Jonathan Toews on His Blackhawks, NHL Future: If It's Not a Hell Yeah, It's a Hell No

Jonathan Toews isn't sure if he will play hockey next year.

The Chicago Blackhawks captain, who has suffered from chronic immune response syndrome for three years, told The Athletic's Mark Lazerus on Thursday that he has "no idea whether I return to play for the Blackhawks next year, or play for another team, or I decide to move on to other things."

"... But at this point, I've realized there's no point in continuing to stomach this struggle," Toews said. "So if it's not a hell yeah, then it's a hell no."

He was absent the entire 2020-21 season due to CIRS and missed two months of this year's campaign because of its effects compounded with long COVID.

The center returned to the ice on April 1 at the United Center, where he skated 14 minutes in the Blackhawks' 6-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils.

In June 2021, Toews announced his CIRS diagnosis in a pre-recorded interview posted on his Twitter. CIRS is a condition triggered by the inhalation of biotoxins such as mold, which causes inflammation of the nervous system and debilitating fatigue, according to the Virginia Center for Health and Wellness.

"There's a lot of things that piled up, where my body just fell apart," Toews said. " ... I just couldn't quite recover, and my immune system was reacting to everything that I did. Any kind of stress, anything that I would do throughout the day, there was always that stress response."

Toews has not felt 100 percent since then, he told Lazerus.

The center returned to play in 71 games of the 2021-22 campaign. This year, he began at a fast clip—Toews put up seven goals in his first 11 games—but his pace began to slow as health problems returned.

In a February statement regarding his two-month leave of absence, Toews said he was still dealing with the symptoms of CIRS as well as "long COVID." Symptoms can extend from tiredness and fatigue to respiratory issues and brain fog, according to the CDC.

"It has been really challenging to play through these symptoms," Toews said in February. "In the last few weeks, it has reached the point where I had no choice but to step back and concentrate on getting healthy."

Although Toews will finish the tail end of the 2022-23 campaign, he is not committing to returning next year—but he's also not closing the door on the possibility.

"I can tell the media wants to ask me about my so-called 'pending retirement,' even though I never said those words," Toews said. "But it'll be a process of just feeling out what I truly feel inspired to do."