Where Are They Now: Graeme Clarke

To call the 2019-20 Ottawa 67’s a special group would be something of an understatement, at this point. It has been beyond well-documented that the cancellation of that season’s playoffs due to COVID-19 was a source of major heartbreak in the capital, given the Barber Poles’ historic regular season success, but the high calibre of that team was set by special players, like Graeme Clarke.

Much like his teammates, and the group at large, Clarke’s road through hockey has not come without its fair share of adversity.

Still, things started off pretty well. Clarke was selected sixth overall by the 67’s in the 2017 Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection, and the Ottawa native’s impact on his new team was felt almost immediately. The rookie made the OHL jump right off the bat, taking only three games to score his first OHL points, with a goal and an assist at home against the Eerie Otters on September 24, 2017. It was a sign of things to come, as Clarke went on to tally 14 goals and 11 assists, for 25 points in 63 games.

Clarke didn’t just excel at the OHL level during the 2017-18 season, either. He attended the World U17 Hockey Challenge, scoring two goals and four assists, for a total of six points in as many games with Team Canada White.

Building on his fruitful rookie season, Clarke returned to the 67’s for the 2018-19 campaign, and showed instant signs of progression. He scored in the season’s first two games, and didn’t slow down the entire year, punctuated by his first career multi-goal game. Clarke twice found the back of the net in a visit to the Flint Firebirds on November 3, 2018. When all was said and done, Clarke ended the season with 23 goals and 11 assists, good enough for 34 points in 55 games.

The postseason, however, was where Clarke truly came into his own. During Ottawa’s 18-game run to the OHL Final, Clarke scored seven goals and seven assists, ending the playoffs with 14 points.

Internationally, he won a gold medal with Team Canada at that year’s Hlinka Gretzky Cup, scoring two goals and an assist through five games.

All that said, it came as a surprise to few when Clarke’s 2019 season saw him selected in that year’s 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Clarke was taken in the third round, 80th overall, by the New Jersey Devils

Though the Barber Poles’ 2019-20 season was the best in franchise history, it would unfortunately come without Clarke’s services for most of the year. Due to a shoulder injury, the highly-skilled forward was limited to only 16 games before the COVID-19 stoppage. One can only imagine what a full season of Clarke would have wrought upon OHL competition, though, with him scoring nine goals and eight assists, for 17 points: a 1.06 points per game pace.

With the pandemic wiping away a legitimate shot at a Memorial Cup win, Clarke attempted to turn the page to next season, but when the season was eventually cancelled due to the ongoing spread of the virus, it brought an abrupt end to Clarke’s junior career, without the swan song he deserved.

Following a brief stint with HC Nove Zamky, in Slovakia, Clarke returned to North America. As there was no OHL hockey to be played, he got an early start on his professional hockey career, joining New Jersey’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Binghamton Devils, alongside former 67’s teammates Nikita Okhotyuk, and Kevin Bahl. It took the Devils all of four games to know what they had in Clarke, and the team signed him to an entry-level contract on March 4, 2021.

Clarke rewarded them almost instantly, scoring his first AHL goal against the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, just two days after putting pen to paper. In 31 games, Clarke totalled eight goals and 10 assists, for 18 points in 31 games.

With the Devils’ affiliate now finding themselves in Utica, rebranded as the Comets, so too does Clarke. It’s been more of the same for a player whose name has become synonymous with production, posting 10 goals and 11 assists, for 21 points in 43 games, to date.

With injuries, and a pandemic finally seeming to fade into his rearview, it appears to be only a matter of time before Clarke is making his NHL debut with the Devils, and producing for them the same way he did for the 67’s