What Do You Think Happened with Toews after 2015

[x Tame Impala]

Unfortunately I’m not sure why Toews fell off so hard after our last Cup win. It was a major detriment to the Hawks considering his cap hit and role on the team. Personally I bet he lost the drive at that point. 3 Cups + 2 WCF appearances, 1 Smythe, 2 gold medals, and a perennial Selke nominee all before he turned 27 years old and then he got a $84 million dollar contract on top of it. Maybe the guy had just done it all at that point and the fire went out.

I remember he was on some weird podcast talking about some strange lifestyle views and all I took from it was that maybe this guy wants to start thinking about other things than hockey 24/7.

No hard feelings obviously. The guy is a legend in Chicago and aside from Crosby and Kopitar I don’t think there was another center in the league we could’ve had from 2009-2015 that would’ve given us so much success. His drop off was just very unfortunate for us as his cap hit was so big and his importance to the team so high. It sucks seeing so many other players be so productive well into their 30’s and Toews failing to crack 60 points for 3 years in a row before he turned 30.

 

[MarotteMarauder]

My original thought was that he picked up some strange illness (intestinal thing) on his Machu Pichu trip and it was undiagnosable even to this day.

Until we know something else definitively, I'm going to stick with that.

 

[SimpleJack]

U can ask the same question, give or take a season/year, about the Keith/Seabrook duo.

Those 2 also declined rather rapidly. Look at Doughty in LA for example who even last season(2023/24) was still performing at top pairing level.

 

[GIADF]

Toews lost his passion to play... and then had that whacky disease that the one tribune article couldn't find anyone from the CDC to comment on, or something like that. Something about that whole thing was always off to me.

I think he was just looking for a way out of the league while still at an age that a lot of other guys can still produce at.

U can ask the same question, give or take a season/year, about the Keith/Seabrook duo.

Those 2 also declined rather rapidly. Look at Doughty in LA for example who even last season(2023/24) was still performing at top pairing level.

Keith declined naturally because of age, and Seabrook the same with the addition of poor conditioning and diet.

 

[scorehawks]

Jonathan Toews gave everything he had to the Hawks and deserves more respect than speculative tabloid gossip.

 

[hawksrule]

Completely speculative, but I’ve wondered if the concussions caught up with him, and if he started having vision or processing issues. He appeared to not see the ice as well as he had before.

 

[hawksfan50]

It all fell apart after the Machu Picchu incident when he got recognized by a tourist ...This set in the curse of Machu Picchu..he never was as good again.


Either that or been there ,done that...retire to the Country Club and just punch the clock.

 

[Drumman44]

It all fell apart after the Machu Picchu incident when he got recognized by a tourist ...This set in the curse of Machu Picchu..he never was as good again.


Either that or been there ,done that...retire to the Country Club and just punch the clock.

 

[Mrfenn92]

Who cares enjoy the three cups.

 

[Putt Pirate]

I just hope he is doing well. As a person with auto immune deficiencies life can be very hard at times......depressing. I hope he is able to manage if that is his case and have a decent life.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Dude had a lot of playoff mileage and a concussion history.

It doesn't really take that much to assume that the wear and tear of hockey just caught up to him.

And guys, the parts of Peru that Toews traveled to are very well-visited. It's not a place where untold neurological agents are going to mess people up in an undiagnosed fashion. Heck, Cusco is a bucket list place I really want to visit, too.

 

[MarotteMarauder]

And guys, the parts of Peru that Toews traveled to are very well-visited. It's not a place where untold neurological agents are going to mess people up in an undiagnosed fashion. Heck,

Lyme disease is still often difficult to diagnose and that is in U.S.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Jonathan Toews gave everything he had to the Hawks and deserves more respect than speculative tabloid gossip.

He gets every ounce of respect he deserves. I outlined in my OP why I'm bringing it up. He had a huge dropoff in production after he turned 27 and signed his deal.

 

[x Tame Impala]

and then had that whacky disease that the one tribune article couldn't find anyone from the CDC to comment on, or something like that

Chronic Immune Recovery Disorder or something like that, or it was just Long-COVID which is a documented thing.

Regardless of the title it made sense, the guy was constantly exerting himself month in and month out, and his body wasn't able to recover from things properly. It probably stacked a ton of wear and tear on his body and made him exhausted all the time.

 

[GIADF]

Chronic Immune Recovery Disorder or something like that, or it was just Long-COVID which is a documented thing.

Regardless of the title it made sense, the guy was constantly exerting himself month in and month out, and his body wasn't able to recover from things properly. It probably stacked a ton of wear and tear on his body and made him exhausted all the time.

I was referring to CIRS and this article which had this quote. Even when you google it there just isn't a whole lot about it... always just seemed odd.

Efforts to find an expert on CIRS at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health were unsuccessful.

Dr. Greg Sharon, who focuses on adult and pediatric allergies and immunology at Amita Health Alexian Brothers Medical Center, said a lot of people don’t understand CIRS very well, so there is little information on it.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2021...ronic Inflammatory Rresponse Syndrome (CIRS).

 

[BobbyJet]

Who cares enjoy the three cups.

We should all care after what Toews accomplished for this franchise.

I think it was inevitable that Toews career would be cut short based on how he played the game but it will always be a mystery of exactly what happened when he was in his prime. Toews is probably baffled himself.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Lyme disease is still often difficult to diagnose and that is in U.S.

Sure, and then he could've gotten some bug in rural Illinois or Manitoba. Highlighting Machu Picchu as a place where he got an undiagnosed something is base conspiratorial.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

As someone with some brain damage you can seem totally fine cognitively but I'm not as sharp as I used to be and I'm not playing a sport where professional athletes are trying to hurt me and I need to be in the one percent of the one percent to excel.

 

[Callidusblackhawk]

The simplest answer is that injuries piled up and he declined because of that. Then when it looked like he might be recovering somewhat in his mid thirties Covid ruined his gas tank.

 

[HLLYWD99]

I waited 49 long years with lots of heart break until Johnny hoisted that sexy silver thing in 2010.

Not sure what his problem was, but the team declined steadily after the sweep by the Preds in 2016.

Next stop is The Hall of Fame!

 

[ClydeLee]

The prior significant head injuries in 2012 were bigger than what many pointed out. I recall an in depth article probably post 2013 cup but Toews admitted if the 12-13 season started on time he would not of been healthy. He shouldn't of come back for the 2012 playoffs. It said he saw some vision specialist on November 2012 that finally got him healthy.

But ever since then... he didn't drive the net on the PP like before. And he was worse always in PP production save for the Gus year. Though he did play net front more his final year on the PP, but because he couldn't skate around as well as before. So when the talent dropped, he wasn't scoring much on the PP to be even a 60 pt guy when he didn't have steadily stronger linemates anymore.

 

[MarotteMarauder]

Sure, and then he could've gotten some bug in rural Illinois or Manitoba. Highlighting Machu Picchu as a place where he got an undiagnosed something is base conspiratorial.

No, his poor play followed that trip. Your conspiracy is just a logical following of the timeline.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Health issues derailed his career at end, but he was still same guy for many years after 2015

Infact his best season offensively by far happened in 2018-2019 (35G + 41A for 81 pts) but reality was team declined dramatically talent wise after 2015

Kane + Toews couldn't carry team that's

-Foundation declined on backend as Keith declined and Seabrook feel off badly and very little came up thru system on D to offset that nor anyone emerge to replace Hammer and Oduya from crop of youth via draft for years produced mostly disappointments. Of course, the two most promising and only guys to establish themselves from D pool of prospects of that era were given away (Forsling and Jokiharju) to appease our idiot coach who for whatever reason didn't like them
- Hossa career ended early because of health
- Crawford's career was derailed and ultimately ended prematurely
- Hawks had so much talent lost for cap reasons or terrible Bowman moves which ultimately hurt Hawks alot. Guys like Panarin, Danault, Teravianen, Schmaltz, Forsling and Jokiharju were lost in what were moves that were mostly awful at time they were made and ultimately set back franchise
- Hawks hired Colliton to replace Q and he sent team into dumps with his shit coaching while King mediocre (But upgrade over Colliton) took over a team already bottoming out as lack of talent and health issues saw Kane/Toews play decline well below norms

 

[Toews2Bickell]

think he just lost the passion and saw the roster continue to get worse and guys he went to battle with for years retire and leave the team and decided to hang em up rather than do what Kane and Keith did and go to another team, absolute legend regardless...Crawford tried to leave that room and couldn't make it through camp with NJ, there has to be something strange about being in that situation after being in such a winning/stable org your entire career to that point and then you look up and its all new people and you're mid 30s with 3 cups and enough money to just walk away instead of start over

 

[No Fun Shogun]

No, his poor play followed that trip. Your conspiracy is just a logical following of the timeline.

The three seasons before he went to Peru, he had 68 and 66 points and was a ppg in the shortened season. In the five seasons that followed, he had 58, 58, 52, 81, and 60. I'd hardly call relatively marginal decreases in production and one big leap in production as remotely indicative that he picked up something down there, especially when one of the seasons was his most productive full season and basically right on mark with his pace in his other best season, the shortened 2013 season.

He didn't fall off really from about where he always was production-wise until 21-22, a full six seasons after he went there. And if you want a disease excuse, there's one there.... long covid f***ed him over.