Hawerchuk memorabilia up for auction

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/10/2021 (1434 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hockey jerseys, gloves and pants sat in boxes, stowed away in Dale Hawerchuk’s house. Now, the former Winnipeg Jets centre’s family is auctioning off his memorabilia.

“We just wanted to… find a way to give back to some of the fans,” said Eric Hawerchuk, Dale’s son.

The family is selling 43 items through Classic Auctions, a company based in Delson, Que. Dale’s 1989 Jets and 1985 NHL All-Star Game jerseys, both signed, are among the items up for bidding. There are also rings, trophies, watches and steins.

Each item comes with a letter of authentication from the family.

“As he played hockey over all those years, (he) collect(ed) so many things,” Eric said.

Dale died of stomach cancer on Aug. 18, 2020 at the age of 57. The Jets legend looked through boxes with his son before passing; after, Eric and his family took over.

“My dad wasn’t really one to show off,” Eric said. “We don’t have much stuff on display in the house. When you go down… to some of the storage lockers we have, we have some pretty incredible stuff.”

Not all of Dale’s memorabilia is available to the public.

“We all went through it together, as a family, and we picked out a few things that were special to us,” Eric said.

Fans can also bid on three non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, which depict highlights of Dale’s career. NFTs are one-of-a-kind digital art pieces.

One shows Dale being picked first overall in the 1981 NHL entry draft. Another freezes the Game 3 third-period faceoff leading to Mario Lemieux’s goal in the 1987 Canada Cup Finals. The last details Dale’s 2001 induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“I think it’s going to be a really exciting step into the future of collectibles and trading. It’s pretty neat,” Eric said.

It’s the first time Classic Auctions is selling NFTs, according to Marc Juteau, the company’s president and founder.

“We’re excited to see how much interest it grows, and if there’s a market,” Juteau said.

He began working on the Hawerchuk auction six months ago. Already, the bids are flooding in, he said.

His favourite piece — which had the highest bid Saturday — is Dale’s 1987 Canada Cup Team Canada jersey. Dale wore it while on a line with Wayne Gretzky and Lemieux.

“That’s a very important piece of memorabilia for me, no doubt,” Juteau said.

As of Saturday, it was going for $5,453. The auction ends Oct. 26.

Hawerchuk played for the Winnipeg Jets from 1981 to 1990. During that time, he helped win the Canada Cup, made the NHL All-Star Game four times, became the youngest player to reach 100 points (he was 19 when the regular season ended), and had five consecutive 100-plus point seasons.

He went on to play for the Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues and Philadelphia Flyers. This summer, the Winnipeg Jets announced a statue of him will be unveiled in True North Square next August. A stretch of Graham Avenue has been honorarily named Dale Hawerchuk Way.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com