David Clarkson established himself as a super-pest who could reach the 30-goal plateau. This 2013 story featured Clarkson returning close to home with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have made a habit of acquiring players from Toronto and slotting them into important competitive pieces. 

In this cover story from The Hockey News’ Sept. 9, 2013 edition (Vol. 67, Issue 3), then-writer and editor Matt Larkin wrote on a local Toronto kid turning into a Leafs key cog, forward David Clarkson.

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Clarkson had already established himself as a noteworthy NHL pest of a forward when he signed a seven-year, $36.8-million contract with Toronto in the summer of 2013. After growing up in the city’s west end, the then-29-year-old had made a name for himself with the New Jersey Devils, but the allure of playing at home was too much for Clarkson to turn away from. Besides, he’d had his most successful NHL season two years earlier, when he posted 30 goals and 46 points, but the Leafs didn’t want him just for his offense – they wanted the human sandpaper that he was against opponents.

“He wins puck battles and he gives offensive zone time because he is so strong on the puck and because of his possession ability,” former Devils coach DeBoer said of Clarkson. “He brings this physical element that makes room for other good players. The goal scoring is a bonus and a by-product and whether he gets 18 or 28 I have never judged David on the goals. It was always the other intangibles he brought.”

Unfortunately for Clarkson, he played less than two seasons as a Leaf – putting up only 15 goals and 26 points in 118 games – before he was traded to Columbus in February of 2015. Injuries ended his career a year later, but having the chance to wear Blue and White was always special for him. And his work ethic was as important to him as anything else.

“I chose (Toronto) because of the direction they are going and also it is going to be special for me to put that jersey on,” Clarkson told Larkin. ”I’ve said this before: am I going to be perfect? No, but I’ll give everything I have every night. That’s what has gotten me to where I am today and I’ll continue doing that.”

READY FOR HIS CLOSE-UP

Vol. 67, No. 3, Sept. 9, 2013

By Matt Larkin

You never know what you’re going to get on a weekday morning photo shoot with an NHLer. He may be more than fashionably late. He may be hungover after a night on the town. He may be borderline mute after doing a dozen shoots too many over his career. He probably won’t agree to strike every cheesy pose suggested. At the very least, he’ll require a bit of coaxing.

Or so we assume on a humid August morning on the outskirts of Toronto before the city’s newest icon, David Clarkson, strolls in. The 29-year-old right winger is dressed for the occasion, looking GQ, sporting skinny jeans and a stylish V-neck tee. He stays true to his enforcer roots, too, rocking slicked back hockey hair, a tattoo on his left arm honoring his grandfather in the Second World War and a chiselled jaw that, though sure to please the ladies, has an air of battled-hardened character.

There’s no need to loosen up Clarkson. On the contrary, he loosens up the room, shaking everyone’s hand, introducing himself and asking, “Are you all from Toronto? Did you grow up here?” He’s happy to help and easy to work with, trying any pose asked of him, donning his new No. 71 Leafs jersey and inviting anyone working the shoot to jump in for a photo or two with him.

Come to think of it, his demeanor shouldn’t have been a complete shock based on a sunny conversation with him two weeks prior, days after he’d inked a seven-year, $36.8-million deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs as the belle of the 2013 free agent ball. There’s something very meta about Clarkson’s dazzling summer. He grew up a Leafs fan in Etobicoke, just outside the city, and he’s able to step outside himself and appreciate the rarity of a one-time diehard playing for his favorite franchise.

The day he chose Toronto, he savored what was happening. NHL teams sometimes give promotional videos to their free agent targets. Rather than tell his father, Eric, what team he’d chosen, Clarkson let one particular video do the talking. It ended with his name being sewn onto a Leafs jersey. “I’ve never seen my dad cry,” Clarkson says. “He had to get up and leave the room for a minute.”

Where many NHLers wilt in the pressure cooker that is Toronto with an “Oh my God, I’m a Leaf” attitude, Clarkson’s is more, “Oh my God, I’m a Leaf!” He’s embraced his new team as fans have him. He isn’t simply a Leafs fan donning a Leafs jersey. That’s been done before. What’s different is he’s so open and proud of it, welcoming publicity in a city known for smothering its hockey stars to death.

And it’s already starting. Months before he takes the ice in blue and white, kids are showing up at Clarkson’s door with presents. One gave him a scarf with his name and number stitched into it. “It’s nice because I was that kid,” Clarkson says. “I dreamed like those kids and I was never drafted. I worked really hard and my dream came true. Every time a person or kid comes up to you, you feel lucky to do what you do. Give them the time of day or talk to them. I’ve had some of these little kids come over and they’ve written me letters. I won’t tell you what they say, but they’re pretty funny.”

Not only was Clarkson never drafted to the NHL, his career was hanging by a thread when he broke into the Ontario League with the Belleville Bulls in 2001-02. Matt Stajan, a former Leaf and current Calgary Flames center, starred on that team. He remembers Clarkson playing as hard then as he does now and having a quick release, but Stajan says something changed for Clarkson after the Bulls gave up on him. “The one area that helped him make it in the NHL as an undrafted player,” Stajan says, “is he found this confidence in himself. It seemed like once he went to Kitchener, I don’t know what it was that wasn’t in Belleville, but something clicked.”

The Kitchener Rangers got Clarkson as a sophomore for mere future considerations in 2002-03 when he was 18. His offensive abilities were considered ordinary, his skating below average, but coach Pete DeBoer saw something in him. He admits Clarkson was a project who had a steep learning curve before realizing his potential as a power forward with legitimate NHL hopes. 

“He’s always been a guy that when the puck drops, he’s pissing off the best players on the other team and the opposing coach and he can back it up,” DeBoer says. “That’s not something a coach instills. You’re born with that and grow up with that. He always had that. It was harnessing that and at the same time realizing that he could play the game, too. He had to make himself a player.”

And he did. Clarkson won the Memorial Cup his first season with Kitchener on a team that included Mike Richards and Derek Roy. By the end of his junior career, he was a point-per-game player while still driving opponents nuts and racking up penalty minutes.

New Jersey signed Clarkson as a free agent in 2005 and his NHL trajectory mirrored his junior path. He began his pro career with Albany of the American League as a pugilist who chipped in goals, scoring 33 times and amassing 383 penalty minutes over two seasons and earning a shot at the NHL by the end of 2006-07. His skating remained subpar by NHL standards – a knock that continues to this day – but he still made himself plenty useful to the Devils, playing a robust physical game, displaying contagious energy and averaging 14 goals per 82 games over his first four seasons and change. 

It hardly seems a coincidence that, when his ex-coach DeBoer took over as Devils bench boss in 2011-12, Clarkson exploded for 30 goals and 46 points on a squad that reached the Stanley Cup final and fell to the Los Angeles Kings in six games. He tapped into his strong hockey sense and put pucks home at a career-best pace largely because he increased his net presence and got lots of high-percentage chances in the blue ice.

This past season, Clarkson shot the puck more than every NHLer besides Alex Ovechkin, Evander Kane and Zach Parise. He maintained almost the same goal-scoring pace, with 15 in 48 games, and became a sought-after commodity as an unrestricted free agent in a market seriously lacking top-quality, under-30 offensive talent. The result was what looks like an exorbitant deal on paper, a $5.3-million cap hit for a one-time 30-goal man. That said, as GM Dave Nonis explained after his aggressive move, if the Leafs hadn’t paid Clarkson that amount, another team would have. Ottawa, for instance, was a finalist for his services.

Still, there’s no denying the big money and especially the term bring sky-high expectations. Clarkson joins a Toronto team hoping to improve on a 2012-13 season punctuated by its first playoff berth in nine years and a heartbreaking Game 7 loss to a Bruins team that went all the way to the final. He maintains he signed with the Leafs because they’re a team on the rise and their effort against Boston impressed him. Will the arrow keep pointing up, though? After trading Matt Frattin to Los Angeles, letting Clarke MacArthur walk in free agency to the Senators and buying out Mikhail Grabovski, the Leafs’ forward corps is thinner and much slower. 

But Nonis and coach Randy Carlyle believe team toughness, not fleetness of foot, was the key to the Leafs’ turnaround – Toronto led the NHL in fights, hits and blocked shots this past season – and Clarkson fits that mold. “He wins puck battles and he gives offensive zone time because he is so strong on the puck and because of his possession ability,” DeBoer says. “He brings this physical element that makes room for other good players. The goal scoring is a bonus and a by-product and whether he gets 18 or 28 I have never judged David on the goals. It was always the other intangibles he brought.”

Clarkson’s old coach isn’t judging him on goals, but his new team will. The price tag implies as much, as do (drumroll) the Wendel Clark comparisons. The legendary Leaf has been linked to him ever since Clarkson talked about wearing a Clark jersey as a kid shortly after signing. Fair or not, Clarkson is now likened to a first-overall pick with six 30-goal seasons.

But there are misconceptions already about the Clarkson-Clark link. For one, while Clarkson admits he would never wear No. 17 out of respect for Clark – and he technically could have, as Leaf numbers are honored, not retired – Clarkson’s decision to don the inverse, No. 71, wasn’t ‘Wendy’ inspired. It was Clarkson’s longtime ball hockey number as a kid. That and he liked the significance of the lucky number seven, signing a seven-year deal and wanting to honor No. 7 without having a low jersey number. Voila, No. 71. 

“When I watched the Leafs play, I was just a fan of guys that left everything on the ice,” Clarkson says. “It wasn’t just Wendel Clark. Wendel was definitely somebody that I liked the way he played, how he did his business – every night putting everything on the ice. I don’t think I will (accomplish) what those guys did, but I tried to learn a little bit from them. There was a ton of them, from Steve Thomas to Gary Roberts to Darcy Tucker.”

But there’s one guy who believes the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Clarkson can have the impact of those immortalized former Leafs: No. 17 himself. “He brings leadership, he plays gritty and he can play the game any way you want him to with the team,” Clark says. “He can put the puck to the net and he doesn’t mind fighting when he has to, he likes the physical part of the game and he has a great energy. It’s great that we can add that type of player in our home building. It’s hard for visiting teams to play against you.”

With the constant comparisons between the two players and the mega-contract, Clarkson has a ton to live up to. Based on social media, the emotional mob known as Leafs Nation thinks doing so is next to impossible unless Clarkson delivers the best offensive statistics of his career. The question is whether Toronto fans are looking at him the wrong way. Although $36.8 million may not buy 30-plus goals and 50-plus points, it should buy 20 goals, 40 points and a truckload of rink-rattling hits and fights that bring fans to their feet. It has also brought home a player who, by all accounts, is one of the NHL’s best all-around citizens.

Clarkson leads a simple life with Toronto-born wife Brittany and their two-year-old daughter, McKinley. He primarily spends time with them and enjoys hitting the golf course, playing tennis and squash and especially training. Most of all, though, he puts his heart and soul into charity. Don’t roll your eyes. It’s not the cliched version of a pro athlete sleepwalking through an event and signing an oversized cheque. DeBoer says he’s never met another player in his NHL coaching career who puts as much time into charity as Clarkson. 

“I would find out weeks after that he showed up at a practice for a hockey team in New Jersey with kids with special disabilities and it wasn’t front page of the paper,” DeBoer says. “He wasn’t doing it for notoriety. He enjoys giving those things back and it’s genuine because a lot of the time you never even hear about what he does. He is a special kid.”

On top of his under-the-radar philanthropy, Clarkson operates Clarky’s Kids, a charity out of Kitchener devoted to children with cancer, and he intends to keep it there. He has big plans for a Toronto charity he says will reach as many kids as possible inside and outside the city when he launches it. He’s private about the details, but part of the initiative involves bringing kids to games.

Despite being quite the shift disturber, you won’t find anyone close to the game with something bad to say about him. And his new teammates sure were excited to get him. Captain Dion Phaneuf was the first to call Clarkson and virtually every Leaf messaged him the day he signed. “There’s not that many guys who have a good mix of grit and a lot of skill on top of that,” says new mate Jay McClement.

There’s a refreshing innocence that makes Clarkson hard not to root for. We’ll see if that attitude remains after a full season in the bubble that is Toronto, but he’s embraced being a Leaf like no other new addition in recent memory and doesn’t bristle for a second at the hype. To the contrary, he’s encouraged it, playing the role of a fan suiting up for his favorite team and always stopping to appreciate it. At the same time he believes signing with the Leafs was a hockey decision. 

“I didn’t choose a team because I grew up a Leaf fan,” Clarkson says. “I chose it because of the direction they are going and also it is going to be special for me to put that jersey on. I’ve said this before: am I going to be perfect? No, but I’ll give everything I have every night. That’s what has gotten me to where I am today and I’ll continue doing that.”

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