When Wayne Gretzky's bodyguard on ice, Dave Semenko, punched an opponent from the bench for threatening the Great One

Dave Semenko has always been the enforcer for Wayne Gretzky. If Gretzky was the artist, Semenko was the brute. He was an old-school enforcer for the team.

Semenko intervened a few times as a fellow player for Gretzky. Semenko also stated that he didn't fight a lot. He just gave stern warnings but somehow got a reputation for being tough and rough. He only started fights when things went south for the team.

According to him, Gretzky was also tough, and very few threatened or did anything to him. Of course, Dave Semenko knows that it might be due to the fact that he was present. In an interview years back, he revealed that he rarely reacted when something happened to Gretzky.

"Tim Hunter took a slash at him once when I was on the ice in Edmonton and I went after Tim. Paul Baxter was threatening [Gretzky] once, and he went by our bench and threatened Gretz, and I dropped him with a punch right from the bench, so I didn't even have to get on the ice.”

Dave Semenko: A career retrospective

Former Oiler Dave Semenko

When the Oilers were a member of the WHA, Dave Semenko joined the team before the 1977–78 season and stayed with the team until the 1986–87 season.

The native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, was best known for his work as an enforcer who stood up for and defended hockey legend Wayne Gretzky on the rink.

Semenko scored 65 goals and 88 assists for 153 points in 575 NHL games during his career with the Oilers, Hartford Whalers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. He also accrued 1,175 penalty minutes.

He contributed 10 points in 19 playoff games while playing for the Oilers during their 1983–84 cup run. He was a member of the Oilers' Stanley Cup–winning teams in 1984 and 1985.

Following his retirement, Semenko worked with the Oilers as a color analyst. He then briefly served as an assistant coach for the team before moving into scouting until 2015.

More than anything, he was a joyous teammate who lifted everyone's spirits when it mattered. He was the locker room glue and the team needed such a figure to win the accomplishments they did.

Dave Semenko passed away at the age of 59 on June 30th, 2017, due to pancreatic cancer. He had a wonderful career and leaves behind a lot of memories for everyone to cherish.