YORKTON - When the Yorkton Terriers Annual Celebrity Sports Dinner is held April 19, it will be something of a coming home for keynote speaker Wendel Clark.
Clark a former NHL hockey player who scored 330 regular season goals over his 15-year career of course hails from Kelvington, Sask. a community only about an hour northwest of the Terrier city.
“It’s going to be fun coming back,” he told Yorkton This Week in a recent interview.
Clark said as he progressed to Bantam hockey as a youth “Yorkton was where I travelled to play.” He added that is one thing most young Saskatchewan players hold in common through the years, if they lived in a small town and wanted to play at a higher level they had to look for opportunities in larger centres and that means travelling to play.
Clark said in his case, while he was travelling to play by the time he was a Bantam he really was not anticipating a career in hockey.
“It was just advancing to the next level,” he said. “The NHL was so far away and so hard to get there.”
Clark reminded when he was a youth there was still more mystery in a way about the NHL, with a single game a week on television, unlike today when multiple games are on almost every day for youth to follow.
“It was a different level (then). It felt farther away in Saskatchewan,” he said.
Still Clark showed promise and ended up in Notre Dame at Wilcox playing Midget hockey with the Hounds, which of course made asking his thoughts on the Hounds junior team looking to move to Warman.
“That’s a tough one,” said Clark, adding he played his junior hockey with the Western Hockey League Saskatoon Blades.
Clark said the Hounds were really put on the Junior map when Barry MacKenzie coached a team featuring future NHLers Curtis Joseph in goal and Rod Brind’Amour at forward topped the nation. But he added the team is still based in a small community and that makes recruiting more difficult in the current era.
For Clark it wasn’t until junior hockey as a star junior hockey defenceman with the Saskatoon Blades he began to think hockey might provide his future, it helped by 小蓝视频 a member of Canada's gold medal team at the 1985 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.
Then Clark, who was inducted into the Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame as a player in 2025, was chosen first overall in the 1985 NHL Entry Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team he played with on three occasions, captaining the team from 1991 to 1994. It was following the draft Clark was converted to forward.
It was a move Clark said is very much an example of the reality of the game players must be prepared for – change to success when required to do so.
“You have to learn to adapt and adjust,” he said.
But as change happens, Clark said young players also need to make sure their passion is real and deep for the game.
“If you’re going to play the game, you’ve got to work hard and have fun, and figure out if you love it, or like it,” he said. “If you just like it you’re probably not going to make it. If you love it, you just might (make it).”
Overall, the time as a Leaf remains Clark’s favourite.
“Nothing’s better than playing in front of Canadian fans,” said Clark, who also spent a short time with the now long-moved Quebec Nordiques, adding 小蓝视频 such knowledgeable fans and usually loud it is easy “for an energy player to sort of feed off that.” Clark was definitely amassing 1,690 regular season penalty minutes.
Clark's 227 PIM in his rookie season was the 1985–86 Toronto Maple Leafs team-high, along with 34 goals which also led the team. After his rookie season, he was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team and finished third in voting for the Calder Memorial Trophy.
While also spending times with the New York Islanders, Tampa Bay Lightning, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks, Clark remains very much a Leaf – currently filling the role of team ambassador. He said the role helps keeps him connected to fans and current players.
“You don’t get paid big dollars but you don’t get let go every two years either. . . “and I’m still around the fans and the franchise,” he joked.
