‘Adding some colour back’: Dale Hawerchuk statue gets refurbished

The statue of Dale Hawerchuk in Winnipeg received some upkeep from its builder.

A statue in downtown Winnipeg depicting a hockey icon received some TLC from its artist on Friday.

Erik Blome, the sculptor of the Dale Hawerchuk statue that stands in True North Square, was in town Friday to do regular maintenance of the statue.

“I’m cleaning it, heating it up, waxing it, and adding some colour back in,” he said during a break from work.

The statue, which was unveiled in 2022, needs to be recoated yearly to protect it from graffiti and the harsh Winnipeg weather.

“When you have like this kind of intense weather compared to other places, it’s like one year is five years,” he said. “So you must do it every year to keep it safe, to keep it protected.”

Blome, who is from Chicago, Ill., has sculpted dozens of statues outside of hockey arenas, including the sculptures outside of Scotiabank Arena in Toronto and the Wayne Gretzky sculpture outside the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Calif.

Image: Sculptor Erik Blome touches up the Dale Hawerchuk statue in Winnipeg’s True North Square on Sept. 5, 2025. (Jamie Dowsett/CTV News Winnipeg)