Blackhawks: Jonathan Toews is the greatest captain in team history

Throughout the almost 100 years of the Chicago Blackhawks being a hockey team, one man sticks out when it comes to their best team captain. That one man is Jonathan Toews.

The Chicago Blackhawks have had many captains throughout their 93-year history. When Jonathan Toews became team captain, he was the youngest captain in team history at age 20. That was the first test he had to face.

Toews being elected team captain at 20 showed himself that the Blackhawks believed he was the future and would carry them to the promised land. Dale Tallon and Joel Quenneville made the right decision with Toews as captain.

Toews was always considered “too serious” early on in his hockey career. He handled himself in a serious, respectful manner, and was a team-first guy. He is all of these things today as well, just a little bit “less-serious”, as he’s shed the “captain serious” nickname.

He was the perfect guy to have as a team captain. Toews never gets in trouble. He is never in the news for anything negative, he keeps to himself.

Along with him being a role model off of the ice, he’s a franchise-changing player on the ice. Toews has won three Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks. Toews is tied for the most Stanley Cup wins in franchise history with three.

Toews has captained the Blackhawks to the Western Conference Finals five times, winning three of them, which led to three Stanley Cups. Along with that, a Toews captained team has never lost in the second round of the playoffs.

Though the success hasn’t been all there as of late, Toews isn’t the reason for the decline of the Blackhawks. He is coming off of his best static season in 2018-19. He’s done well so far in 2019-20, but as we know now, the season has been paused.

Unless the NHL expands the playoffs to 24 teams, this will be the third straight season the Blackhawks have missed the playoffs with Toews as their captain. Crazy enough, it’ll be just the fourth time in his 13 year career.