It’s never too early to window shop.

Especially when your team is both the best in hockey and looking at the distinct possibility of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs being a ‘last dance’ of sorts.

And it would appear that Bruins general manager Don Sweeney knows exactly that, as the Bruins have already been linked to one of the trade deadline’s top prizes out in Chicago, according to an update from The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta.

“There has been more chatter connected to [Patrick] Kane than [Jonathan] Toews, with teams like the New York Rangers, Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche, New York Islanders, Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs, among other clubs, having shown interest in Kane going back to last season,” Pagnotta wrote. “The Avalanche and Boston Bruins are two clubs, among others, that have inquired about Toews.”

Well, that’s something.

Of course, ‘inquire’ could mean just about anything. It could be a simple check in, it could be some early poking around, or maybe even some sort of ‘when you want to move him, we’ll be ready to engage’ kind of messaging. The possibilities are endless when it comes to ‘inquiring’ in December.

Oh, and there’s also the possibility that the Blackhawks are getting this out there and citing the reigning Stanley Cup champions and the best team in the NHL as two interested parties in a way to put the rest of the league on notice and drive up the bidding war on their players. Again, with this league, anything’s possible.

But, let’s — in the interest of getting our brains firing on a deadline level that’ll come sooner than you realize — say that the Bruins are indeed interested in Toews.

What’s to know?

A veteran of 1,040 games (all with Chicago), the 34-year-old Toews is enjoying what you could call a mild renaissance season with the Blackhawks out of the gate, with nine goals and 16 points through 27 games this season.

This is after a 2021-22 campaign that featured 12 goals and 37 points in 71 games, which was his lowest output of his career from both a goal-scoring and point total mark, and after Toews missed the entire pandemic-delayed 2021 season.

It might not be what Toews put up in his prime, but it’s certainly enough to call this a bounce-back season.

The 6-foot-2, left-shooting center has also been phenomenal at the dots this season, with a league-leading 65 percent success rate at the dot (minimum 400 faceoffs). His 328 wins at the dot this season are also the ninth-most among all NHL centers with at least 400 faceoffs. The B’s, meanwhile, have just one left-shooting forward who has taken more than 100 faceoffs in 2022-23 (Tomas Nosek, 260).

Toews’ postseason resume also speaks for itself. In addition to being the captain of three Cup-winning squads in Chicago, Toews has recorded 45 goals and 119 points in 137 career playoff games. That’s the 65th-most points in playoffs history, and his 0.87 points per playoff game mark tied for the 47th-most among the group of 390 NHLers with at least 100 career Stanley Cup Playoff games.

Off the ice, Toews is in the final year of a contract that comes with a heavy $10.5 million cap hit.

And that’s where everything gets real confusing real fast.

As it stands right now, the Bruins will not have the cap space to acquire Toews without some serious maneuvering. Even if the Blackhawks were to eat half of Toews’ remaining salary at the deadline, this isn’t as simple as throwing in some filler money in addition to picks and prospects and calling it a day.

Without melting your brain with the various avenues and what not, the Bruins would likely need a third team to get involved to help ‘broker’ the deal from a money retention position, which is exactly what the cap-strung Lightning did when they acquired David Savard from Columbus via Detroit back in 2021.

Toews, of course, possesses a full no-movement clause and is in complete control of this decision.

But given the potential ‘one bullet in the chamber’ aspect of the Bruins’ cap situation entering this deadline — and things can always change between now and then with one major injury, as we all know — is Toews the guy that the Bruins should go all in on trying to acquire?

Boston’s center depth is already something. A one-two-three punch of Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, and Charlie Coyle has worked wonders. Bergeron and Coyle are two of the best faceoff men in the league, and the team also has Pavel Zacha as an option down the middle if they need to move pieces around. Given what their in-house options have done, this team doesn’t seem like a team that’s another center away from winning it all.

It may make more sense for the Bruins to instead focus on Toews’ teammate on all three of those Cup-winning Blackhawk squads, Patrick Kane, as their ‘all in’ deadline move. Especially with the way veteran right winger Craig Smith (one goal and three points in 16 games) has struggled to find his form this year, and with Trent Frederic currently playing his off side as Boston’s third-line right wing.

Or maybe defense remains the name of the game for Sweeney’s Bruins, even with a franchise depth chart that’s so deep that it currently has NHL veterans Mike Reilly and Anton Stralman in the minors.

No matter the path the Bruins take between now and the deadline, the fact that Sweeney’s making calls in December with the team playing this well speaks to how they’re viewing this season.