The news has just dropped that Winnipeg-native Jonathan Toews has agreed to re-start his National Hockey League career with his hometown franchise. While the former Chicago Blackhawk cannot officially ink a contract prior to July 1st, it appears that he has already come to an agreement with Winnipeg Jets’ General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff.
No details were released about the contract, but I would expect it to have a low base salary with performance bonuses. That would allow the True North franchise to have as much flexibility to re-sign their own free agents and then fill other holes in their roster.
**according to PuckPedia, Toews has signed a $2M deal with $5M in potential performance bonuses. Should any achieved bonuses put the Jets over the salary cap ceiling, then that amount would be carried over as a hit on the next season’s cap.**
Apparently, this in the bonus breakdown on Toews contract:
After 20 Regular Season GP: $550,000
After 30 Regular Season GP: $550,000
After 40 Regular Season GP: $550,000
After 50 Regular Season GP: $550,000
After 60 Regular Season GP: $550,000
TOTAL——————————$2,750,000
Jets in playoffs + Toews plays 50% of regular season games: $500,000
Jets win 1st RD + Toews plays 50% of Round 1 games: $250,000
Jets win 2nd RD + Toews plays 50% of Round 2: $250,000
Jets win 3rd RD + Toews plays 50% of Round 3: $250,000
Jets win Stanley Cup + Toews plays 50% of Stanley Cup Final: $1M
TOTAL——————————————————————–$2,225,000
The 37 yr old center piled up 883 points over 1,067 NHL contests, while picking up a trio of Stanley Cups, and will be resuming his career after Toews missed a couple seasons dealing with a medical condition.
While I am a fan of the signing for the Jets, I definitely am keeping my expectations reasonable. With a near league minimum contract, there should be very little downside with the ability to bury the entire contract in the minors if things go south. So I will hope that the addition of Toews will provide a boost to Winnipeg’s bottom six’s ability to match up with the opposition, while also providing an experienced center that is capable of killing penalties & taking face offs. If everything goes great, then he may be able to be a stop gap at the 2nd line center position while prospects like Brad Lambert & Brayden Yager develop.
Got to get back to work, but will be popping by to hear what the AIH members think of the signing in the Comment section below.
