Dale Hawerchuk - 1963 -2020. Rest in peace



71Z1pr.gif


oVzVj3.gif
 
Last edited:
My first sports hero. Memories of listening to games on the radio with my dad. When I was around 10 my dad did some roofing work for Dale and he was nice enough to give my dad one of his used hockey sticks to give to me. Still got it. White TPS Louisville with black tape. Took it out last night and played a little ball hockey in the basement.
 
My first sports hero. Memories of listening to games on the radio with my dad. When I was around 10 my dad did some roofing work for Dale and he was nice enough to give my dad one of his used hockey sticks to give to me. Still got it. White TPS Louisville with black tape. Took it out last night and played a little ball hockey in the basement.
Amazing the little things in life great people who reach the limelight can have on on "regular guy's/gal's lives.
I amDucky's age, born in '63, and I am remember getting a chance to play at the old 'barn'-Winnipeg Arena- on a Sat morning. We were a bunch of "wannabe ankle-benders" with make shift uniforms. The Jets were playing later that night, Hockey Night in Canada, and my younger bro, playing with us, shows up with his Jets white jersey with Hawerchuk #10 on the back. A new birthday gift, souvenir jersey he swore he would never wear, but...here he was a few months later wearing it, because we were playing a game at the 'Winnipeg Arena, Hawerchuk's barn! We all had dark jerseys on our team and my bozo bro shows up with his whiteHawerchuk Jets jersey!
Anyways, we're playing away, making a farce of pure hockey for sure. My bro all of a sudden disappears to the end boards, where the Zamboni would come out banging on the glass. A worker opens the door and let's him off.
None of us saw why? But he was vindicated later ( after the game as he never came back to the ice). Turns out he saw Ducky and Scott Arniell standing in the aisle there watching.
Dale had noticed him in his jersey and had acknowledgedhim with a wave, smile. Turns out my bro went to find him and instead of dissing him as an obnoxious fan, Ducky signed his White Jets jersey, told him to take it off and head to their gear room.
Hawerchuk gave him a Blue Jets practise jersey with #10 Hawerchuk on the back. He signed that one too! Told him to be good and cheer on the Jets!
Damn rights we cheered on the Jets!! And we all cheered on Dale Hawerchuk as a star and a wonderful person for fans, kids and Winnipeg. My bro swore to be a better, nicer brat after yhat meeting Ducky. We even cheered for Buffalo, when He became a Sabre, a hockey hero of the 80's for Winnipeg, for sure!
RIP Dale. A true mentor to youth and hockey "wannabes" and "actual are-be's", Scheifele, Tanner Pearson, etc.
 
After the glory days of the WHA Jets, the move over to the NHL was difficult and ugly. For the city it was a bit of a punch in the mouth. We took it well - I remember renting a cheap tux and going to games to counter the assertion from the old guard NHL that Winnipeg had no class. Fun times, but the on-ice results were largely bad. For me Ducky was the guy that put the city on his back and restored and then elevated the reputation of Jets 1.0 from the moment he arrived. Man, what a player - and a class act off the ice. RIP. Way too young and so sad. Condolences to all who knew him; to all of us fans; and especially to his family.
 
You're welcome and thank you!



This is a great idea from True North considering the f***ed up world we are in right now. Man i'm sad and pissed off right now . :(:mad: Thanks for posting all of these great posts @Guardian17 .

Nice Job Guardian.

F****** good job Gaurdian17 thank you..

I went by this last night and people were putting hockey sticks beside it. Winnipeg takes alot of abuse about what a shity city it is, i wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Might want to go away for a winter trip but i love our summers and we have alot of very nice people here.
 
RIP Ducky. I was too young to remember the details that led to him being traded beyond he didnt like like the (then) new GM Mike Smith.

Did some online checking and some of the info I found is that Dale thought Smith provided a "negative" atmosphere and he lacked "community spirit " Some apparently inferred the later comment indicated Dale was against Smith bringing in allot of Europeans .I find this hard to believe based on what I've heard about Dale's character. . Theres always 2 sides to every story but I was not able to find what Smith thought about the negative atmosphere comment.

To those who may be in the know , why was Ferguson let go and for someone who alienated their franchise player? Today if a player like Sidney Crosby but heads with the GM to the point on him wanting to leave., ownership would likely just get a new GM. Ofcouse timess have changed since then
 
Last edited:
RIP Ducky. I was too young to remember the details that led to him being traded beyond he didnt like like the (then) new GM Mike Smith.

Did some online checking and some of the info I found is that Dale thought Smith provided a "negative" atmosphere and he lacked "community spirit " Some apparently inferred the later comment indicated Dale was against Smith bringing in allot of Europeans .I find this hard to believe based on what I've heard about Dale's character. . Theres always 2 sides to every story but I was not able to find what Smith thought about the negative atmosphere comment.

To those who may be in the know , why was Ferguson let go and for someone who alienated their franchise player? Today if a player like Sidney Crosby but heads with the GM to the point on him wanting to leave., ownership would likely just get a new GM. Ofcouse timess have changed since then
Fergie was an awful GM. a funny character, but a really, really bad GM. like, really bad.
Smith came in and he thought he was smarter than everyone else. he had a big ego. don't forget what happened to him in Toronto after he left the Jets. he attempted a putsch.
Smith also had a run-in with Housley at the Jets' Christmas (I think?) party. he was really a piece of work
 
My ex-wife worked the counter at Westjet a number of years ago.

About 15 years ago, she's watching the news, and hollers out from the living room "Did you know that Dale Hawerchuk was a Winnipeg Jet? He's on TV right now"

Her hockey knowledge was less than zero at the time, so I call back "Uhhhh, yeah? The bigger question is how do YOU know even know the name Dale Hawerchuk, let alone that he was a Winnipeg Jet?"

Turns out he had left either his wallet or passport on a flight a few days prior, and she had to help him find it. The only reason she knew the name was because she had to check his ID in order to get it back to him. She had NO idea she was helping a hockey god!

I just about died. ANY OTHER PERSON would have asked for a photo or an autograph. I would have! She had no clue.

Thankfully, my current wife is much more knowledgeable about important things like this.

That statue can't come soon enough. I tear up knowing that Dale was made aware of this plan before he passed.... Way too young, way too soon.

He should have been on the ice honouring future Winnipeg Jets Hall of Fame inductees for decades to come...
 
Fergie was an awful GM. a funny character, but a really, really bad GM. like, really bad.
Smith came in and he thought he was smarter than everyone else. he had a big ego. don't forget what happened to him in Toronto after he left the Jets. he attempted a putsch.
Smith also had a run-in with Housley at the Jets' Christmas (I think?) party. he was really a piece of work
There is so much truth in this post.

You cannot possibly underestimate just how bad both Ferguson and Smith were at aspects of their jobs. Fergie was a character, for sure, but never forget that when he chose Jimmy Mann as our first draft pick when the Jets entered the NHL, among the players he passed over were Michel Goulet, Kevin Lowe, Pelle Lindbergh, Mats Naslund, Dale Hunter, Neal Broten, Guy Carbonneau, Mark Messier...that's MARK friggin' MESSIER...Glenn Anderson, Jim Peplinski, Anton Stastny, and the list goes on and on.

Mike Smith, on the other hand, didn't even have character as a redeeming feature. He was just an awful person.
 
In 1981, the year Dale Hawerchuk was drafted by Winnipeg, I turned 22 that summer, and was spending the summer backpacking, living and working in Europe, Stockholm, Sweden specifically.

There was a Canada Cup that fall, and during August 1981 all of the teams were attending training camp. The Swedish team, naturally enough, was training at the hockey arena in Stockholm, where I was living at the time.

They had two exhibition games scheduled for August, one against the USSR (which was either the last, or second-last game Valeri Kharlamov ever played for the USSR before being killed in a car accident), and one against Czechoslovakia. I got tickets for both games.

The day I bought the tickets (early August, maybe late July) I was walking away from the arena ticket office (which, by the way, had a WHA Winnipeg Jets sticker on the glass), and encountered the Swedish team, just leaving practice. Half of the team were ex-Jets - Hedberg, Nilsson, Kent Nilsson, Sjoberg, etc.

I walked up to one of them, Hedberg I think, and said "Hi, I'm from Winnipeg." Half the team immediately came over to talk to me. I felt pretty important for a minute or two.

Among the young players was Thomas Steen, who had just been drafted, and was about to come to Winnipeg to play his rookie season. I welcomed him to Winnipeg, and he said "Thanks, but I hear the team isn't very good." We chuckled, and I agreed, but then we both mentioned that #1 draft pick that would hopefully make the team better in 1981.

Little did we know just how much.
 
This is long but i don't care it's awesome to watch.

Wow. I watched the entire clip. I also watched this live as a 19 year-old. What an incredible talent #10 was. Especially after watching some of the highlight clips from his career in the last 24 hours, it really drives home how great he was. I stand by my belief that other than #99, Dale had the most "hockey sense" of any player in the history of the NHL.
To put his talent into perspective, he had 103 points as an 18 year-old rookie, playing with Paul McLean ( a good player), and Larry Hopkins (who was a slug - sorry Larry Hopkins fans...)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Jets 31
Aside from the 1987 Canada Cup, which IMO was the peak of Ducky's career,


My best memories of Hawerchuk are from the 1984-85 season. As a 8 year old, I had been through 3 seasons of a mediocre Jets team losing in the first round of the playoffs. This would prove to be the Jets best year in the NHL. For most of the season, the Jets were trailing the Calgary Flames, and it was almost guaranteed that the Jets and Flames would meet up in the first round.

In late February 1985, the Jets went on a tear, let by Ducky. The Jets traveled to NYC to play the Rangers, and demolished them 12-5. This was a turning point for the Jets. Before defeating the Rangers, they were an impressive 30-26-6. Hawerchuk would lead the Jets into their best month ever in March, going 13-1-4 for the remainder of the year. At one point, the Jets were 9 points back of the Flames.

Ducky would go on a tear in the final 17 games, with 16 goals and 16 assists, to become the first NHL Jet to score 50 goals, and ended up with 130 for the year. On the second last game of the season, the Jets would travel to Alberta, and top the powerhouse Oilers in Edmonton 6-5, and have home ice advantage. If it were not for the Macoun dirty hit, I am convinced the Jets could have given the Oilers a run for their money.

However, it was not to be. Ducky would go on to play five more seasons on the team, hoping to retire a Jet. Unfortunately, GM Mike Smith made that impossible for Ducky. He would be traded to Buffalo in June 1990. However, from 1981-90, Hawerchuk was arguably one of the top 5 forwards of the decade, and was highly underrated.

Ducky would have continued success with the Sabres, until the lockout year, when his hip began to give out, and lead to his retirement in 1997. He managed to finally make it past the 2nd round with the Flyers, and have his only Stanley Cup appearance, but hockey's holy grail would elude him.

As coach of Barrie Colts, he mentored future NHL stars, and nearly all of them have nothing but great things to say about Ducky.

No athletes death has ever affected me this way. It's been over 24 hours, and I am still shook up, and holding back tears. Thinking of Ducky brought back so many pleasant childhood memories. The city was truly blessed to have Ducky live and play in this city for an entire decade.
 
Last edited:
Fergie was an awful GM. a funny character, but a really, really bad GM. like, really bad.
Smith came in and he thought he was smarter than everyone else. he had a big ego. don't forget what happened to him in Toronto after he left the Jets. he attempted a putsch.
Smith also had a run-in with Housley at the Jets' Christmas (I think?) party. he was really a piece of work
Yes, most people liked Fergie, but he was an awful gm. Mann, Stewart, Kyte, McBain, Elyniuk.....our drafts were hilariously bad. And the trades? Yikes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jets 31

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad