Wendel Clark Career Statistics Pictures and Biography
 

---

Go Leafs Go
 
 

A feared fighter and checker

Wendel 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.

Wendel Clark calls it a career

The image that will endure from Wendel Clark is the hard-charging winger of the late 1980s and early 1990s, not the shadow of a former player he was in the past few seasons.
The pride of Kelvington, Sask., retired Thursday after 15 NHL seasons - 12½ spent with the Toronto Maple Leafs. A man of few words, Clark let his explosive play on the ice do the talking, especially during the first nine seasons in Toronto.
"I just wanted to play hockey," Clark, 33, said during an emotional news conference at the Air Canada Centre on Thursday. "That's pretty much the whole story."
Clark's rambunctious style of play took its toll, from the second Toronto made him the first overall pick in the 1985 entry draft.
"I think that was a factor," said Leafs winger Steve Thomas, who first played with Clark in 1985-86. "He was 5-10 but played like he was 6-3. It showed the heart he had."
"Just a kid cruising the ice looking to cause trouble," added Leafs president Ken Dryden.
In his prime, Clark would score goals with a wicked wrist shot, punish the opposition with deadly but clean bodychecks, and drop the gloves at a moment's notice. Clark was a feared fighter with a knockout punch.
He was also the fans' choice, and he rocked Maple Leaf Gardens.
Clark broke down Thursday when describing his love affair with Toronto fans.
"I've been asked a lot why we've had the relationship we've had," said Clark, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I've never had an answer. "But maybe that's why this is the right place to retire."
There could be a place for Clark in the Toronto front office. For now, Clark, wife Denise, and their three young children look forward to life after hockey in their home north of Toronto.
Clark's legacy will live on, however. Just ask current captain Mats Sundin.
The big Swede, a superior player in almost every aspect, was acquired in a draft-day deal that featured Clark as the main player headed for the Quebec Nordiques in June 1994.
Six years later, Sundin has yet to reach Clark-like status among Leaf fans. He doesn't fight. He rarely hits.
The height of Clark's popularity probably came during the 1993 playoffs, when, along with Doug Gilmour, he carried an overchieving team to the final four. Clark's goal in Game 6 against Los Angeles - on a wrist shot, of course - had given the Leafs the lead and it looked like a trip to the final to play the Montreal Canadiens was imminent. But the Kings came back and won Game 7.
Clark's best season followed in 1993-94, when he scored a career-best 46 goals in only 64 games. His career would suffer a downswing after that, as his body broke down.
That's why the '94 trade for Sundin was such a steal for Toronto. But don't tell that to Leaf fans.
Clark's name isn't on a Stanley Cup. The Colorado Avalanche, transplanted from Quebec, traded the winger to the woeful New York Islanders early in the 1995-96 season, the year the Avs won the Cup.
Former Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher brought Clark back to Toronto in March 1996 - a deal that would land the Islanders defenceman Kenny Jonsson and a first-round pick they turned into goaltender Roberto Luongo.
Clark's first game back in the blue and white was the kind of stuff legends are made of. With a packed Gardens chanting "Wendel! Wendel!" from the second he hit the ice against the Dallas Stars that March night, Clark repaid the faithful by scoring on his first shift - sending MLG into delirium.
But that was the exception rather than the rule for Clark, whose beat-up body and aching back no longer permitted him to hit the boards with the same enthusiasm he had shown a decade earlier.
Clark left the Leafs again in the summer of 1998, signing with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He then joined the powerhouse Detroit Red Wings for a playoff run that fell short and last summer signed with the Chicago Blackhawks. Clark then suffered the indignity of being released in mid-season. The Leafs, knowing he was still a draw in Toronto, picked him up.
"Even when I was away (with other teams)," Clark says, "I was still a Leaf."
Clark was a healthy scratch more often than not for the Leafs this past season, but no one can hold that against him.
Wendel Clark can hold his head up high. He was a classic blue-collar Canadian hockey player, the proverbial power forward before the term was even coined.
The 1980s were a dark decade for the Maple Leafs, but their first-round pick from 1985 shone bright despite the ineptitude that surrounded him.

Clark call's it quits

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."

Wendel Clark Joins Off-Ice Team

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).

From the World Junior Championships in Finland, December 23 1984 - January 1 1985".
When Canada won the gold in Minnesota in 1982, the final game was against the Czechs, and they needed a tie to ensure first place. A 3—3 finish after withstanding a last-minute flurry from the Czechs ensured victory then, and in 1985 the situation was the same. Canada’s last game was against Czechoslovakia, and because of a better goals for/against figure, Canada knew going into the game a tie would mean gold.
The key to success was Wendel Clark. Clark delivered the most famous hit in the history of the tournament when he hammered Soviet defenceman Mikhail Tatarinov out of consciousness, the game, and the tournament. Coach Terry Simpsons had converted Clark, a defenceman with Saskatoon, to a forward, but in this game against the Czechs, he put Wendel back on defence for the first two periods because of injuries to his blue line corps. In the third, he gambled again and put Clark up on the wing, and it was Clark who tied the game for Canada at 13:43 of the third to ensure a tie and the gold medal.

The Saskatoon Blades and their fans will pay tribute to arguably the greatest Saskatoon Blade of all-time. The Blades this afternoon released details confirming Wendel Clark and his family (wife – Denise Children Kylie (5), Kassie (4), and Kody (2)) will join the Blades on Friday November 16th-2001 as the Blades host the Moose Jaw Warriors. In a special pre-game ceremony and tribute, the Blades will officially retire Wendel’s #22 gem and permanently display it from the Saskatchewan Place rafters.
Wendel will be joined by numerous former Blades teammates, coaches, managers and National Hockey League associates.
Wendel played two seasons with the Blades before being selected #1 Overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1985 NHL Entry Draft. In his two seasons with the Blades, Wendel notched 55 goals, 100 assists for 155 points, and 478 minutes in penalties in 136 contests. The former Toronto Maple Leaf captain played 18 National Hockey League seasons before his retirement in June of 2000.
Wendel is now a spokesman for the Saskatoon Blades Foundation which has been created to provide persons and corporations with season tickets and flex packs, the opportunity to donate tickets to community organizations so that less fortunate members of the community can attend a Blades home game.