‘Like a kid again’: Jonathan Toews’ long road from NHL stardom to India and back | Winnipeg Jets

Taking the ice for this season’s opener meant more than a return to routine for one of the NHL’s most decorated veterans.

Jonathan Toews – the former Chicago Blackhawks captain who led the club to three Stanley Cups in six seasons – wasn’t just making his debut with his hometown Winnipeg Jets. He was playing his first NHL game in two and a half years.

“You want to soak it up,” he says. “It was more about just trying to enjoy the surreal journey of being away from hockey for so long – the most time I’ve ever spent since I was a kid – and then having the chance to do it not only in my hometown, but in the NHL again.

Two extended trips to India helped determine the direction of this journey. For two month-long periods, in 2023 and 2024, the 37-year-old center undertook a rigorous detoxification program intended to help him recover from chronic respiratory problems and assuage the relentless self-criticism that had dominated his career.

Toews’ impact in the NHL was immediate. During his 2007-08 rookie season, he led all freshmen in goals. In his second game, Chicago made him captain at just 20 years old. By his third, he had led the Blackhawks to the first of three titles and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

He added the Frank J Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward in 2015, four NHL All-Star Game appearances and two Olympic gold medals with Canada in 2010 and 2014. Toews’ impact became so significant that the NHL named him one of its 100 Greatest Players in 2017, the league’s centennial year. But success had harmful consequences.

Since his teens, Toews suffered from digestive and immune issues that affected his sleep. At age 21, he adopted a punishing regimen of supplements and treatments, partly earning him the nickname “Captain Serious.”

“I was doing all sorts of different things and taking supplements,” he said. “My daily recovery and performance routine was non-stop and I was overdoing a lot of different things.”

Its production began to decline. After career highs of 35 goals and 46 assists in 2018-19, he scored just 18 goals the following season. He missed the entire 2020-2021 campaign due to chronic inflammatory response syndrome, a result of contracting Covid-19. His characteristic intensity, once an asset, had begun to work against him.

“I was making myself unhappy,” Toews said. “Let that anger and frustration flow until I finally got the result I wanted.”

His final season in Chicago, 2022-23, brought him 16 assists, a year after scoring a career-worst 12 goals. When the Blackhawks chose not to renew his contract, Toews reached a crossroads.

“I was really exhausted and sick,” he said. “I needed time to create space in my life, let my body heal, let my mind heal, and let the dust settle. When you live a long, fast-paced life, parts of you are in survival mode. You learn to do things a certain way and you stick with what works.

“But what gets you to a certain place isn’t necessarily what gets you to the next level. I had some learning and growing to do. I needed to re-evaluate why I was doing what I was doing, rediscover my love for hockey and get back to a place where I was enjoying life and not putting so much pressure on myself.”

In the summer of 2023, Toews turned to Ayurveda, a traditional Indian medical practice incorporating herbal remedies, vegetarian diet, meditation and cleansing treatments. After months of changing his diet and taking herbal tinctures, he traveled to India in September 2023 for a month-long panchakarma detox program.

The first two weeks included yoga, prayers, enemas, painful massages and mud baths intended to remove toxins from the body. This was followed by five days of drinking an herbal tonic made from ghee. Then came the most extreme stage: vomiting caused by drinking four liters of milk, four liters of salt water and four liters of an herbal decoction.

“It’s definitely a roller coaster ride,” Toews said. “You feel like you’re just down and depressed. Then the next thing you know, you’re expelling a lot of toxins from your cells and tissues. You can feel it. Then all of a sudden you feel this lightness and clarity and energy.

“It was reminding myself of what it felt like to be a 13-year-old again, where you had this complete clarity and natural energy. It was nice to feel that and have tangible proof that you were going in the right direction.”

He returned to India for a five-week session last fall, signed an incentive deal with a $2 million base salary on July 1 and made his Jets debut on Oct. 9 in front of a crowd of 15,225 at the Canada Life Center in Winnipeg.

“It was electric,” said Paul Edmonds, the Jets’ radio play-by-play broadcaster. “There was a lot of impatience. He left at 14 to go to school in Minnesota and never came back to play again. Fans across the province wondered if that dream would ever come true.”

The dream came with a dose of reality. With centers Adam Lowry (hip surgery) and Nikolaj Ehlers (free agency) unavailable, the Jets installed Toews as their de facto No. 2 center. In the first 12 games without Lowry, he contributed two goals and five assists while averaging 16 minutes 16 seconds of ice time.

“We were going to be thin in the middle, but Jonathan stabilized things,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “He allowed us to get secondary points while getting back into gear – getting back into the rhythm of the NHL, a new team, different teammates.”

His reputation made the transition easier. “He was smooth in the locker room,” Arniel said. “He’s part of our leadership group and is in the middle of everything. When he speaks, guys listen because of everything he’s encountered in his career.”

This influence is also felt on the ice. “It’s been fun playing with him,” said winger Alex Iafallo, who started the season on Toews’ line. “He fit in perfectly. He did a great job understanding our structure and our way of playing. For him to come and play the way he did, it’s pretty spectacular.”

Mark Scheifele, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, said Toews elevated his own game.

“He has such a wealth of knowledge and experience,” Scheifele said. “He’s so good on faceoffs, so good at being in the right zone, strong with the puck. The little details of the game that people don’t notice are the things I’ve learned.”

For Toews, the lessons of India have blunted an advantage that was once too acute.

“I used to be the type of person who drove constantly,” he said. “Now it’s a gentler process: being patient, finding the fun and creative process of working on your game and just being in the moment.”

Arniel put it simply: “He did a great job. He became like a little kid again.”