Dale Hawerchuk
Dale Hawerchuk was a highly regarded Canadian professional ice hockey player, born on April 4, 1963, in Rexdale-Thistledown, Ontario. With Ukrainian roots, he began skating as a toddler and quickly rose through the ranks of youth hockey, showcasing remarkable talent. He made his mark in junior hockey with the Cornwall Royals, earning multiple accolades, including rookie of the year and most valuable player during their Memorial Cup championship run. Selected first overall by the Winnipeg Jets in the 1981 NHL Draft, Hawerchuk became the youngest player to score over 100 points in a season, a record he held for many years. Throughout his nine seasons with the Jets, he was known for his scoring prowess and playmaking abilities, compiling numerous points and participating in international competitions with Team Canada.
Hawerchuk later played for the Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues, and Philadelphia Flyers before retiring in 1997 with impressive career statistics of over 1,400 points in 1,188 games. Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001, he remained active in hockey as a coach and administrator after his playing days. Tragically, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and passed away on August 18, 2020, at the age of 57. His legacy continues to resonate in the hockey community, remembered both for his exceptional skills on the ice and his contributions to the sport.
Dale Hawerchuk
- Born: April 4, 1963
- Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Died: August 18, 2020
- Place of death: Barrie, Ontario, Canada
Sport: Ice hockey
Early Life
Dale Martin Hawerchuk was born to parents of Ukrainian ancestry on April 4, 1963, in Rexdale-Thistledown, a community within the city limits of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. When he was still an infant, his parents, Ed and Eleanor Hawerchuk, moved the family east to Oshawa. Like many youngsters in Canada, where ice hockey has been a national obsession for more than one hundred years, Hawerchuk received his first pair of ice skates when he was just a toddler and learned to skate before he could walk.
By the age of four, Hawerchuk had begun to play hockey competitively and showed excellent skating and stickhandling skills. He improved as he advanced through the various juvenile divisions: Mite, ages 3–4; Tyke, ages 4–6; Novice, ages 7–8; Atom, ages 9–10; Peewee, ages 11–12; Bantam, ages 13–14; and Midget, ages 15–17. At a Peewee tournament, he scored 8 goals in a game to set a national record.
The Road to Excellence
In 1978, Hawerchuk tried out for the Oshawa Generals, a junior team in the Ontario Hockey League, but did not make the club. The following year, however, the Cornwall Royals of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) selected him. He made an immediate impact, scoring 103 points during the 1979–80 season to earn rookie of the year honors. During the QMJHL playoffs, he scored 45 points in eighteen games and was named most valuable player (MVP) while leading the Royals to the Memorial Cup championship. For his performance, Hawerchuk won the most sportsmanlike player award and made the QMJHL all-star team at left wing. The Royals represented Canada at the 1981 World Junior Hockey Tournament, where Hawerchuk tallied 9 points to tie for the scoring lead.
During the 1980–81 season, Hawerchuk again dominated the QMJHL with 81 goals and 183 points. The Royals swept to another Memorial Cup championship behind Hawerchuk’s tournament record 8 goals. He was selected for the QMJHL all-star team, named Canadian major junior player of the year, and was Memorial Cup MVP and the tournament’s all-star center. After his outstanding performance in major junior hockey, he was destined for better things. He was ready for the big leagues.
The Emerging Champion
During the 1981–82 season, the National Hockey League (NHL) Winnipeg Jets (later the Phoenix Coyotes), possessor of the first overall pick in the draft because of a last-place finish in the previous season, selected Hawerchuk. He quickly paid dividends, leading the team to one of the most startling turnarounds in NHL history: a 48-point improvement. He scored 45 goals and handed out 58 assists for 103 points to become the youngest player in league history to break the 100-point barrier, a feat unequaled until 2006, when Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins broke the mark. Hawerchuk was named rookie of the year and an all-star.
During nine seasons with Winnipeg, from 1981 to 1990, Hawerchuk gained a reputation as one of the NHL’s best forwards. He topped 100 points six times, including four consecutive seasons, 1983–88, and led the Jets in scoring. His best season was 1984–85, when he scored 53 goals and 77 assists for 130 points. In 1982, 1986, and 1989, he was a member of Team Canada at the Ice Hockey World Championships, helping the team to two bronze medals and one silver medal. In 1987, he was a key member of Team Canada at the 1987 Canada Cup tournament and was named the MVP of the deciding championship game.
Despite his skills as a playmaker and goal scorer, he was never able to inspire the team to the Stanley Cup because of powerful division rivals the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames. Before the 1990–91 hockey season, he was traded to the Buffalo Sabres.
Continuing the Story
In his first season in Buffalo, Hawerchuk scored 31 goals and dished out 58 assists, for a respectable 89 points, while recording his 1000th career NHL point. He was also a significant contributor to the Team Canada championship effort at the 1991 Canada Cup.
In five seasons with the Sabres, 1990–95, Hawerchuk amassed 375 points in 323 games. However, injuries had diminished his skills, and in 1995, the St. Louis Blues signed him as a free agent. Toward the end of that season, he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers. Injuries again took their toll, and Hawerchuk retired in 1997, after playing in 1,188 NHL games and compiling 518 goals, 891 assists, and 1,409 points. When his playing career ended, Hawerchuk ranked twenty-first all-time in the NHL in goals scored and tenth in assists and total points. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001.
Though Hawerchuk had left competition, he did not vanish from the consciousness of Canada’s faithful hockey fans: In 2005, a Quebec rock band, Les Dales Hawerchuk, released an album in his honor. Nor did he stray far from hockey. He became associated with the Orangeville Crushers of the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League, first as president and primary owner, then as director of hockey operations. In 2007, his name was installed in the Phoenix Coyotes’ Ring of Honor. In 2008, he was elected as a second vice chairman of the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League. Two years later, he had taken on the position of head coach of the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League. Having come in as the organization's fifth coach, he went on to spend several seasons in the position and had become recognized as the team's longest-serving head coach by the time he announced that he would, at least temporarily, be stepping away from work in 2019. During his tenure, the franchise had secured four division titles and had made it to the league's finals in 2013. Diagnosed with stomach cancer, he died on August 18, 2020, at the age of fifty-seven.
Summary
One of the premier scoring and playmaking centers in the NHL from the early 1980s to the early 1990s, Dale Hawerchuk was the youngest player to score 100 points until 2006. He had the misfortune of playing for mediocre teams throughout his professional career. As a consequence, he appeared in only one Stanley Cup final, in his last season of competition. Though injuries cut short his career, he finished with more than 1,400 points and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Bibliography
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Conner, Floyd. Hockey’s Most Wanted: The Top Ten Book of Wicked Slapshots, Bruising Goons, and Ice Oddities. Dulles, Va.: Potomac Books, 2002.
Kaplan, Emily. "Hall of Famer Dale Hawerchuk Dies at 57 from Stomach Cancer." ESPN, 18 Aug. 2020, www.espn.com/nhl/story/‗/id/29688992/hall-famer-dale-hawerchuk-dies-57-stomach-cancer. Accessed 29 Oct. 2020.
Pelletier, Joe, and Patrick Houda. World Cup of Hockey: A History of Hockey’s Greatest Tournament. Toronto, Ont.: Warwick, 2004.
Taylor, Scott. The Winnipeg Jets: A Celebration of Hockey in Winnipeg. Winnipeg, Man.: Studio Books, 2007.