Kim Clackson

Coming into the 1977-78 season with four career goals, Kim Clackson wasn’t at the top of anybody’s list to be most valuable player on the Winnipeg Jets. But it didn’t take long for at least one of his all-star teammates to put him on a pedestal. Most observers of the World Hockey Association would agree that this team was the best-ever of the Rebel League, anchored by the Hot Line of Bobby Hull, Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, captained by Lars-Erik Sjoberg, the rst European to wear the “C” on a North American team, and where Kent Nilsson was the No. 2 centre. at’s right, the young Swede who Wayne Gretzky would later say was the most talented player he’d ever seen, centred the team’s second line between Willy Lindstrom and Peter Sullivan. Despite only playing in 52 games in his rst year with the Jets, Clackson lead the way in penalty minutes with 203, more than one- h of the team’s total. And while he didn’t o en make the scoresheet otherwise – he had two goals and seven assists – there was no questioning his value to the team. “He was the MVP in my mind,” says the younger Nilsson. “He was tough, honest, he was always in great shape and he knew exactly what he was doing. He gave us a lot more room, especially Ulf and Anders.” ( e two Nilssons came from the same town, Nynashamn, located about a half-hour south of Stockholm. ey weren’t related but they shared an uncanny skill and vision on the ice.) “My job was to help those guys and give them room so they could play,” Clackson says. “I liked my job. You didn’t want them dropping the gloves. at’s not what they were there for. (Just like) you don’t want Mario Lemieux or Gretz dropping the gloves.” It wasn’t uncommon for Clackson to skate around in the pre-game warm-up and stare down the one, two, three, four or ve potential combatants he might face that night. “I had my choice. Every team had their share of players I would go against. It was something I relished,” he says. Clackson and the two Nilssons also had some fun with the fact that while they didn’t look the same on the ice, their names ended with the same su x. During one game against the Nordiques, Serge Bernier dumped the puck into Clackson’s corner and hacked him a er Clackson had retrieved it and passed the puck o . ey started jawing at each other and when Bernier pulled Clackson out of a mid-ice scrum a short time later, Clackson was only too glad to oblige. “My rst punch drove his nose halfway across his face and the second punch drove it right into his ear. He went down and there was a pool of blood on the ice that was the size of a kitchen table,” he says. Kent Nilsson remembers it well. “He thought it was Nilsson, but it was Clackson,” he says, breaking into laughter. “He broke his nose. Bernier was lucky. If it was Nilsson, he would have been dead.” Clackson had one assist in the playo s as the Jets swept Gordie Howe and the New England Whalers in the nal, winning the team’s second AVCO Cup championship in three years.