Jonathan Toews announces his NHL comeback
The long-time Blackhawks captain is back after two seasons away.
The reports of Jonathan Toews' NHL retirement were premature.
The long-time Chicago Blackhawks captain announced after the 2022-23 NHL season that he was stepping away from hockey in order to "fully heal and enjoy life to the fullest."
“My focus is to give myself the time and space to fully heal and enjoy life to the fullest once again,” he posted on Instagram in August, 2023. “Along the way I have met several people who have struggled with health issues pertaining to long COVID, chronic immune response syndrome, and other similar cases that are quite complex. I now recognize the importance of one day sharing the details of my health journey with you all.”
Today, Toews announced his intention to return to the NHL in 2025-26.
I've got to say... I'll see it when I believe it.
This past offseason came and went with nary a peep about Toews returning to play. Instead, we were only treated to social media posts of his exploits surfing on the West Coast and taking in the festivities at Burning Man.
Then Toews hit his fans with another curve ball: He has been traveling in India undergoing detox therapy.
From Toews:
As some of you may know, I’ve been on a bit of a healing journey. I’ve had many ups and downs, brief moments of hope working with a whole bunch of different doctors and modalities, followed by doubting if things would ever improve. But I recently spent 5 weeks in India undergoing an Ayurvedic detox called a Panchakarma, and I’m happy to say things are trending.
Ayurveda translates to ‘Knowledge of Life’ and has been the healing science of India for over 5,000 years. This system views our bodies as delicate ecosystems, influenced by everything we consume as far as energy, information, thoughts, feelings, and food. In short, it teaches that our health can thrive when we learn to simplify our lives, create space for stillness and better align ourselves with nature’s rhythms. A Panchakarma is a healing protocol designed to restore your health by cleansing and releasing toxins stored deep in the body.
It’s too long of a story to share all the details here, but it’s been almost 5 years of searching for a way to heal the inflammatory and immune system issues that took me out of hockey. The wisdom of Ayurveda has taught me that everything I experience, I am responsible for. Not only did it teach me better diet choices specific to my body type, it has deepened my intuitive relationship with myself and the world around me.- Jonathan Toews
I did not expect Captain Serious to go full-on "George Harrison".
If Toews is serious about resuming his NHL career, as he claims he is, then I see several teams being interested in him. His hometown Winnipeg Jets will be a serious contender and you have to imagine that he'd be interested in re-joining his old buddy Patrick Kane with the Detroit Red Wings. I doubt, however, that the Chicago Blackhawks are interested as they seem focused on moving forward with a new core in place.
