Would a contender be interested in acquiring Jonathan Toews?

Winnipeg Jets center Jonathan Toews made his long-awaited return to Chicago on Monday, getting a minutes-long standing ovation in his first game back in the city where he spent his entire NHL career prior to this season.

With the Jets fading out of the playoff picture, seeing the three-time Stanley Cup champion back in that environment got many people wondering if a move to facilitate another playoff appearance for Toews could be on the table.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed whether or not Toews could make an impact on a contending team and if any such club would be interested in adding him at the deadline.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s get to our #AskDFO question. What’d you make of Jonathan Toews’ return last night? It’s just a neat moment, but he got like a three-minute standing ovation… A cool moment for him returning to Chicago.

Carter Hutton: It’s an honor, right? What he did for that organization and how much he meant to it… It hasn’t gone to plan in Winnipeg, but he got a chance to play a game in Chicago and get his Standing O, which was I think great to see.

Yaremchuk: Is this a guy that maybe the Jets could move? Would a contender want to put Jonathan Toews down on their fourth line? The reason I think it’s a little tricky here is he’s got so many bonuses attached to him… I don’t know if a team would sign up to potentially have to pay the bonuses that are attached to his contract, because those are tied to going deep in the playoffs and playing games.

Hutton: I wonder if you could restructure that with a trade, like how that would work with a trade… I could see him playing a role like Kyle Okposo played when he got traded to Florida… He played a lot of valuable minutes for the Florida Panthers during that Stanley Cup run… I don’t think it’s something to disregard by any means.

Yaremchuk: We got a text back from Hart Levine, he’s the brains behind PuckPedia.com. I reached out and asked quickly how do Toews’ bonuses work, and he said any bonuses he’s earned with the Jets get charged to the Jets’ cap at the end of the year, any bonuses he earns with the new teams would be charged to obviously the new team at the end of the year.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…