Garrett Clarke, the young defenceman whom the Toronto Maple Leafs considered during their September 2011 rookie camp, has signed his first pro contract with the East Coast Hockey League.
This report comes from none other Garrett Clarke, who broke the news with his own tweet, an embeddable sign of hockey players’ increasing involvement in their own press:
Signing my first pro contract.
#ECHL— Garrett Clarke (@GClarke92) August 21, 2012
The 19-year-old Windsor, N.S., native spent four seasons bouncing between five clubs in the QMJHL (plus one playoff game with the CHL’s Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees) before turning pro.
Clarke was characterized as “a polarizing and well-travelled figure” in the Toronto Star; last summer, Leafs scout Dave Morrison said the player had a “checkered past.”
Once a prospective selection of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, Clarke had a fallout with the Halifax Mooseheads and was promptly traded to the Shawnigan Cataractes in 2010-11, where he lasted just 11 games before being traded to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan that same season.
Clarke had arguably his best season in 2011-12 with the Gatineau Olympiques, scoring 21 points in 31 games.
