The Chicago Blackhawks have announced that Thursday night's home game against the Philadelphia Flyers will be captain Jonathan Toews' final game with the club.
"We won't re re-signing him this offseason," GM Kyle Davidson said in a statement released by the club, calling it a "difficult conversation" to have with the team's captain. "Tonight will be his final game as a Blackhawk."
Toews, 34, missed two months this season with chronic immune response syndrome and long COVID. On March 28, while talking to reporters for the first time since returning from the injury list, he expressed his frustration at the circumstances that led to him being sidelined.
"It’s definitely on my mind that this could be my last few weeks here in Chicago as a Blackhawk,” he told reporters at the time, which came a few weeks after long-time teammate Patrick Kane had been traded to the Rangers.
"He's a legend, man," Kane said in New York, when informed of the news. "He turned that franchise around."
The Winnipeg native, who was drafted third overall by Chicago in 2006, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. He has 882 points in 1,066 games, all with Chicago, where he won the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013, and 2015. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP in 2010.
He is also a member of the Triple Gold Club, having won a Stanley Cup, world hockey championship, and Olympic gold medal.
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