Six Feet In 20 Minutes: Kyle Clark's Incredible Journey Back To Hockey

All Kyle Clark wanted was to go outside and have fun with his buddies. It was one of the last things he told his parents before his life flipped upside down.

It was a Wednesday afternoon when Clark went to spend time away from his demanding hockey schedule on a bike ride with friends in Whitby, Ont. The ride ended up changing the trajectory of his career and outlook on life.

On May 27, Clark was hit by a Ford F-150. The collision broke his femur in two.

Clark had been in the middle of one of the most important stretches of his young hockey career. He was heading into his U-18 season, pursuing junior opportunities and attending prospect camps. Just a week before the accident, he played in a junior showcase that gave him more exposure.

Now, he was getting into an ambulance with everything else on pause and one thing on his mind: “What am I going to do about hockey?”

He’s played the game since he was three years old. Hockey was his routine and a part of who he was. Suddenly, he was facing months away from the fast-paced game, forcing him to slow down and wonder whether, and how, he would ever be the same player again, let alone by the beginning of the following season in an early fall tournament. But he knew he wanted to get back in game action as quickly as he could.

“The first month was rough – very, very rough,” Clark said.

Clark considers himself a pretty independent kid. During that first month, he could do very little on his own. Getting out of bed or going to the washroom required multiple people. His mom removed his pillow while his dad held his knee, and his brother got the walker ready. 

The medication, appointments and dependence on others left Clark feeling overwhelmed and like everything had been taken away from him. Hockey had been his escape when he was struggling with his mental health.

So the moment he could play even a bit of hockey, he did.

Roughly a month into recovery, Clark started shooting pucks from his wheelchair in the garage. 

A few weeks later, he could stand with his walker. When he attempted to walk again, it took him 20 minutes to make it six feet.

He also noticed that his hip had shifted. When he walked, one hip sat noticeably higher than the other, causing an awkward limp. Even now, his hip is still slightly hiked.

Once he could bear full weight on his leg and had clearance to skate about three months into his recovery, he was back on the ice. The process did not go smoothly.

“I got on, I kind of like ran onto the ice, and I take a step and just fall, take another step, fall, another step, fall, and then I started to be able to compose myself and, you know, stay up,” Clark said.

Once he could skate from the goal line to the blueline, he came to a few realizations.

“My power was completely gone, acceleration completely gone, speed gone… I was missing a lot of parts to my game,” he said. “I’ve always been credited for my speed and my skating ability, and it was very frustrating to not be able to have all that back, and the most frustrating part is the strength.”

Two aspects of his game did improve, however, his shot power from holding himself up and his hockey IQ, because although he couldn't play the game, he could still study it.

For months, the only hockey he could get was through the screen. Clark said he learned a lot, including where to be on the ice and strengthening his ability to read the game better. 

He watched a lot of players, one more than the others.

“I watched a lot of Auston Matthews,” Clark said. “I model my game after him 100 percent, and yeah, he’s always been my favorite player growing up.”

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ captain became a source of motivation for Clark.

At 16, Matthews broke his femur in a hockey-related injury during his second game with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program. Suddenly, his dream was farther away, but the 2016 first-overall pick became one of the players in the NHL. 

“Knowing that also helped motivate me,” Clark said. “You’re like, ‘Oh look at where he is now… he’s one of the best goal-scorers.’ ”

Still, Clark sometimes asked himself if it was worth it. But he kept working, and he tried to find a squad that would bring him on once he recovered. He said he kept contacting coaches and was given the cold shoulder multiple times. 

The Clarington Toros U-18 AA signed him for this season. On the last weekend of September, he stepped onto the ice to play in a hockey tournament just about four months after getting hit by the truck.

Before the tournament, he said his first game would be emotional, but he wouldn’t shy away from hits and would go out to play his game.

His team lost the gold medal game in OT, but Clark scored during the tournament.

Clark’s story is not just about getting back on the ice. It’s also about showing up for yourself every day and understanding the battles people face that you may never see. 

When in the hospital, he met a kid who also got hit by a truck but had sustained worse injuries. Clark said he visited him, and the two talked. Despite everything he was going through, the kid had a smile on his face.

That experience stayed with Clark.

“You never know what silent battles people are fighting – you never know what’s going on in someone’s life,” Clark said. “If you were to look at me right now, you would think nothing ever happened. You would think that I never went through what I did. I’m just a normal kid now. I’m walking fine, but you have no idea the frustration of strengthening the leg again and not performing the way I used to and, you know, losing a lot throughout that injury.”

The past few months taught Clark he was capable of more than he thought. He believes he will come out of this as “a better player, a stronger player and a lot better person.”

The recovery also taught Clark that a setback does not have to be the end of the story.

“No matter how big the setback is, there's always going to be something better at the end.”

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