Report: Jonathan Toews has Avalanche ‘potentially’ on his list for next team

The Colorado Avalanche are in a Stanley Cup window, and one guy who knows something about winning championships is Jonathan Toews.

The former Blackhawks center won the title three times with Chicago in 2010, 2013 and 2015. He was also the Conn Smythe Trophy winner, given to the NHL playoffs MVP, during that first Cup run.

Unfortunately, Toews has been out of the league since the end of the 2023 season as he deals with symptoms of long COVID and chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS). He missed the entire 2020-2021 season as he battled CIRS, but eventually returned to the Blackhawks for parts of the next two years.

The good news is Toews is feeling healthy once again, and the 37-year-old has his eyes on an NHL return. While it’s unknown how much he has left to give on the ice, he’s an intriguing free-agent option. In 1,067 career games, Toews has 372 goals and 511 assists, plus a fist full of championship rings.

NHL insider Pierre Lebrun recently went on The “OverDrive” show and was asked about where Jonathan Toews could land. He was comfortable naming two teams in the interview, the Jets and the Avalanche.

"Toews has four teams interested to sign him, with the Jets and Avalanche being two of them."@PierreVLeBrun gives his views on Jonathan Toews' return to the league and the suitors around the league. #NHL pic.twitter.com/1GOLfWaHKe

— OverDrive (@OverDrive1050) June 11, 2025

“I don’t know what all the teams are on there, but I do know Winnipeg’s one of them. Beyond that, I think it’s possible Colorado is potentially one of them. But I don’t know all of them,” LeBrun said.

That’s a little bit of a hedge by LeBrun, but interesting regardless. The Avs have four centers they’re good with playing in Nathan MacKinnon, the recently re-signed Brock Nelson, Charlie Coyle and Jack Drury, but Toews is a wild card.

If he’d be willing to sign for just $2 million or so in Colorado, GM Chris MacFarland and Joe Sakic could look to trade Coyle and his $5.25 million contract for some much needed salary cap relief.

We’ll see how this all shakes out, but there’s no doubt Jonathan Toews was a great player in his prime. He’d also be another veteran leader in the locker room if something with the Avalanche comes together.

It’s worth keeping an eye on as the NHL offseason will really start to heat up the next few weeks.

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