Let's Remember What is Important about Jonathan Toews

We love this sport called hockey. We think about it all day, everyday. We want our team, the Chicago Blackhawks, to kick butt on each play and watch the Hawks lift the Stanley Cup as often as possible. Three times our captain, Jonathan Toews, has done this.

Add in some gold medals, a Conn Smythe, a Selke Trophy, a Messier Award, and nearly 15 years as our captain (15 years on July 18th). What more does he have to prove or do? The answer is nothing, no our captain has a much more important fight ahead of him. His health.

Today Jonathan Toews released a statement on the Blackhawks offical website (www.blackhawks.com). In it, were what many of us came to suspect... That he isn't healthy and that hockey is a distant second right now.

A few days ago I actually wrote an article suspecting this may be the case. I believed then, and more so now, that he may have played his last game for us or at the very least will retire after the season. You can click on this paragraph to read that article from the 17th.

Jonathan Toews will turn 35 in April and will be a UFA after his 8 year / 84 million dollar deal concludes. He has won at every level he has ever been at. He has given us a lifetime of memories and now I know more than ever that it is time for him to focus on himself away from hockey. Health and the comfort of the rest of his life is now the goal, one goal for us all in seeing him make the only important decision that matters right now.