Anaheim Ducks signing former Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville could signal future signing of hall-of-fame player
The Anaheim Ducks are looking to do everything they can to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs next season and one of their biggest adds may be yet to come with a hall-of-fame player potentially joining the fold.
It was reported midway through the NHL season, that longtime Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews is expected to make a return to the NHL, according to an interview he had with GQ Sports. It was confirmed by The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus that it won’t be with the Blackhawks. This spawned many theories as to which team the three-time Stanley Cup champion may join with Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman giving their take on why the team could be the Ducks.
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Bukauskas made the connection that Anaheim recently signed former Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville as their bench boss of the future and noted that Toews may want to play for the coach he won his Stanley Cups with.
“One thing I can tell you Kyle is a lot of players in the league who like Quenneville and Toews was obviously one of them,” “I would say without making a call…that’s a really good connection.”
– Friedman said in response to the idea
The addition of Toews would be a perfect fit for a young Ducks team that has been vocal about wanting to make the playoffs next season.
We likely won’t see odds come out for playoffs next season for some time but this would make the Ducks worth a serious look as they could continue to add pieces as they have draft capital and young talent like Trevor Zegras that teams will want. Anaheim could look to flip Zegras for more experienced that could help lift this team into the postseason.
Toews missed the 2020–21 bubble season as he recovered from COVID-19 and chronic immune response syndrome but then returned for 124 games over the next two seasons, but in August 2023, he announced he was stepping away from hockey to give himself time to fully recover from his aliments.
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During his last NHL action in the 2022-23 season, Toews recorded 15 goals and 16 assists in 53 games. The Winnipeg native was among the Blackhawks’ all-time greats, earning a Selke Trophy in 2013 and ranking sixth in franchise history with 883 points across 1,067 regular-season games. A standout in the playoffs as well, the now 36-year-old sits fifth in team history with 119 points in 139 postseason appearances.
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