WINNIPEG – Winnipeg is getting ready to welcome its favourite son home with a celebration at the Jonathan Toews Community Centre.
Mayor Brian Bowman posted a YouTube video Tuesday congratulating the three-time winner who was first to hoist the Stanley Cup Monday as captain of the Chicago Blackhawks.
“Three Stanley Cup wins in six years – a beautiful hat trick. Winnipeg is so proud of you,” Bowman says in the video. “I want to let you know that my office has already reached out to the Jonathan Toews Community Centre, (which is) planning some celebrations for you when you come home.”
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Blackhawks Patrick Sharp and Duncan Keith were also born in Winnipeg but moved away early in their lives.
Toews grew up playing hockey at the Dakota Community Centre in St. Vital, which has since been renamed the Jonathan Toews Community Centre. A lake in Manitoba has also been named for him and he’s been given the keys to the city.
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Response to the Blackhawks’ win was swift from Winnipeggers looking forward to having Toews return with hockey’s biggest prize again.
One Winnipegger tweeted a photo of Toews and the Cup on a Winnipeg Transit bus in 2010.
Twitter congratulations came from politicians including Premier Greg Selinger, Manitoba Opposition Leader Brian Pallister and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Toews, 27, was named captain of the Blackhawks when he was just 20 and won the Stanley Cup with the team previously in 2010 and 2013. He has also won Olympic gold medals with Team Canada in 2010 and 2014 and won the NHL’s Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP in 2010.
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