Scheifele creating legacy with Jets similar to Hawerchuk

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday. This week compares a pair of Winnipeg Jets icons: Dale Hawerchuk and Mark Scheifele.

At the rate Mark Scheifele's career has orbited it wouldn't surprise if a second iconic Winnipeg Jet had a statue erected for him across from Canada Life Centre, where a life size replica of Dale Hawerchuk now stands.

The late Jets captain, Hawerchuk was the Gibraltar of his rising team during the 1980s, roughly equivalent to Wayne Gretzky helping the Edmonton Oilers win the Stanley Cup four times between 1984 and '88. Those who knew Hawerchuk best and know Scheifele, like Paul Maurice, see the similarity.

Maurice, coach of the two-time Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, was Jets coach in 2013-14, Scheifele's first full NHL season. Six years later, Maurice had seen enough of Scheifele's magnificence to opine with remarks published in the Winnipeg Free Press on Oct. 15, 2023.

"Scheifele has that potential to be a one-team player that wins [the Cup] and is captain of it at some point and gets a bronze statue in front of the building," he said.

Though Scheifele has neither a Cup ring nor the Jets captaincy -- that belongs to Adam Lowry -- his value was underlined when he signed a seven-year, $59.5 contract with Winnipeg on Oct. 9, 2023.

"Both Dale and Mark shared one key component, their high hockey I.Q." Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff recently told me. "Despite playing in different eras, they have been students of the game. They shared a mutual desire to compete and be the best at what they did.

"Dale was the perfect teacher for Mark and continued to have an influence on the way Mark approached the game. Mark said that when he comes to the rink and sees Dale's statue, it reminds him of how special a person Dale was. 'Ducky' was an honorable, approachable athlete who loved to laugh and talk about hockey."

A native of Kitchener, Ontario, Scheifele played his junior hockey for Barrie in the Ontario Hockey League, coached at the time by Hawerchuk. It proved to be an ideal marriage of professor and projected ace. (Scheifele was the No. 7 pick in the 2011 NHL Draft, the Jets' first after relocating from Atlanta.)

"The first time I met him he was trying to convince me to come to Barrie, I was just traded from Saginaw," Scheifele said in an interview with Sportsnet on July 19, 2018. "Dale pretty much singlehandedly talked to me to come to Barrie just because the way he was, the influence he had. I spent three years with him and learned something new from him every single day, so that was pretty special to have him on my side."

Historian Andrew Podnieks in his book "Players: The Ultimate A-Z Guide of Everyone Who Has Ever Played in the NHL" rated Hawerchuk one of the premier centers of the 1980s when Gretzky and Mario Lemieux ruled the ice.

"When the Jets selected Hawerchuk with the No. 1 pick in the 1981 NHL Draft -- and during his outstanding career -- he lived up to that selection every day," Podnieks wrote. "Unfortunately, to be a great center in the 1980's -- like Hawerchuk -- was to go virtually unrecognized because of Gretzky and Lemieux."

Like Hawerchuk, Scheifele has been showered with accolades. Last season he had an NHL career-high 87 points (39 goals, 48 assists) in 82 games while combining with Kyle Connor for 80 goals to help the Jets (56-22-4) to the Presidents' Trophy, which is awarded to the team with the best record in the League during the regular season.

Scheifele holds the Jets/Atlanta Thrashers record for goals with 345 and leads Winnipeg in scoring with 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) in 16 games this season.

"Mark is an unbelievable teammate and human," Jets defenseman Logan Stanley said after Scheifele passed Blake Wheeler in a 4-1 against the Nashville Predators in Winnipeg on Oct. 18. "It's incredible to watch what he does every night."

Hawerchuk was a full-time Jet from 1981-82 to 1989-90. From his third season -- and four after that -- he had at least 100 points including an NHL career-high 130 points (53 goals, 77 assists) in 1984-85. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Phoenix Coyotes Ring of Honor in 2007, when the Jets/Coyotes franchise retired his No. 10 on April 5.

Ducky died of stomach cancer at age 57 on Aug. 18, 2020.

"To see Dale being a Jet was a big one, it's a tremendous honor," Scheifele said after signing long term. "I'll never be Dale Hawerchuk, but to know he's up there watching down on all of us and knowing that I'll be a lifetime Jet is pretty phenomenal, and it gives me the chills. I'm very honored and very excited."

At Hawerchuk's statue unveiling Oct. 1, 2022, his wife, Crystal, said, "He inspired us to be better people. Everyone loved to be around him. The athlete we saw on the ice shone through his heart -- a testament to the life he lived."

Similar feelings are shared about Scheifele, who has a chance to play his entire NHL career for the Jets and perhaps leave a legacy similar to Hawerchuk while steering the Jets to the Cup for the first time.