Where Are They Now: Chartier has no regrets about style of play

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This article was published 25/10/2016 (3259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At age 16, it turned out that David Chartier’s guardian angel was six-foot-three and 215 pounds.

The former Brandon Wheat Kings star was called up for two games in the 1977-78 season, which he spent mainly with the Brandon Travellers of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.

During his two-game audition, Chartier ran one of the stars on the Saskatoon Blades, who was about to teach the rookie a lesson before fate, in the guise of Dave Semenko, stepped in.

“He said ‘Leave the kid alone,’” Chartier recalls with a laugh. “That was pretty funny.”

Semenko, the Wheat Kings’ enforcer, may have interceded that time, but Chartier proved to be someone who could take care of himself and fill the net.

He played 186 regular season games in the WHL from 1978-81, scoring 117 goals and adding 101 assists. He also had 663 penalty minutes.

Now 55 and living in Binscarth, the married father of two grew up in St. Lazare, spending one year in Winnipeg at age 14.

In the fall of 1978, after piling up 30 goals as a rookie in the MJHL the previous year, Chartier was looking to make the jump to the WHL. He had made a strong impression on Wheat Kings head coach Dunc McCallum.

“I think because I had a good year with the Travellers as a 16-year-old that Dunc liked my tenacity,” he said. “He wanted me on the team and I wasn’t scared to do whatever.”

Chartier said he paid his dues in that first season, playing wherever he was needed and learning from Brian Propp, Ray Allison, Laurie Boschman and Brad McCrimmon.

Chartier had a chance to centre Propp and Allison a bit, saying they were three steps ahead of everybody on the ice. He also roomed with them, and they showed him the ropes in a magical season in which the team went 58-5-9 for a Canadian Hockey League record of 125 points.

“We didn’t lose very much and if we did, we brawled somebody,” he said. “Saskatoon beat us 4-3 in the finale in Brandon and we kicked the living daylights out of them. It’s not a proud moment, but back then it was OK to do it. Now you’d be suspended.”

The worst part of his dream season came when Chartier’s knee was injured by Regina Pats forward Dirk Graham, forcing him to miss several weeks.

“They didn’t have the technology that they have today so you just kept playing and having surgeries to get it cleaned up,” he said.

Despite the injury, Chartier got better and better in his junior career. In his final season, 1980-81, Chartier had 60 goals, 64 assists and 295 penalty minutes.

He said it was a mixture of experience, confidence and opportunity that allowed him to improve. But he also had to earn it.

“When we had our chance, we took it and we tried to take advantage of it,” he said. “In my last and second last year, I also had almost 300 penalty minutes, so I didn’t have the big guy to help me out. I had to do a lot of the scrapping, and that’s the way I learned.”

His contributions didn’t go unnoticed.

He was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets in 1980 and played one game with them, a 5-3 loss on Dec. 31, 1980, as a 19-year-old callup from the Wheat Kings. It would prove to be his only game in the NHL.

After graduating from Brandon, Chartier played one season with the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League and two seasons with the Sherbrooke Jets of the American Hockey League.

An ACL injury in Sherbrooke brought his professional career to a quick halt after three seasons.

Despite more surgery, he knew it was time to move on after when he went to camp with the Fort Wayne Komets of the International Hockey League the next season. He was skating when it hit him.

“I put on the brakes, and I had just had my skates sharpened — you know when you stop and rattle your skates — it banged my knee bone on bone and bruised my leg,” he remembered. “I knew it was time to come home. I didn’t want the grind anymore, the pain and stuff.”

He played a bit of senior hockey but, more importantly, began his post-hockey career in a potash mine near Esterhazy, Sask. After 30 years, he’s now in upper management as a maintenance planner.

He and his wife Cheryl have a daughter, Sara, and a son, Nicholas, and live in Binscarth.

The knees continued to bother him after hockey ended, and he had two reconstruction and osteotomies, where they shave the bone to fit better. He also developed septic arthritis, which took time to clear up.

After six surgeries, they finally replaced his two knees three weeks ago.

“I wouldn’t change anything but she’s starting to catch up to me now,” he said.

He has had shoulder surgeries and a disc taken out of his neck as well.

Chartier was surprised to be included in the balloting for the Wheat Kings’ all-time Dream Team, a co-promotion between the team and The Brandon Sun that allows fans to pick the two best goalies, six top defencemen and 12 most outstanding forwards from the franchise’s 50-year history in the WHL.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Chartier, who played at five-foot-nine, 170 pounds. “There were way better players than me. There are so many players that come out of Brandon, it’s unreal.”

He still talks to some of his old teammates, including Kelly McCrimmon, who he called to congratulate after the Wheat Kings owner took a job with the NHL’s Las Vegas expansion franchise.

Chartier has some unique insight into McCrimmon because the two were teammates and even killed penalties together.

“He had lots of tenacity and worked really hard,” Chartier said. “He got better by his work ethic. He wasn’t a natural like Brad (McCrimmon) but Kelly worked hard and did his thing.”

Chartier did get back on the ice at Westman Place last season during intermission, firing a puck from centre ice into the net for a prize.

But he knows that the game is in his past and is content to leave it there.

“We had our time and once that time is done, it’s time to move on as you get older,” he said. “The past is done. It’s easier to make your past the best you can and then there are no regrets.

“And I don’t have regrets.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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