#89 - Dale Hawerchuk

Dale Hawerchuk (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #89)

Adjusted Stats

1981-1982   Wpg          82 GP   35 goals   46 assists   81 points     0.99 PPG
1982-1983   Wpg          81 GP   33 goals   42 assists   74 points     0.92 PPG
1983-1984   Wpg          82 GP   30 goals   52 assists   81 points     0.99 PPG
1984-1985   Wpg          82 GP   43 goals   62 assists   105 points   1.29 PPG
1985-1986   Wpg          82 GP   37 goals   47 assists   83 points     1.02 PPG
1986-1987   Wpg          82 GP   40 goals   46 assists   86 points     1.05 PPG
1987-1988   Wpg          82 GP   37 goals   65 assists   103 points   1.25 PPG
1988-1989   Wpg          77 GP   35 goals   46 assists   81 points     1.05 PPG
1989-1990   Wpg          81 GP   22 goals   47 assists   69 points     0.86 PPG
1990-1991   Buf            82 GP   28 goals   53 assists   81 points     0.99 PPG
1991-1992   Buf            79 GP   21 goals   68 assists   89 points     1.12 PPG
1992-1993   Buf            79 GP   13 goals   66 assists   79 points     1.01 PPG
1993-1994   Buf            79 GP   32 goals   47 assists   80 points     1.01 PPG
1994-1995   Buf            39 GP   9 goals     19 assists   28 points     0.72 PPG
1995-1996   Stl/Phi        82 GP  17 goals    43 assists   60 points     0.73 PPG
1996-1997   Phi             51 GP  13 goals    23 assists   36 points     0.70 PPG

Adjusted Playoff Stats

1981-1982   Wpg          4 GP     1 goal       5 assists     6 points       1.56 PPG
1982-1983   Wpg          3 GP     1 goal       3 assists     4 points       1.30 PPG
1983-1984   Wpg          3 GP     1 goal       1 assist      2 points        0.59 PPG
1984-1985   Wpg          3 GP     2 goals     1 assist       2 points       0.75 PPG
1985-1986   Wpg          3 GP     0 goals      3 assists    3 points        0.86 PPG
1986-1987   Wpg          10 GP   4 goals      7 assists    12 points      1.16 PPG
1987-1988   Wpg          5 GP     2 goals      3 assists    5 points        1.05 PPG
1989-1990   Wpg          7 GP     3 goals      4 assists    7 points        0.97 PPG
1990-1991   Buf            6 GP     2 goals      3 assists    5 points        0.85 PPG
1991-1992   Buf            7 GP     2 goals      4 assists    6 points        0.87 PPG
1992-1993   Buf            8 GP     4 goals      7 assists    12 points      1.44 PPG
1993-1994   Buf            7 GP     0 goals      7 assists    7 points        0.98 PPG
1994-1995   Buf            2 GP     0 goals      0 assists    0 points        0.00 PPG
1995-1996   Phi            12 GP    3 goals      6 assists    9 points       0.72 PPG
1996-1997   Phi            17 GP    2 goals      5 assists    7 points       0.43 PPG

Career - 1230 GP, 445 goals, 772 assists, 1216 points, 0.99 PPG
Career-Highs - 43 goals (84-85); 68 assists (91-92); 105 points (84-85); 1.29 PPG (84-85)
Avg. (16 seasons) - 77 GP, 28 goals, 48 assists, 76 points, 0.99 PPG
Peak Avg. (84-92) - 81 GP, 33 goals, 54 assists, 87 points, 1.08 PPG, 0 Cups

Playoff Career - 97 GP, 27 goals, 59 assists, 87 points, 0.90 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 4 goals (92-93); 7 assists (93-94); 12 points (92-93); 1.56 PPG (81-82)

Accolades - Calder
All-Star Teams - 1-time 2nd-team
Never Won Stanley Cup

Dale Hawerchuk is one of the prime examples of why the adjusted-stats system is the only one that can truly show a player`s statistical impact. Judging by his real-life numbers (1409 points in 1188 games), Hawerchuk is one of the most prolific scorers to ever play center. Yet he is a beneficiary of the stats-padding that many players who played in the 1980s received. If you looked at mere point totals, Hawerchuk would be a lock for the discussion of all-time great centers. Instead, he doesn`t even crack the top 20. There`s a reason why.

Like Gilbert Perreault, Hawerchuk was still a very good scoring center, just not an elite one. The Winnipeg Jets needed him to shoulder the offensive load year after year, and Hawerchuk did just that. For that, he deserves acclaim. It`s not easy to put up 85, 90, even 100+ points on a team that has very little in the way of a supporting staff (of all the centers on the Pyramid, Hawerchuk may have had the worst supporting cast during his prime years). But when you`re playing in an era that boasts Gretzky, Lemieux, Yzerman, Sakic, Modano and Francis, it can be easy to get lost in the shuffle. This may explain why Hawerchuk has but one appearance on a year-end All-Star team, a 2nd-team snag in 1984-1985.

Hawerchuk was a one-man show with the Jets before moving on to the Buffalo Sabres, where he reinvented himself as something of an Adam Oates clone, racking up a boatload of assists to go along with fairly minimal goal totals (most of the goals were scored by Alex Mogilny or Dave Andreychuk). As his career began to come to an end, Hawerchuk settled into the (previously unthinkable) role of third-line defensive center with the Philadelphia Flyers, and it seemed like he may finally get the Stanley Cup ring that had not even been a possibility with the Jets or the Sabres. Alas, the Flyers were swept by the Red Wings, and Hawerchuk, perhaps tired of team failure, retired at the still fairly-young age of 33 (to put it in perspective, Yzerman at the time was only two years younger, and he still had two more championships to win).

Hawerchuk is generally forgotten by today`s younger generation, a top scorer on perenially bad teams, one of the players whose presence so high on point-total and career PPG lists invites more shrugs than admiration (a chartered member of the "Oh Yeah, That Guy" group). It`s not that Hawerchuk wasn`t a very good player, or that he may have achieved legendary status if he had been fortunate enough to be on a better team. It`s just that his numbers aren`t as mind-blowing as they appear, and since Hawerchuk doesn`t have anything going for his career except numbers...well, you can figure it out.