Penguins poach Maple Leafs exec for front-office role

Another high-ranking member of the Toronto Maple Leafs is leaving the organization for the Pittsburgh Penguins, as the team announced it has hired Wes Clark as the vice president of player personnel. The news came shortly after Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Clark would be leaving the Maple Leafs organization.

Clark has spent the last six years of his career working as the director of amateur scouting and director of player personnel. The Maple Leafs have drafted the likes of Nicholas Robertson, Matthew Knies and Easton Cowan under Clark while only making three selections in the first round of the NHL Draft. Clark also served briefly as an amateur scout with the Florida Panthers before returning to the Original Six organization.

In his new role with the Penguins organization, Clark will oversee the team’s amateur, professional and European/international free agent scouting departments and will report directly to his old boss, Kyle Dubas. 

"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," Dubas said in the public announcement of Clark’s hire.

With a middling team at the NHL level, Pittsburgh must be able to make the most of its draft picks for the next several years. The end of the Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang era is looming large over the Penguins’ organization, and the team must balance the end of their illustrious careers with the future without them. According to CapFriendly, Pittsburgh has 24 draft selections in total over the next three NHL Drafts and may add to that collection of picks over the next few seasons.