SIMMONS SAYS: Hockey world intrigued and concerned by Jonathan Toews comeback bid

It is incumbent over the next seven weeks for the Maple Leafs to find out all they can about the apparent comeback attempt of Jonathan Toews.

Right now, the Toews situation sets up as something of a mystery in hockey circles. What isn’t known and may not be known for weeks is whether his apparent comeback is for this season, or to start from scratch next season.

It isn’t only the Maple Leafs who are fascinated by the possibility of adding Toews to their lineup. It’s hard not to be intrigued about this.

Toews has been one of the great winners in hockey. He captained three Stanley Cup championship team in Chicago. He scored goals in Team Canada gold-medal wins at the Olympics of 2010 and 2014.

The bigger the game, it seemed, the better he played. He was the kind of contributor that coaches adore.

So, what if you added Toews to a team that already has Auston Matthews and John Tavares? What if you added him to the current roster of the Winnipeg Jets or the Colorado Avalanche? There is intrigue over the possibilities and, at the same time, concern of the unknown.

Toews is 36 years old. He didn’t play last season. His health hasn’t been good. He hasn’t been a major contributor in Chicago for four years.

But what if he’s 60% or 70% now of what he once was? What if his intangibles are still in check? Once upon a time, superstar Bryan Trottier became a third-line and fourth-line contributor of significance on two Stanley Cup winners in Pittsburgh.

Maybe Toews can be that player now for somebody.

The question is: When, if at all, will he be ready? Everyone in hockey looks forward to that answer.

There is a lot of talk in this renaissance season for Tavares about the Leafs’ former captain being passed over for Team Canada. This is nice and respectful conversation. But the same people advocating for Tavares do not seem to mention Mark Scheifele much. Scheifele has more goals and more assists than Tavares this season. He is also more suited to play the wing. Tavares has not been snubbed here. Scheifele was … And after all the conversation about Connor Bedard struggling in Chicago, consider this: Bedard has 19 points in his past 17 games with the pretty awful Blackhawks and is on pace for a 75-point season. If that’s a 19-year-old struggling, we should all hope to struggle one day … If I’m Jimmy Rutherford, president of the Vancouver Canucks, I might just walk away from this kindergarten class of a hockey club he has. Rutherford turns 76 next month on my birthday. Why does he need this ‘I don’t like him, he doesn’t like me’ roster nonsense at this stage of his career? … On the matter of teams not necessarily getting along, I give you Pat Quinn’s Maple Leafs of the early 2000s. The dressing room was split almost down the middle. One side didn’t always agree with the approach of the other side. Nobody ever asked to be traded: That was a team that should have played for the Stanley Cup … The state of the Boston Bruins is not surprising to anyone who has paid attention to this franchise. They lost stalwarts Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci at centre and didn’t, or couldn’t, adequately replace them. This came after they lost Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask to retirement. They also lost Torey Krug and Jake DeBrusk to free agency and had a bad run of first-round draft picks. The fact they’ve been semi-competitive after Bergeron and Krejci left speaks volumes about the quality of their individuals. But this is now a team in need of a serious rebuild and the question is: Is Don Sweeney the right general manager to lead the reconstruction? … A two-year statistical comparison: Nathan MacKinnon, 208 points in 125 games; Connor McDavid, 190 points in 114 games. They have become the Wayne Gretzky-Mario Lemieux of this generation … True story: Mitch Marner was minus-six in Carolina and the Leafs didn’t think he played all that badly … If you’re Jon Cooper, coach of Team Canada, what do you do? Do you play McDavid at centre, followed by McKinnon and Sidney Crosby, which would be the greatest 1-2-3 on any team in history. Or do you play McDavid on one line, Crosby and MacKinnon together on another, and then figure out what your third and fourth lines will be? …. Knowing Cooper, he already has his lineup for the 4 Nations Face-off tournament on paper in his office … Matthews can be a rather odd fellow. He was in his fifth NHL season when he got to know Joe Thornton with the Maple Leafs. He did go on to score 60 and 69 goals during and after he played with Thornton. But when he had to choose a mentor for the recent Leafs’ road trip, he didn’t pick a minor hockey coach, or a USA development coach, or a family member. He chose Thornton. That’s unusual.

A seemingly forgotten piece of business on the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. contract signing. Guerrero had a terrific season in 2024 and the Jays still finished last in the American League East. With Guerrero, the Jays still finished 13th in home runs and 11th in runs scored, and 14th in stolen bases. They have improved their speed with Andres Gimenez but other than Bo Bichette, I don’t know where any extra power will be coming from … It’s almost like a trade: Jordan Romano signs in Philadelphia, Jeff Hoffman signs in Toronto. My two concerns with Hoffman: 1) Why didn’t the baseball-wise Phillies keep him? 2) What did the Baltimore Orioles see in Hoffman’s physical that made them withdraw their offer for the bullet-thrower? … Alex Anthopoulos never wanted to part with Hoffman. He did so in 2015 only to bring Troy Tulowitzki to the Jays. Hoffman wound up as a below-average starter in Colorado and Cincinnati before being moved to the bullpen in 2022. Another semi-concern: He saved only 11 games in Philadelphia the past two seasons. He was more set-up man than closer. The Jays will need him to close … No one of sound mind will sign Pete Alonso for nine seasons. But that’s assuming that everyone in baseball is of sound mind … If Bichette hits second and Guerrero third, who leads off, who bats fourth, fifth, sixth? Seven-eight-nine might wind up being Daulton Varsho, George Springer and Gimenez in that order. Which means, pretty good defence, but there are still plenty of holes to fill and at least two starting players of consequence to add to a lineup that will need to compete with the AL champ Yankees, the improving Red Sox, and the 91-win Orioles.

Here are my halfway award winners of this NHL season. Hart Trophy (MVP): Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl is my clubhouse leader, followed by Jack Eichel in Vegas and the currently injured Kirill Kaprizov in Minnesota. Shoutouts to MacKinnon in Colorado and the Maple Leafs’ Marner. If Kaprizov hadn’t been hurt, he’d be right there with Draisaitl … Norris Trophy (top defenceman). Every year seems to begin with Cale Makar in Colorado and Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes. And so it should. They are the basis of all comparisons. Zach Werenski is having a surprisingly great season for the surprisingly competitive Blue Jackets in Columbus. Near my top three are Tampa’s Victor Hedman, Leafs’ Chris Tanev, Josh Morrissey of Winnipeg and Gustav Forsling of Florida. Also a surprising shoutout to Jakob Chychrun, who is having an exceptional first season in Washington … Jack Adams Trophy, coach of the year: Only one name resonates here, Spencer Carbery of the Capitals. He is the runaway leader at the halfway mark … Calder Trophy for rookie of the year: This is already a fascinating race. Macklin Celebrini has been breathtaking in San Jose and young defenceman Lane Hutson has been exceptional, as has been Calgary goaltender Dustin Wolf. One of them should win the Calder, unless Philadelphia’s Matvei Michkov has a brilliant second half … Weird thing with the GM of the Year award. The award should go to Brian MacLellan of the Capitals, except for one thing. He’s no longer GM in Washington. Which begs the question: Can a team’s president of hockey operations end up winning the Jim Gregory Award? … I keep getting told plus-minus doesn’t mean anything — or better, doesn’t mean everything — but over the past two seasons on similar teams, Forsling is plus-77 while Morgan Rielly is minus-6 with the Leafs. They play about the same amount of minutes for their respective highly competitive teams … Looking back, boy, was the 2015 NHL draft a great one. McDavid went first, followed by Eichel, then Dylan Strome, then Marner, and after them Werenski and Mikko Rantanen. Also in the same draft: Kaprizov, Travis Konecny, Kyle Connor, Roope Hintz, Timo Meier, Brock Boeser and Matt Barzal …  Since Doc Emrick retired, we’ve been searching for the signature voice of American hockey. Kenny Albert is certainly great on TNT games but the longshot in the field might to be the next Doc might be Bob Wischusen, who isn’t ESPN’s No. 1 hockey play-by-play man, but should be. His energy and feel for the game is impressive.

Jimmy Butler is being paid $48.7 million in beautiful Miami, a wonderful city in a state without taxes, and he wants out. Which should be brought to the attention of all the hockey screamers who want tax equity compensation to be part of the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement … The cheer doesn’t change, only the buildings do. Who is this “ref you suck” we keep hearing about in every NHL building? … Victor Wembanyama just passed the 100-game mark as an NBA player and his numbers stand almost as tall as he does. He’s the first player under 21 since Shaq O’Neal to average more than 20 points and 10 rebounds a game. He has more threes as a 7-foot-4 centre than Steph Curry had in his first 100 games. This is who you tank for, when you’re doing the Raptors thing … Basketball zealots are raving about the Cleveland-Oklahoma City game from Wednesday night. Apparently it was the best of this season. The Cavs are 33-4. OKC is 31-6. It won’t make for great television numbers because of the market size, but it could make for a terrific NBA Finals …  Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the best player on just about the best team in the NBA. Should that make him the favourite for MVP? … A personal sigh: I hate the fact WWE wrestling has moved from Rogers Sportsnet to Netflix. If you’re a channel flipper like I am — and you like to watch two or three things at once — wrestling was a perfect click on Monday and Friday nights. Now you can watch it on Netflix but you can’t flip around easily, which means I won’t be watching nearly as much … The tush push and anything like it should be made illegal in football. Blocking should occur in front of the ball carrier, not from behind him … The Argos lost a good one when Makai Polk signed with the Atlanta Falcons. Polk had 1,024 yards receiving in his rookie season in Toronto and was a difference-maker in the second half of the Argos’ surprising Grey Cup run … Longtime CFL coach Chris Jones has left the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for a place on Bill Belichick’s staff at North Carolina … You can make a case that Josh Allen should be MVP of the NFL this season. But you can’t make a case against the likely winner, Lamar Jackson … As hard as this is to believe but the great Tim Horton would have turned 95 on Sunday. He passed away 51 years ago … Happy birthday to Frank Mahovlich (87), Nikolai Borschevsky (60), Chris Boucher (32), Abdullah the Butcher (84), Marian Hossa (46), Elly De La Cruz (23), Ben Crenshaw (73), John Avery (49), Dominique Wilkins (65), David Kampf (30), Sam LaPorta (24), Rob Ramage (66) and Howard Stern (71) … And hey, whatever became of Bruce Arians?