Unrestricted free agent forward Jonathan Toews will be joining Winnipeg Jets on July 1 as he resumes his NHL career after two years away.

TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston reports Toews, who cannot have his contract registered until the new league year starts, has agreed to a $2 million base salary with an additional $5 million available in bonuses.

Bonuses of $550,000 can be achieved with games played marks of 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60, with another $500,000 if the team makes the playoffs with Toews appearing in 50 games. He will also receive a $250,000 bonus for each playoff round victory and a $1 million bonus if the Jets win the Stanley Cup.

“I'm grateful to be making my return to the NHL with the Winnipeg Jets," Toews said, per the team. "It's very special to come home and play in front of my family and friends in Manitoba.

"The Jets have been on the rise over the last few seasons and I'm eager to join the group and help however I can.”

Toews, 37, announced he was stepping away from the game when his contract with the Chicago Blackhawks expired after the 2022-23 campaign.

It's the first off-season move for the Jets, who have $26.5 million cap space not including the Toews deal, per Puckpedia, with 16 players currently under contract for next season. Nikolaj Ehlers headlines the team's list of pending unrestricted free agents along with trade-deadline add Brandon Tanev, forward Mason Appleton and blueliner Haydn Fleury. Gabriel Vilardi, Morgan Barron and Dylan Samberg are in need of new deals as restricted free agents.

Adding Toews leaves the Jets with $24.5 million in space available as the bonuses can be kicked to their 2026-27 cap if there is not room for them this year. 

The 6-foot-2 centre recorded 15 goals and 31 points in 53 games with the Blackhawks during the 2022-23 campaign and was trying to recover from the effects of long COVID and chronic immune response syndrome.

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun reported on May 29 that Toews reached out to his agent Pat Brisson to inform him that he was 100 per cent committed to coming back to the NHL next season. Brisson began taking calls from teams in May leading up to July 1.

In November, he revealed that he spent some time in India "undergoing an Ayurvedic detox called a Panchakarma" and told The Athletic in March that he wasn’t satisfied with the way his career ended in Chicago and has been putting himself through conditioning skates in Arizona.

Drafted third overall by the Blackhawks in 2006, Toews has 372 goals and 883 points in 1,067 career games.

He helped the Blackhawks break a 47-year Stanley Cup drought when his team won in 2010 and went on to win two more times in 2013 and 2015. Toews won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2010 after registering seven goals and 29 points in 22 games.

Toews also won the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward in 2013 and named as one of the NHL’s all-time top 100 players as part of the league’s centennial anniversary in 2017.

The Winnipeg native represented Canada twice at the Winter Olympic Games, winning gold in 2010 and 2014. He also has a gold and silver medal for Canada at the World Championship in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

Toews also helped Canada to a first-place finish at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.