Wendel Clark Career Overview

Wendel #17 was born in Kelvington, Saskatchewan October 25,1966 and played left wing but was drafted as a defenseman. His last amateur club was Saskatoon(WHL)and was drafted 1st overall in the 1985 entry draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Wendel is 5'10" and around 194lbs. In his earlier days playing hockey in Saskatchewan, he used to play on "The Hound Line" which included Russ Courtnal and Gary Leeman. The line also played together on the Maple Leafs. 1985-86: Burst onto the NHL scene by scoring 34 goals and 45 points, along with 227 penalty minutes in 66 games with Toronto as a rookie. Was named as The Sporting News Rookie of the Year and finished second to Calgary’s Gary Suter in the NHL’s Calder Trophy voting for NHL Rookie of the Year. Played in the 1986 NHL All-Star Game. 1986-87: Recorded 37 goals and 23 assists in 80 games. Recorded a four-goal game on Oct. 11 vs. Buffalo. One of only two Leafs to play in all 93 regular season and playoff games. 1987-88: Missed 52 games due to injury, but still managed to score 12 goals and 11 assists in 28 games. 1988-89: Missed 65 games due to injury, scoring 7 goals and 4 assists in 15 games. 1989-90: Missed 42 games due to injury, scoring 18 goals and 8 assists in 38 games. 1990-91: Played in 63 games, the most since 1986-87 and recorded 34 points (18 goals and 16 assists). 1991-92: Named the 14th captain in Toronto Maple Leafs history on August 8. Opened the season with 8 points (5 goals, 3 assists) in the first two games and had an 8-game point streak to start the season…Missed 34 games due to injuries, bringing his five-year total of games missed to 240 out of a possible 400.

Was Toronto’s nominee for the Masterton awarded for "perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey". 1992-93: Played in 66 games, his highest total in five years, scoring 17 goals and 22 assists while adding 193 pim’s. Scored 10 goals and 10 assists in 21 Stanley Cup games as the Maple Leafs advanced to the Western Conference Finals. 1993-94: Recorded career-highs in goals (46), assists (30) and points (76) even though he only played in 64 games. Also added 9 goals and 7 assists in 18 Stanley Cup Playoff game. 1994-95: Was traded to Quebec in a 6-player swap that sent Mats Sundin to the Maple Leafs on June 28. Played in 37 of the 48 games, missing 11 games with a thigh injury, but still scored 12 goals and 18 assists. Played in his 500th career NHL game on May 3 vs. Hartford. Had a 10-game point scoring streak from January 21 through February 9 (8 goals,6 assists). 1995-96: Dealt to the Islanders on October 3 in a three-team swap that sent Claude Lemieux to Colorado and Steve Thomas to New Jersey. Recorded four points (all assist) in the first period of March 3 game vs. Winnipeg, tying Mario Lemieux’s total for NHL’s season best for assists in one period. Second on the Islanders to Ziggy Palffy in goals (24) when he was traded back to Toronto on March 13. Finished the season scoring 15 points (8 goals, 7 assists) in 13 games with the Leafs, including an 8-game point streak to end the regular season. 1996-97: Recorded his second consecutive 30+ goal season, scoring 30 goals and 19 assists in 65 games. Recorded a natural hat trick and an assist
in the second period of a 7-3 home win over Edmonton on November 9 and finished the game with 4 goals and an assist. Recorded his 200th career assist on January 22 vs.Calgary. 1997-98: Played in only 47 games, missing 28 games to a groin injury from Jan. 12 through March 26. Scored 12 goals and 7 assists in those 47 games.1998-99 Season: Began the season with Tampa Bay, scoring 28 goals and 14 assists (42 points) in 65 games before being traded to Detroit at the NHL trade deadline on March 24. Played 12 games with the Red Wings, scoring 4 goals and 2 assists. His combined 32 goals gave him his sixth career 30+ goal season and his third in the last four years. Recorded three hat tricks during the season December 30 at Carolina, March 6 at Montreal, and March 19 vs Detroit. Scored his 300th career NHL goal on October 28 at Anaheim. Played in his 700th career NHL game on November 14 at Phoenix. Signed as a free agent on January 9, 2000 with the Leafs where he played 20 games and scored 2 goals and had 2 assists. He was obtained from Chicago where he had played 13 games and had scored 2 goals. Wendel retired later in 2000.

Upon his retirement Wendel Clark joined Darryl Sittler as a Toronto Maple Leafs Community Representative, meeting fans and team partners in the fields of marketing, community and alumni relations. Wendel is a member of the Maple Leafs Alumni. Wendel enjoys golfing in his retirement and has his own golf tournament every year.



 

 

Wendel Clark Takes His Place Among Leaf Greats

They honored Wendel Clark at the Air Canada Centre on the same evening Patrick Roy had his jersey retired at the Molson Centre and that fits. Both players symbolized the elements of their respective teams through the 1980s and 1990s. There are, however, two critical differences. Roy quit the Canadiens when he was left in a game too long. Clark wept when he had to leave Toronto. Roy could look down and see four Stanley Cup rings. In the end, Wendel would find only calluses. But those battered hands would define Clark just as surely as Roy’s bright rings. They were farmer’s hands. True to the nature of the man in question, Clark’s banner-raising was short and to the point. Leaf fans, who reflexively cheer when they see his face, showered him with a lengthy ovation, which Clark cut short just on the right side of gracious. He called being drafted the Leafs in 1985, being named captain in 1991 and last night’s ceremony “his official hat trick.” Now 42 with a wife and three kids, Clark’s hair is thinning and he is a more substantial man than the player who walked the beat on the Leafs’ left wing. Today he lives on what can only be called an urban farm north of the city. The ‘Just a Farmer’ belt buckle that defined him is still somewhere in his house. Farmers don’t throw anything away. Without being asked, he will hop on his tractor and push the snow out of a neighbour’s lane. Sometimes he will push on through into town and pick up a coffee at the Tim Horton’s drive-through. Never fortunate enough to play in the Cup final, Clark was nevertheless the truest Maple Leaf.

Club founder Conn Smythe coined the expression “if you can’t beat them in the alley, you can’t beat them on the ice.” No player embodied that maxim more than Clark who hit town as an 18-year-old roughneck from Saskatchewan anxious to fight everyone to gain a job. He would start on his own team, work his way through the league and still score 34 goals in that rookie season. He would score 37 the next season and by then the mythology about Clark would be set. He was and is a savant who spoke simply, an ace in high school algebra who kept it simple. I asked him this week why he wore 17. “When I got to training camp my first year,” he said, “number 17 was hanging in the stall.” Clark saw Leafs’ owner Ballard early in the morning as the old man fixed his own breakfast in the Hot Stove League. Clark would often leave Maple Leaf Gardens late in the evening after treatment to find Ballard raiding the chocolate ice cream in the restaurant. He recognized Ballard as a lonely man without his own peers who befriended the parents of his players. Clark never spoke poorly of him. There would be almighty trials.

Compounding injuries settled in his back in his third season and Clark missed more than a year. He would be traded by the Leafs twice (only to be repatriated three times). As he aged his body became ever less dependable. Every night he would take inventory of how far it would take him that night. He would ration out his energy accordingly. Clark’s high water mark came in 1993 when the Leafs lost the Conference Finals in seven games to the Los Angeles Kings. When Kings colossus Marty McSorley leveled Doug Gilmour with what is still looked upon in Toronto the most heinous elbow ever, Clark threw off his gloves and engaged McSorley in a fight for the ages. Yesterday, the Blackhawks’ Ben Eager hit the Leafs’ top scorer, Mikhail Grabovski, from behind into the board. Toronto’s Alexei Ponikarovsky then jumped Eager. Ponikarovsky was the only player penalized. Times change. The final slate would read 260 goals for the Leafs, seventy more divided among the Nordiques, Islanders, Blackhawks and Red Wings. Six hundred and eight games played for the Leafs, 185 games for the other guys, 608 games played for the Leafs. Now he has standing among the 16 players whose likenesses hang from the roster. There is a sublime twist here. Wendel Clark, the roughest, most reckless man in the pantheon of the greats is the only one wearing a helmet.

 

Wendel Clark Retires

On thursday June 29-2000, a tearful Wendel Clark retired, ending a 15-year NHL career in which his fearless play endeared him to Toronto Maple Leafs fans. "The timing right now just seems right," Clark said. "I started as a Leaf and I can end as a Leaf. No matter where I played this has always felt like home." The 33-year-old left wing also played for Quebec, the New York Islanders, Tampa Bay, Detroit and Chicago. He was a 30-plus goal scorer five times. "For 15 years, even when he was wearing other jerseys, Leaf fans loved Wendel Clark," Leafs president Ken Dryden said. "Wendel, you have given Leaf fans many years of your career and man  more years of memories." The Maple Leafs reportedly had no plans to pick up the option on Clark's $700,000 contract for the 2000-2001 season. For his career, in which he was dogged by injuries much of the time, he had 330 goals and 234 assists in 793 regular-season games and 37 goals and 32 assists in 95 playoff games. Clark was taken first overall by Toronto in the 1985 NHL entry draft. He was named the 14th captain in Maple Leaf history in 1991 before he was traded to the Quebec Nordiques in a draft-day deal in 1994 that brought Mats Sundin to the Leafs. Clark stayed with the franchise when it moved to Colorado but the Avalanche dealt Clark to the lowly Islanders. Clark returned to the Maple Leafs for a second stint on March 13, 1996, but his stay was short. He was picked up by the Lightning on July 16, 1998 as a free agent and joined the Red Wings for the 1998-99 playoff run. The Blackhawks signed Clark as a free agent last summer for the 1999-2000 campaign but the club bought out his $1.4 million contract on Nov. 17. On Jan. 8, Clark returned to Toronto again, where he had on last playoff run. "We added it up and it's been five cities in the last year," Clark said. "It gets a little tougher."

On thursday November 2-2000, Ken Dryden President of the Toronto Maple Leafs announced the appointment of Wendel Clark as a Community Representative for the hockey club. The 14th captain in franchise history from 1991 to 1994 will represent the organization in all areas of Alumni Relations, Community Relations and Marketing. Wendel's role will be similar to that of Hall of Famer and Maple Leafs' Community Representative Darryl Sittler. "People in Toronto have always given their heart and soul to the Leafs," said Dryden. "In turn, we try to help those that have helped us so much. Wendel has been a great Maple Leaf and we are glad that he is going to continue with us." The 34 year-old brought his career full-circle by playing 20 regular season games for the Maple Leafs in 1999-2000 and six more in the post-season. Selected first overall in the 1985 National Hockey League Entry Draft, Clark announced his retirement as a player on June 29, 2000. The former left-winger ranks among the Leafs all-time leaders in Points (15th, 441), Goals (7th,260), Penalty Minutes (2nd, 1535), Playoff Points (4th, 61) and Playoff Goals (1st, 34).

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Wendel Clark Statistics


 
 

 
 
 

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This website was Created July 3/2000


 

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