Early tutelage gave Clark shot at Hall
Father insisted on wrister
SASKATOON — Wendel Clark’s wrist shot was his biggest offensive weapon during his hockey career.
He has his late father, Les, to thank for that.
“Growing up, that was it,’’ Clark said. “We had wood sticks so he banned us from slapping the puck. We had to wrist the puck all the time.
“Starting out as a defenceman, pretty much everything I was doing was a wrist shot.”
That wrister helped power Clark to a spot in the Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame.
The 2015 class was announced Saturday at SaskTel Centre before a WHL game between Clark’s alma mater, the Saskatoon Blades, and Kootenay Ice.
“There’s a lot of great players that come out of our sport from the province of Saskatchewan,” said the 48-year-old Clark, who was a member of the Notre Dame Hounds before joining the Blades. “To be part of that group is always an honour.”
Clark spent two seasons with the Blades as a blueliner, posting 55 goals, 155 points and 478 penalty minutes in 136 games. His No. 22 is retired by the club.
He won a gold medal at the 1985 world junior championship and was selected first overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs later that year.
The Leafs converted Clark to a winger and he wound up playing 793 NHL games for six teams. He recorded 330 goals and 564 points.
Using lessons taught by his father on the Kelvington sloughs, Clark’s shot seldom required a wind-up.
“It wasn’t one of the things I used in my repertoire,” he said. “Because you were using (a wrist shot) so much, you got better at it.”
That doesn’t mean Clark has the same rules for his son, though.
Clark coaches his son, Kody, now a minor midget AAA player for the Toronto Marlboros.
Slapshots aren’t discouraged at all.
“The whole technique of shooting the puck is actually a bit different now than it was,” Clark said. “The technology now is almost like the golf club. You’re using the technology and allowing the whip in the stick to do the shooting for you.
“It’s not like using a big, heavy wood stick. Now it’s perfecting a technique with an expensive piece of equipment in your hand.”
Clark said the most important part of any good wrist shot is the weight transfer.
He added that the modern sticks of today have made that process much easier.
But Clark doesn’t lose any sleep about not getting to use a lightweight composite stick during his playing career.
He did just fine with a wooden one.
“We all had the same stuff,” Clark said. “As long as you were on an even playing field (it was fine).”
The 2015 Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held July 17 at the Elgar Peterson Arena in Humboldt. Fittingly, Peterson will enter the Hall in the grassroots category.
Clark will be inducted in the players category, along with Guyle Fielder, Vic Lynn and Dave (Tiger) Williams.
Dave King, Jackie McLeod and Dr. Gerry Rooney are to be enshrined as builders.
Three teams will also be inducted — the Simpson Flyers, the 1934 Saskatoon Quakers and the 2003 Humboldt Broncos.
“WE HAD WOOD STICKS SO HE BANNED US FROM SLAPPING THE PUCK. WE HAD TO WRIST THE PUCK ALL THE TIME.” WENDEL CLARK