Maple Leafs fans hated seeing beloved icon Wendel Clark traded out of Toronto, but less than two years later, Clark became a Leaf once again in a blockbuster deal with the New York Islanders. This 1996 story broke down the trade and what it meant for Toronto's Stanley Cup playoff aspirations.
As the Toronto Maple Leafs battled for supremacy in the late 1990s, their fan base and the team itself got a huge boost with the acquisition of winger and former Buds captain Wendel Clark. And in this feature story from THN’s March 29, 1996 edition – Vol. 49, Issue 28 – writer Mark Brender broke down the deal that brought Clark back to his beloved team.
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Clark had been an ex-Leaf for only one-and-a-half seasons before Toronto GM Cliff Fletcher pulled off a deal with the New York Islanders to put him in Blue and White once again. The trade with the Isles also brought 26-year-old defenseman Mathieu Schneider and prospect blueliner D.J. Smith to the Leafs in exchange for D-man Kenny Jonsson, center Darby Hendrickson, prospect Sean Haggerty and Toronto’s first-round pick in the 1997 draft.
At first glance, that sounded like the Leafs clearly won the trade – that is, until you consider that, with Toronto’s top pick in 1997, the Islanders drafted elite goaltender Roberto Luongo. But that had more to do with the future than it did the present moment of the trade.
Indeed, Fletcher spoke confidently and frankly about his willingness to do the deal.
“Wendel is an inspirational leader, that we all know, and how do you measure that?” Fletcher said of the 1996 deal. “Mathieu Schneider today is a better defenseman than Kenny Jonsson, period. We would have made this trade in December.”
The 29-year-old Clark was elated to return to Toronto, telling Brender he felt like a much younger player again.
“It’s very exciting, very new,” Clark said of coming back to Toronto. “It has been two years and now I’m an 11-year rookie.”
The man Clark was originally traded out of Toronto for, star center Mats Sundin, welcomed Clark back to the fold. Clark would wind up spending another two seasons with the Leafs, moving on in 1998 before one last stint with Toronto in 1999-2000. But his dogged determination was one of the main reasons Fletcher wanted him back.
“He’s going to push us, push the whole franchise,” Sundin said of Clark. “We’re not a very young hockey club. In the next few years here we’ve got to do some damage."
WENDEL’S RE-LEAF
By Mark Brender
March 29, 1996
Toronto Maple Leafs’ GM Cliff Fletcher said the trade to repatriate civic hero Wendel Clark was designed with the future in mind as well as the present.
That left some people wondering just which future the boss was talking about.
It wasn’t the one he had been touting earlier in the season, with goalie Felix Potvin, center Mats Sundin and defenseman Kenny Jonsson as the pillars around which the Leafs would build their franchise once Doug Gilmour & Co., were gone.
To get Clark, 26-year-old defenseman Mathieu Schneider and junior defenseman D.J. Smith, Jonsson was shipped to the New York Islanders. Center Darby Hendrickson, Detroit Whalers’ junior star Sean Haggerty and the Leafs’ No. 1 pick in the 1997 draft went with him.
To accommodate the new $3.2-million (U.S.) worth of contract in Clark and Schneider, Fletcher dumped former 50-goal left winger Dave Andreychuk to the New Jersey Devils for second- and third-round draft picks.
Clearly, Fletcher’s vision of the Leafs’ future is not built around top draft picks.
Potvin, drafted in 1990, is the only Leaf first- or second-round pick of the past five years still with the team. Added to that, the Leafs have no first-or second-round pick in 1996 and no first-rounder in 1997.
And if it is a future built around a Stanley Cup run this season, it’s highly questionable whether the Leafs have the team do it.
After playing well and jumping out to a 21-14-7 start Jan. 10, they went 5-17-5 and found themselves fighting for a playoff spot in the weak Western Conference.
All of which had the critics saying the trade had nothing to do with the future and everything to do with panic over a season gone sour.
Fletcher said the Leafs’ losing skid had nothing to do with the trade’s timing, that he had been trying to acquire Clark and Schneider for months.
And he would have been just as prepared then to give up Jonsson, the team’s best defenseman at 21.
“Wendel is an inspirational leader, that we all know, and how do you measure that?” Fletcher said. “Mathieu Schneider today is a better defenseman than Kenny Jonsson, period. We would have made this trade in December.”
The players, even those who weren’t with Toronto when Clark was traded to the Quebec Nordiques in 1994, were thrilled to get Clark back.
“He’s going to push us, push the whole franchise,” Sundin said.
When he arrived in Toronto the day after the trade, Clark, 29, said he felt healthy, happy and young again.
“It’s very exciting, very new,” he said. “It has been two years and now I’m an 11-year rookie.”
But fan reaction was surprisingly muted when the trade was posted on the Maple Leafs Gardens scoreboard between periods of a March 13 game against the Winnipeg Jets. The scattered cheers didn’t indicate the depth of passion Toronto fans still feel for Clark, who in his first nine seasons in Toronto had come to represent the city as much as 10-hour work days and the CN Tower. There was something else.
This business about trading for battle-worn veterans, they have seen before. Kirk Muller, Dave Gagner and Larry Murphy, among others, have arrived and so far, it hasn’t worked.
But Fletcher is unequivocal in his belief trades and veterans are the path to a winner.
Veterans because most good teams, he said, are old. For those who suggest giving up promising youth for older, proven talent spells a step backward for the Leafs, “I’d have to suggest they’re not up to date in how the NHL runs.”
It did hold true last year. The top six defensemen for the Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils averaged 29 years and their top 12 forwards, 28. The Detroit Red Wings were 31 and 27.
When the playoffs begin April 16, the Leafs will average 28 at forward and 30 on defense.
And besides, Fletcher said. Leaf fans wouldn’t put up with the losses while waiting for a large crop of young players to develop together.
“That wouldn’t be acceptable here in Toronto,” Fletcher said. “You can’t have that situation here.”
But with 13 games to play, these veteran Leafs were still fighting to see the post-season.
“Should we concentrate on hockey or on whether or not we gave up too much?” said defenseman Todd Gill. “The only pressure I’m concerned with is making the playoffs.”
Sundin, a baby at 25, feels it too.
“We’re not a very young hockey club,” he said. “In the next few years here we’ve got to do some damage.”
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