Saskatoon Blades legend Wendel Clark honoured this weekend

Before he became the first overall NHL draft pick in 1985, Wendel Clark was just a young kid trying out for the WHL's Saskatoon Blades. 

As a young hockey player from Kelvington, Sask., Clark remembers what it was like heading into camp.

He said because there wasn't a WHL draft at the time, he started heading to junior camps at around 13 years old.
    
"I was used to camps. But when you get older — closer to the 16 level — you know you might not make it, so it's a lot of nerves," Clark told Saskatchewan Weekend host Eric Anderson. "You're always watching all the players beside you because you recognize the names but you don't know the faces."

On Friday, the Blades honoured Clark before the team's home opener. 

Clark said he still remembers the excitement and nerves of starting out in the WHL himself. 

"You're all trying to make the team," he said. "You're fighting for jobs. There's no friends until the team is made."

Not far from home

Unlike a lot of young players these days, Clark was able to stay relatively close to home and family.

"We were three hours down the road, so (my) parents were always in watching the games," Clark said. "I had left home a couple of years earlier — going to Notre Dame — so it broke the ice a little bit.

"The biggest change is you have to have great billets and I had outstanding billets," he said.

While the importance of billets hasn't changed, Clark said the game itself has.

"The game is getting quicker and faster at every level," he said. "And the talent level. Some times the old people think it was always way better back when. Rewatch the skill level today from the top line to fourth line - there's a lot more parity between the best line and fourth line today than there was in the old days."

All in all, Clark remembers his time in Saskatoon fondly.

"We had a great organizations here," he said. "They really handled the kids well and that's what helped a lot of us make the transition."

In his two seasons with the Blades, Clark scored 55 goals and 100 assists.

The million dollar question

Clark spent 13 seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs between 1985 and 2000.

The former Leafs captain is still employed by the team as a community ambassador.

So how does the man idolized by Toronto hockey fans think his former team will do this season? 

"I think we'll be competitive," he said. "It's a growing stage. We've got a long ways to go to get a lot better, but I think we're going to be better than what some people think."