Jonathan Toews

With the Blackhawks trading Kane to the Rangers, an era ends in Chicago but the memories won't.

He punched a cab driver in Buffalo in 2009, then was accused of rape in a messy 2015 case that led to no charges being filed against him. Sometimes Toews and Kane played on the same line, and sometimes they didn’t. Beach’s teammates said they didn’t know about the abuse, but the taint has covered everyone in the organization. Toews was the third overall pick in the 2006 NHL draft, and Kane the top overall pick the following year, when each made their debut with the Hawks. He was relentless, and he was strong. If it is, it’s for the death of imagination. They were inseparable almost from the start, in part because former team president John McDonough often pushed them out into the community to spread the gospel of Hawks hockey. It was always Kane and Toews, unless it was Toews and Kane. Toews, the team captain at 20, and Kane, the eternal Boy Wonder. For most of the past 16 seasons, Chicago has only known an existence that involved Toews and Kane. Kane was every opponent’s nightmare, a shell game of a player who could embarrass defenders at any moment. Toews probably will be gone in the not-too-distant future, whether that’s because of his health or because he decides he’s finally willing to play somewhere else as the Hawks’ rebuild continues.