Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson announced on Thursday morning that captain Jonathan Toews will not be re-signed, which will make him an unrestricted free agent when his contract expires at the end of the season.
"Words fail to adequately summarize everything that Jonathan's done for the organization, the amazing memories that he's provided," Davidson said. "He'll be a Blackhawk forever. ... We can't thank him enough for everything he's done."
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It signals the official end of an era after the organization traded Patrick Kane to the New York Rangers ahead of the March 3 deadline. Toews was the last man standing from the Stanley Cup-winning teams, but Thursday will mark the end of the road for him in Chicago.
The Blackhawks reportedly did not offer Kane a contract extension prior to being traded and obviously didn't give one to Toews, either. Davidson explained why he felt it was best for the team long-term to start fresh.
"I don't know if it's necessarily putting the past behind us," Davidson said. "It's moreso clearing the deck to some extent to allow the organic growth for young players into leadership roles and offer this new era of Blackhawks players the same opportunity that Toews, Kane, [Duncan] Keith, [Brent] Seabrook were all offered when they came into the league.
"When there's a player like Jonathan or Patrick in your locker room, you defer to them. You just let them handle the leadership and there's not a lot of development opportunity there. So now we believe that it was something that is beneficial for this next group to allow leaders to emerge, and form that relationship with Luke [Richardson], form that relationship with myself. In the locker room, be the voice rather than deferring to someone who's been here for so long. It gives them an opportunity to step up and be the new leadership group of the franchise."
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Davidson knows it's probably not a popular decision, which isn't lost on him. And he's not trying to test the fans' patience, either. He's just doing what he feels is right for the future of the Blackhawks, who are looking to establish a new core moving forward.
"I sympathize with it because I feel it," Davidson said. "I love — if we thought the best way forward was to have everyone stick around. But at the time in our transition and our trajectory that it was time to clear the deck and just start building some new leaders and some new names that fans are going to fall in love with and hopefully get on a journey with and ride some success with over the next number of years.
"It’s just one of those things that, in the situation we’re in, these tough decisions have to be made. And this is just another one of those. I get the potential disappointment because they’re legends. They’ve done so much for the city, so much for the organization and brought so much success that’s only natural. But we’ve got to do what we think is best for the growth of the team and this was something that we thought was best for them."
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