Barring a late-season surge, the Blackhawks appear destined to miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2007-08 season. It’s been a pretty remarkable run of success in Chicago — three Stanley Cups and conference finals trips on two other occasions — but there are a lot of factors behind the precipitous decline this year.

Marian Hossa had his career come to a bizarre end. Corey Crawford has been injured. Some of the Blackhawks' top players have gotten older. Their attempt to put the band back together has not gone as planned with Brandon Saad and Patrick Sharp struggling to make a significant impact.

And there’s another elephant in the room that really hasn’t been addressed much: The simple fact that some of Chicago's top players have performed below expectations.

Most specifically, captain Jonathan Toews.

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Toews is in the middle of what will be, by a pretty significant margin, the worst offensive season of his career. The reunion with Saad has not produced the results the Blackhawks anticipated, and he has simply not been an elite center, at least as far as his production is concerned.

It’s a touchy subject to bring up because Toews is so revered around the NHL as an elite player. He’s a Stanley Cup champion, a Conn Smythe winner, an Olympic Gold medalist and, for a few years, was regarded as not only one of the best players in the world, but depending on who you asked, perhaps even the best.

Following the 2013-14 season, the Blackhawks signed him and Patrick Kane, the foundation of their resurgence and mini-dynasty era, to matching eight-year contracts that paid them each more than $10 million per season.

I can’t blame the Blackhawks for those investments because at the time it was the right thing to do. It was going to make building a team around them more difficult, but you still need those high-level players to win. You keep the superstars and find ways to make it work around them. At the time the Blackhawks signed Toews to that contract, he was one of the elite players in the NHL.

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Proclamations of him being the best player in the world were always a bit over the top, but he was at the very least a top-10 player and a top player on a mini-dynasty.

Between the 2009-10 and 2013-14 seasons, Toews was one of just five players in the NHL to rank among the top 20 in both points per game and Corsi percentage. The only other players to do that during the same span were Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Pavel Datsyuk and Anze Kopitar. He was a unique player who scored like a top-line center and played a possession-driving two-way game. After the 2013-14 season is when Toews signed his new contract extension.

Before it officially kicked in, he had another big year and helped lead the Blackhawks to their third Stanley Cup in six seasons.

Since then, though, it’s been a little downhill for Toews and the Blackhawks. On a team level, they lost in the first-round of the playoffs in back-to-back years and are now in danger of missing the postseason entirely.

For Toews, it has been a mildly concerning drop from one of the league’s elite players to one that is simply … pretty good.

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Remember the stat mentioned above about that five-year run where Toews was in the top-20 in points per game (he was 17th) and Corsi percentage (where he was third)? Well, since the start of the 2015-16 season, Toews is 52nd in points per game and 70th in Corsi percentage.

Still good. Still that of a top-line player. But hardly what you expect from a player making more than $10 million per season. And that is the problem the Blackhawks are facing. When you pay someone that much money and commit that much of your salary cap space to a player, you are expecting them — and need them — to be great.

There are nine forwards that are going to make at least $9.5 million in actual salary next season, a group that is made up of Toews, Kane, Kopitar, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Alex Ovechkin and Jamie Benn.

Five of those players (Crosby, Malkin, Kane, McDavid and Benn) are all among the top 10 in points per game since the start of the 2015-16 season. Alex Ovechkin is 16th, but is currently still the best goal-scorer in the league. Kopitar is 22nd in points per game and also 16th in Corsi Percentage. Eichel is 30th in points per game — one of those seasons he was an 18-year-old rookie, and in the two since has averaged a point per game.

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Then there is Toews, down at 52nd. You can talk about all-around play, and defense, and leadership, and intangibles, and anything else you want to throw in there about Toews’ game (all of which may be true!), but for that much money there has to be an expectation for the player to carry the offense. Toews has not been that player, and even worse, he does not even seem to be quite the same when it comes to his all-around play. Look no further than the fact he went from one of the top-five possession players in the league down to 70th over the past three years. To be fair, that aspect of his game has bounced back a bit this season, but the drop in offense and scoring is not great.

The Blackhawks aren’t going to trade Toews, and as I said above, they didn’t really make a mistake by signing him. But the way he’s played the past 2 1/2 seasons has to be somewhat of a concern, especially as his offense only continues to get worse.

With Toews and Kane making more than $20 million per season for the next five years, and significant contracts tied into Saad, Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith and Artem Anisimov, the Blackhawks’ salary cap situation is not ideal, especially given the ages of those players. There is nothing wrong with paying superstars big money. You just need those players to perform like superstars once you sign them. If Toews continues to produce like he has the past couple of years, it is going to be awfully difficult for the Blackhawks to be much better than they are now.

The fact his possession numbers and shot metrics have rebounded this season should at least provide some hope that he can get back to at least being closer to the player that he was a few years ago. But the fact he will be entering his age-30 season next year is also a pretty decent red flag. Most players hit their offensive peak between the ages of 23 and 26. It makes for a very difficult situation for the Blackhawks.

Toews has been a huge part of what was one of the most successful eras in the history of the Blackhawks franchise. But his current salary and current level of production is a big reason they are struggling right now.