Unlike so many of his peers, the transition to life after hockey has been smooth for Dale Hawerchuk.
He has happily settled in the Hockley Valley, just outside Orangeville, Ont., and just north of Toronto, and launched himself into a second career. It's a life that, in many ways, mirrors the approach he took in becoming one of the most accomplished National Hockey League players of his generation.
Hawerchuk, 38, is now a farmer, breeding horses for a living. For many of his NHL peers, the mention of horses immediately brings to mind Hawerchuk's first NHL boss, John Ferguson, the former Winnipeg Jets general manager who chose Hawerchuk with the first overall pick in the 1981 entry draft. Ferguson has had a lifelong affection for trotters and worked in the racing industry between NHL jobs. Hawerchuk breeds and trains show jumpers ("mostly warmbloods," he said) for equestrian competition.
"I see Fergy every once in a while and he always asks about it," Hawerchuk said. "I know he's got a natural love for horses. There's something about a horse that always brings something out in a person."
Along with Slava Fetisov, Mike Gartner and Jari Kurri, Hawerchuk will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday evening. The Toronto native ended a distinguished 16-year career in 1997 as the 13th-leading scorer in NHL history. His 1,409 points in 1,188 games leaves him just behind Bryan Trottier and just ahead of Kurri on the all-time scoring list.
Ferguson originally brought Hawerchuk to Winnipeg in the fall of 1981, amid a great deal of fanfare. When Hawerchuk agreed to his first NHL contract, the Jets transported him to the intersection of Portage and Main in a Brinks truck, from which he emerged to sign his first deal.
Talk about putting pressure on an untried player.
"That wasn't pressure, that was showbiz," scoffed Tom Watt, the former Jets coach. "I wasn't appalled by it at all. Fergy was just trying to promote the hockey team. You have to remember, the year before that, they had 12 wins. So here's the first-round draft choice and he was making a big deal about it -- and it was a big deal. Dale was a big part of the turnaround."
Hawerchuk responded with 103 points in his first season to win the Calder Trophy as the rookie of the year. Only Peter Stastny and Teemu Selanne, two players who came to the league with significant international experience, produced more points in their first NHL seasons.
How long did it take for Hawerchuk to establish himself as a pro?
"One game," Watt said, "the first game of the exhibition season. He was just so smart. He wasn't a free-flowing guy, but he anticipated well and he could dart those first two or three steps to pick off passes in zones.
"That first year, he and [fellow rookie]Scott Arniel boarded with families, which I think was really important. I've seen other rookies come and they get their bonus and they gotta have their own pad and it's wall-to-wall pizza boxes. He lived with a family and they were fed properly."
Hawerchuk played nine seasons for the Jets before they shuffled him off to the Buffalo Sabres in 1990 for Phil Housley and a first-round draft choice. He played five more seasons in Buffalo, before moving on to St. Louis for a 66-game cameo and then joining the Flyers in 1996 for one last hurrah.
Hawerchuk won two Canada Cup championships, the 1982 Calder Trophy and was chosen to the second all-star team in 1985, a year in which he scored 130 points. He also spent his best years playing in an era when two Smythe Division opponents, the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames, were the dominant teams.
"I had so much success in minor hockey. We were [Ontario Minor Hockey Association]champs," Hawerchuk said. "I went to junior [in Cornwall]and we won the Memorial Cup two years in a row. There were the two Canada Cups. We just couldn't get it done in Winnipeg. I look back on those years and the East will never know how good Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton really were because they always had to play against each other in the first or second round.
"I spent five years in Buffalo and I felt we could have won the East a few times, but we always ran into these injuries to key guys -- Pat Lafontaine's knee and [Alex]Mogilny's broken ankle and [Grant]Fuhr's knee went on him. In my last year in Philadelphia, we lost in the finals to Detroit.
"I really enjoyed Philadelphia. It reminded me of the John Ferguson days. They treated you great, but boy, they put pressure on you to perform. I really enjoyed that part of it -- because the pressure was for everyone, not just a few guys. But by the time I got to the finals, I was so banged up, I felt like I couldn't make a difference when it really counted."
After retiring, Hawerchuk and his family returned to St. Louis for a full year. In his playing days, Hawerchuk had a peripheral interest in horses, and the family kept a few quarterhorses on the five-acre ranch they owned on the outskirts of Winnipeg.
It was the summer after he retired that Hawerchuk's wife and daughter watched one of the equestrian competitions at the Pan-American Games in Winnipeg.
"The next thing you know, we were looking at different stallions and mares, young stuff," Hawerchuk said. "We took a year and really checked it out. We went to Spruce Meadows [in Calgary]and they helped us out quite a bit. Linda [Southern] she was excellent.
"Back in St. Louis, we went up to a little auction and ended up buying a couple of mares. It was after that we decided, 'let's do this. We both enjoy it and the kids seem to like it.' "
There were some raised eyebrows when Hawerchuk wasn't elected to the Hall Of Fame last year, his first year of eligibility.
"A lot of people out Winnipeg-way will say, 'well, this is the way his career went. He didn't get much notoriety when he played and when he came up for his first Hall Of Fame vote, he didn't get in either.'
"I was never after the notoriety. I just loved to play the game and compete. It may stem from the fact that Bobby Orr was my idol and it wasn't just because of his talent. It's the way he could play defence, play offence, just kind of control the game.
"I enjoyed playing, whether my role was to score or to create or check or whatever. Whatever the team needed, that's what I enjoyed most." Eric Duhatschek writes analysis and commentary for globeandmail.com; his column appears on the Web site Tuesday through Saturday. eduhatschek@globeandmail.ca