Toews retires after 16 seasons, won Stanley Cup 3 times with Blackhawks

Jonathan Toews announced his retirement from the NHL on Friday after 16 seasons.

The three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Chicago Blackhawks made the announcement at the Jonathan Toews Sportsplex in Winnipeg, where he grew up.

It was in Winnipeg where he also played his final NHL season, with 29 points (11 goals, 18 assists) in 82 games for the Jets in 2025-26.

His season with his hometown team came after two years away from the NHL because of an illness.

The No. 3 pick by Chicago in the 2006 NHL Draft, Toews has 912 points (383 goals, 529 assists) in 1,149 games for the Blackhawks and Jets. He helped Chicago win the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015 and was voted winner of the 2010 Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded to the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, after he had 29 points (seven goals, 22 assists) in 22 postseason games on the way to the Blackhawks' first championship since 1961.

He was named Blackhawks captain on Jul 18, 2008, prior to his second NHL season, becoming the third youngest captain in NHL history at the time at 20 years and 79 days.

Nicknamed "Captain Serious," Toews would form a core in Chicago with forward Patrick Kane and defenseman Duncan Keith that would win the Cup three times. In 2017, Toews, Kane and Keith each was included on the list of 100 Greatest NHL players at the League's Centennial celebration.

Toews was limited to 124 games over his final two seasons with the Blackhawks after Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome kept him out of the entire 2020-21 season and from Feb. 21 to April 1, 2023, when he was dealing with the effects of long COVID-19. Toews became an unrestricted free agent July 1, 2023. He did not sign with another team at the time, but also never officially announced his retirement from hockey.

Toews, who has 119 points (45 goals, 74 assists) in 137 playoff games, also won the Selke Trophy in 2012-13, voted annually as the League's best defensive forward.

"I think there was parts of my game (this season) that really struggled early on," Toews said April 17. "It takes a while to really start to mold yourself back into a hockey player again, and I felt that throughout the year, too, that your strength and your conditioning just continues to build. And so that's definitely a factor, that now we're back up to speed to a certain degree, and I've got to feel that things can only continue to improve from here."

Toews ranks sixth in goals (372) and points (883) and is eighth in assists (511) in Blackhawks history and fifth in games played (1,067). His 137 playoff games rank second, and he's fifth with 119 postseason points. He won gold with Canada at the Olympics twice (2010, 2014).

"I think if I'm being honest with myself and I look back to a couple years ago where I was at, yeah, it definitely feels like a huge accomplishment," Toews said of returning to the NHL this season. "I'm very proud that I went after it and did what I could to get back to this level and to play in the NHL again.

"I went from my last game in Chicago to a full year of basically crossing a hundred things off the list and trying to figure out how to just get to a good place physically and mentally again before I even started to actually train."

NHL.com independent correspondent Darrin Bauming contributed to this report