Captain Serious is becoming Captain Manitoba as the hometown kid Jonathan Toews is set to sign a deal with the Winnipeg Jets on July 1st as per Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press and Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Wieber believes it will be a one-year deal although he isn’t sure of the AAV while Friedman indicated because Toews is unsigned he could make a verbal commitment to Winnipeg but won’t officially sign until Canada Day. The team also just tweeted out a photo of the Dakota Community Centre named after him which says on their electronic screen “He’s Home”.
Of course he won’t be wearing the ‘C’ for his new team but he’ll be bringing plenty of leadership and most importantly Stanley Cup winning pedigree to the team from his home province.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
The 37 year old has been out of hockey for two years after dealing with the effects of long covid. The three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Hawks is looking to bring that playoff winning pedigree to a Jets team that doesn’t have much of it on the present squad.
The buzz that Toews wanted to play again began in January with speculation he would want to put on a Jets uniform but by the end of that month it was revealed that, while there was mutual interest from Winnipeg, the plan was most likely for him to start playing again during the 2025-26 season. Late in May the talk was that he was “100 percent committed to playing next season” which brings us to the present.
With captain Adam Lowry sidelined to start the season after having hip surgery it will be interesting to see where the team slots Toews. Of course that will have to wait until training camp.
Update:
His is the contract numbers from Friedman & Wieber
Base salary: $2M
Bonuses:
After 20 Regular Season GP: $550,000
After 30 Regular Season GP: $550,000
After 40 Regular Season GP: $550,000
After 50 Regular Season GP: $550,000
After 60 Regular Season GP: $550,000
Jets in playoffs + Toews plays 50 games:
$500,000
Jets win 1st RD + Toews plays 50% of games:
$250,000
Jets win 2nd RD + Toews plays 50% of Round 2: $250,000
Jets win 3rd RD + Toews plays 50% of Round 3: $250,000
Jets win Stanley Cup + Toews plays 50% of Stanley Cup Final: $1M
It is a 2M dollar cap hit with a potential of 5M in performance bonuses for a 7M AAV.
“Toews will use up $2M on WPG’s cap during the season. At the end of the year, any bonuses earned are added to final team cap hit. If that brings their new total over the $95.5M cap, any amount over is a bonus carryover cap charge the following season.”
