TORONTO – The Canadian Hockey League (CHL) is proud to announce that Cornwall Royals and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) alumnus Dale Hawerchuk has been ranked No. 10 on the CHL’s Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years list, a marquee initiative of the CHL’s 50th anniversary season.
The countdown recognizes the greatest players from the Western Hockey League (WHL), Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and QMJHL since 1975-76, celebrating the stars who have defined major junior hockey over the past five decades. As part of the initiative, a panel of media members first selected the Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years. The final ranking order was then determined using a weighted formula that combined media and fan voting to rank the players from No. 1 through No. 50.
Selected sixth overall by the Cornwall Royals in the 1979 QMJHL Draft, Hawerchuk quickly became one of the most dominant players in CHL history. Over two seasons with Cornwall from 1979-81, the Toronto, Ont., native recorded 286 points — including 118 goals and 168 assists — in 144 regular-season games, never missing a game. He added another 80 points in 37 playoff contests.
Hawerchuk made an immediate impact as a 16-year-old rookie in 1979-80, producing 103 points before delivering a dominant postseason with 45 points — 20 goals and 25 assists — in 18 playoff games. That performance helped him earn QMJHL Rookie of the Year honours and the Guy Lafleur Trophy as QMJHL Playoff MVP, making him the only player in league history to receive the award as a 16-year-old.
He followed with a historic 1980-81 season, scoring 81 goals and recording 183 points to lead both the QMJHL and CHL in scoring. That year, Hawerchuk earned QMJHL First Team All-Star honours, the Michel Brière Trophy as QMJHL MVP, the QMJHL Top Prospect Award, and CHL Player of the Year honours.
Most notably, Hawerchuk helped lead Cornwall to back-to-back QMJHL championships and Memorial Cup titles in 1980 and 1981. At the 1981 Memorial Cup, he recorded eight goals and five assists in five games to capture the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as tournament MVP. His eight goals remain a Memorial Cup tournament record, matched twice but never broken, and he was named to the Memorial Cup All-Star Team in both 1980 and 1981.
Following his remarkable CHL career, Hawerchuk was selected first overall by the Winnipeg Jets in the 1981 NHL Draft. He went on to win the Calder Trophy in 1982 after posting 103 points as an NHL rookie, becoming the youngest player to reach the 100-point mark. Across 16 NHL seasons with the Jets, Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues, and Philadelphia Flyers, Hawerchuk recorded 1,409 points — 518 goals and 891 assists — in 1,188 regular-season games, along with 99 points in 97 playoff contests. At the time of his retirement, his 1,409 points ranked 10th in NHL history.
A Hockey Hall of Fame inductee in 2001, Hawerchuk was also inducted into the QMJHL Hall of Fame that same year. Internationally, he represented Canada on multiple occasions and captured Canada Cup gold in both 1987 and 1991.
The remaining players ranked in the Top 10 on the CHL’s Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years list will be revealed over the coming days, with full player bios available at chl.ca/chl50.
