Wes Clark, who has guided the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ recent NHL drafts, has left the hockey club for a job with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In doing so, Clark, 41, reunites with Kyle Dubas, the Leafs’ former GM who made the move to Pittsburgh a year ago.
Clark had been with the Leafs for six years. He later posted a cryptic video of someone saying: “Don’t eat with people you wouldn’t starve with” and then “To me like loyalty is really big, because then if you invest in certain people in your life and they stick by you and you stick by them and what else is life about?”
As the Leafs’ assistant director of player personnel and director of amateur scouting, Clark was involved in drafting Matthew Knies at 57th (2021), and prospects Fraser Minten at 38th (2022) and OHL MVP Easton Cowan at 28th (2023).
In the 2024 draft, the Leafs dealt their 23rd-overall selection to Anaheim for the 31st and 58th picks. The Leafs then selected Oshawa Generals defenceman Ben Danford, whom many experts had ranked outside of the first round, at No. 31. Clark announced the selection.
“Having worked with Wes for many years, I have a deep trust in his ability to identify talent, lead staffs, advance our scouting process and methods, learn from mistakes to improve processes and to challenge my own thinking and planning on a near daily basis,” said Dubas, in a statement released by the Penguins.
