yeah I was thinking like, hey, you put Jonathan Toews on any team and he was gonna pull everyone in that same direction.
So for me, that, that's what I look at.
It's not like the numbers and how many goals he had and how many points he had.
It was just that, you know, you put him on a team and all of a sudden that team became a consummate winner.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, well said.
I mean, yeah, Captain Serious.
you know- that was sort of the, the fun nickname for him, but I mean, he played the game at such a high level.
and I, I think, you know, we're, we're seeing that now with Alexander Barkov.
You know- a guy where it's like, yeah, he could probably have 120 points, but he would rather shut down somebody that- Yes usually scores 120 points and, you know, get sort of 65, 70 of his own and win the Stanley Cup.
Yes.
I know, I know- Yeah, 'cause there, there's some goals that Toews scored, Ryan, a- and you know, you can look at the shootout, those shootout goals he had as a world junior.
But some- Yeah of his early goals, the guy could have been way more offensive, uh- Mm-hmm than he was.
And maybe that's because he had Patrick Kane and he's like, "I don't need to do that.
Like, I've got, you know, Showtime next to me here-" Right " so I can play the two-way game."
But you're right, like Barkov, same way.
Like, Barkov could win an Art Ross, he could probably win a Rocket Richard if he wanted to, but he's like, "No, like, I've got other guys that can score."
Absolutely.
"I'll, I'll just be the guy that does everything."
