I think the whole Blackhawks saga is another example of why I’m not really the biggest proponent of relying on intangibles to judge a player.
Jonathan Toews for years has been touted as “Captain Intangibles” and one of the best leaders in the NHL, if not all of professional sports. Chicago’s success has been in large part attributed to Toews and his intangibles he brings.
But knowing what we know now it’s clear that Toews is one of the worst leaders in all of the NHL, if not all of professional sports. There’s no denying this fact: either he (a) knew about the sexual abuse happening to his teammate, did nothing about it, and has repeatedly lied about his knowledge of the situation, or (b) was unaware of this happening despite much of the team and staff knowing about it. Either way he’s a clueless captain at best, or more likely just a rotten person with no real leadership at all.
I don’t think we can reconcile what we know for a fact, that Toews is a horrible captain with no leadership qualities, with the idea that Chicago won their 3 Cups in large part because of Toews’s leadership. In reality, it seems much more likely that Chicago won because of the tangible aspects on their roster: namely that they had a bunch of really good on-ice talent on their roster, including Toews.