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Future still uncertain for Jonathan Toews as Blackhawks' season winds down; 'I don't really have an answer right now'

Toews trying to "stay present" as he begins likely final week with Blackhawks
Toews trying to "stay present" as he begins likely final week with Blackhawks 01:11

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Blackhawks' season comes to an end on Thursday, with three more games to play, two of them at home at the United Center, including Monday night against the Minnesota Wild.

Those last three games have become more than just a race to the bottom of the standings and better odds at the number one pick. It appears to be team captain Jonathan Toews' final days as a Blackhawk.

Toews said he's feeling okay ahead of the team's 80th game of the season. The captain missed two months with symptoms of long COVID-19 and chronic immune response syndrome this season, after missing the entire 2020-21 season due to those illnesses.

After Monday's home game, the Blackhawks are on the road Tuesday to face the Pittsburgh Penguins, before wrapping up their schedule with at home against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.

Toews has been asked a hundred different ways what's next after the season ends, with his contract expiring this summer.

"I don't really have an answer right now. I'm just trying to the last few days of the season here with this group, and it's easy to think in terms of hypotheticals, of what it would be like to be in a different city, a new situation, kind of a fresh start, and just what that would feel like, and the energy that would give you," he said.

Toews said, while he's happy for former teammate Patrick Kane that he was traded to a contender in the New York Rangers earlier this season, "for myself, I'm not really there yet, so we'll see."

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