Jonathan Toews on His Way to Legendary Status with a 3rd Stanley Cup in Sight

Jonathan Toews keeps amassing more silver and gold than a pirate. The city of Tampa, Florida, is as good a place as any to plunder more silver, at least.

Every year, Tampa celebrates the apocryphal legend of Jose Gaspar with the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, where thousands dress up in their best swashbuckling garb and revelry ensues.

Toews, meanwhile, will be dressing up as a Blackhawk from Chicago trying to score the great silver haul that is the Stanley Cup. If he accomplishes that feat in a few weeks' time, it will be for the third time in the last six years, not to mention the thick slices of gold handed to him and his last two Canadian Olympic teams.

It’s enough booty to make Blackbeard jealous.

The legend of Toews just keeps growing and growing. Chicago Tribune columnist David Haugh put it nicely after the eight-year veteran led Chicago to a Game 7 victory over Anaheim on Saturday night:

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It all started with Toews as it always does in big games. In front of boyhood hero Wayne Gretzky, Toews was the greatest one for the Hawks, delivering a playoff performance they will be describing when he enters the Hockey Hall of Fame.

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Failure is never an option, not with Toews leading the Hawks back to where they expect to be every June.

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Another one of Toews’ hockey heroes, former Colorado Avalanche star Joe Sakic, summed up what makes the 27-year-old center so successful.

“He plays the game the right way, at both ends,” Sakic told Bleacher Report recently. “You don’t catch him cheating away from the puck.”

Chicago coach Joel Quenneville, who coached Sakic in Colorado, used to utter superlatives about him that didn't seem possible to top. Quenneville's description of Toews, however, might have accomplished that seemingly insurmountable task.

“He’s an amazing person and amazing hockey player,” Quenneville said, per Haugh. “It shows he’s as good a leader as there is in any sport.”

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

It’s already become fashionable to project just where Toews will eventually be placed in the pantheon of hockey greats. He’ll never top The Great One’s scoring totals, and equaling the eight Stanley Cups Maurice “Rocket” Richard won as a player remains way off.

But Toews’ career, young as it still is, already has a legendary sheen to it.

Along with the two Cups and two gold medals, Toews became the second-youngest player in league history—behind Patrick Roy in 1986—to win a Conn Smythe Trophy in 2010 at the age of 22. He won a Selke Trophy in 2013, was named best forward at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and is a four-time All-Star.

Last month, Toews was even awarded the Order of Manitoba, the highest honor a citizen of the Canadian province can receive. Every summer, Toews holds a charity golf tournament in Manitoba for special needs children.

“It’s given out basically for excellence in many respects and for making contributions to your community, to your province, to your country, and in some respects on a global scale,” Dwight MacAulay, Manitoba chief of protocol, told the Chicago Tribune's Phil Thompson. “He’s made us all very proud, I can tell you that.”

Toews’ “Captain Serious” nickname still applies, as it’s all about the business of winning for him.

Yet those who have been around him a long time say he’s become more relaxed off the ice, not stressing over every little thing. Even after losing in overtime in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final to the Ducks, which put the Blackhawks down 3-2, Toews projected an upbeat air of confidence to reporters that seemed to transfer well to teammates.

“I think players, when they get a little older and get some success, they maybe don’t worry as much,” Blackhawks executive and 13-time Stanley Cup winner Scotty Bowman told Bleacher Report. “(Toews), he’s gotten that confidence that a more mature player gets who had success.”

Toews never seems to take anything for granted, always seeming as hungry for the next win as any that came before it. Two Stanley Cups and two gold medals would be quite a haul for a player with 20 years’ experience.

Even though the Blackhawks have salary-cap challenges after this season, and other teams are building young and talented core groups of players—ESPN's Pierre LeBrun described the upcoming Stanley Cup Final as "the new Blackhawks versus the old Blackhawks"—it seems more than probable Toews will win at least one more Stanley Cup.

In fact, Odds Shark indicates his Blackhawks are favored to win one within the next two weeks.

The Lightning have completed three rounds of their “Original Six Demolition Tour” and want to make it a fourth with the Blackhawks. But the game’s best leader, its most complete two-way player, is standing in the way, looking for his next bounty of precious metal.

Adrian Dater covers hockey for Bleacher Report.