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Colorado Hockey Hub

CO THUNDERBIRDS ADD TO HOCKEY OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT

12/27/2019, 9:15am MST
By Tbirds

CO THUNDERBIRDS
ADD CLARKSON
TO
HOCKEY OPERATIONS
DEPARTMENT

 

Colorado Thunderbirds have made an addition to their Hockey Operations Staff, according to Director of Hockey Operations and Executive Director, Angelo Ricci.  David Clarkson, who is currently coaching the 16U Team, will be adding to his duties as the Assistant Director of Hockey Operations.  Since 2015, Clarkson oversaw and was Director of Hockey for Upper Arlington Varsity and JV for three years.  He was also head coach of the Varsity Team during that time. Before that, he worked as an assistant coach with Arlington.  He also helped with Belfry Hockey.  In 2018, Clarkson moved to Aspen, Colorado, where he was hired to coach and help in the development of their Peewee and Squirt players.  When he was done playing, Clarkson scouted NCAA College Hockey for the Columbus Blue Jackets for two years.  Please welcome David to our organization.   We are excited to have him on board full time.
 

David Clarkson Bio
Clarkson developed a reputation for being one of the game's great agitators, a player who is just as likely to drop his gloves and fight an opponent as he is to score. The reputation is one that dates to Clarkson's four-year junior career that started with Belleville of the Ontario Hockey League and ended with Kitchener, where he won the Memorial Cup in 2003. Despite his success in the OHL - Clarkson scored 33 goals and had 21 assists during his final season in Kitchener in 2004-05 - the native of Etobicoke, Ontario, went undrafted and signed with the New Jersey Devils as a free agent in August 2005. Clarkson spent most of his first two pro seasons playing in the American Hockey League. He was called up to the Devils at the end of the 2006-07 season and made his NHL debut on March 15, 2007, against the Carolina Hurricanes. He scored his first NHL goal and NHL assist one game later, also against the Hurricanes. Beginning in 2008-09, Clarkson scored 10 goals or more in six of seven seasons, including a 30-goal, 46-point season with the Devils in 2011-12. He added three goals and 12 points during 24 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

Two years later, Clarkson opted not to re-sign with the Devils, and on July 5, 2013, he signed a seven-year contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team he grew up rooting for as the son of a longtime Maple Leafs season-ticket holder.  Clarkson spent less than two full seasons with the Maple Leafs, who traded him to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Feb. 26, 2015.

 

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