Summer Assignment: Jonathan Toews’ 2013 Report Card

Jonathan Toews:

Regular Season

Games: 47

Goals: 23

Assists: 25

+/-: 28

Game Winning Goals: 5

Playoffs

Games: 23

Goals: 3

Assists: 11

+/-: 9

Game Winning Goals: 0

Contract Status: Signed through the 2014-15 season with a $6,300,000 cap hit.

Summary: Lots of things can be said about Jonathan Toews, but he can be described with one word: captain. Toews, at the age of 25, has not only captained his team to one Stanley Cup championship, but two. Toews now has more Conn Smythe and Stanley Cup trophies than Alexander Ovechkin, and Sidney Crosby, combined.

Toews returned to full action in 2013 after missing the last 22 games in 2011-12 with a concussion. The lockout helped Toews to not only recover 100%, but get stronger and faster than ever before. Toews was exceptionally strong defensively, winning 59.9% of his faceoffs, and recording a regular season +/- of 28, good for third place league-wide.

Offensively, Toews was just as dynamic, using great vision to set up plays off the rush, and scoring a team-high 23 goals in the regular season, (tied with Patrick Kane) and notching 48 points in 47 games, finishing over a point-per-game, for the first time in his career. Toews took the most shots on the Blackhawks with 143 in the regular season. He also spent time on the Blackhawks’ power play unit.

In the playoffs, Toews did what all great players have done: persevered. Toews was not at his best offensively, only scoring three goals, and going through a career-long goalless drought, but he gave 110% effort every game. In the Stanley Cup Final, Toews was constantly matched up against Zdeno Chara, and had no luck. This all changed in Game Four, when he was united with Kane, and they dominated the big Czech, seeing him on the ice for 11 of the last 13 Blackhawks goals.

The Stanley Cup won’t be the only hardware Toews goes home with this summer. He was also awarded the Frank J. Selke trophy as the best defensive forward in the league, beating out Pavel Datsyuk and Patrice Bergeron for the honor.

Grade: Jonathan Toews led his team on and off the ice, and he had one of his best offensive seasons ever. Defensively, he was the best in the league, and it is not hard to give Toews an A for the season.

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