Jonathan Toews suits up for Jets’ season-opener, debut with hometown team

There’s certainly a buzz here, around the Canada Life Centre as the Winnipeg Jets kick off a new season Thursday night, taking on Dallas in their home opener.

Adding to the excitement, it will be the much-anticipated return to the NHL for Jonathan Toews, which doubles as a debut with his hometown Winnipeg Jets.

“My mindset tonight is to really buy into the system and go out there and support my teammates, but also having that feeling that you can make mistakes because you’ve got four other guys that are playing really smart hockey behind you as well, so I’m just going to go out there and have fun,” said Toews.

Following their skate on Thursday morning, Toews and the team indicated he had the full green light to suit up for the Jets’ season-opener versus the Dallas Stars in Winnipeg on Thursday night. Toews’ status was previously a little murky thanks to a minor injury sustained in training camp. Of course, the broader backdrop to all this is Toews returning to the NHL after two full years away from the game, when he was slowed by long COVID and chronic inflammatory response syndrome. 

Now, the 37-year-old is more than ready to turn the page.

“I’m just happy and grateful to be able to be back at that point where I’m confident that I can go out there and contribute to this team and put these last few years behind me and go out there and just enjoy this life once again,” Toews said. “I just feel I’m at that point where I kind of want to stop talking about it. I just want to go play hockey.”

Jets coach Scott Arniel — who’s already dealing with the absence of key players like centre Adam Lowry, winger Cole Perfetti, and defenceman Dylan Samberg — is predictably happy to have Toews lining up as his second-line centre versus the Stars. Arniel joked that he wasn’t really well-positioned to tell Toews anything he doesn’t know about what to expect in his return.

“His resume is a lot better than my resume,” Arniel said of the three-time Stanley Cup champion.

Kidding aside, the size of the moment is not lost on Arniel.

“I think I’ve said from the beginning, that we wanted to drive up and take up our compete level, and now it’s the battles and winning them, and this is a great chance to prove that against a really good hockey team and a big divisional opponent that we know we’re going to butt heads with all year long,” said Arniel.

Toews is a native son who’s done everything there is to do both in the NHL and internationally as a guy with two Olympic gold medals. There’s no doubt Canada Life Centre is about to throb with the kind of excitement that will spill into the Jets’ room.

“I think everybody recognizes [Toews is] one of the great players of the game,” Arniel said. “His resume is amazing, and having him come home here in front of his family and friends and our fans, to see him in that jersey, it’s [going to be] a great moment, and our players are excited about it.”

Toews will join Tanner Pearson and Gustav Nyquist as the newcomers to a roster that Head Coach Scott Arniel called deeper than last year’s squad that won the President’s Trophy.

Hitting the ice for real will be a huge step, but he’s trying to keep his focus as micro as possible heading into his first NHL contest since April 13, 2023. 

“Just go out there and try and create that good feeling that you’re going to get a bounce and you’re going to get lucky, and you’re going to find a way to make something happen,” he said. “That’s my mindset tonight, to really buy into the system and go out there and support my teammates, but also have that feeling that you can make mistakes because you got four other guys that are playing really smart hockey behind you as well. 

“I’m just going to go out there and have fun, not think about it too much. Like I said, [the] emotion hasn’t really kicked in yet, haven’t really felt any nerves yet, but I’m sure I will tonight.”