PROSPECT WATCH: Clarke's Different Offseason

Between having to quarantine and trying to keep busy in a pandemic-paused season, it was the last thing Graeme Clarke needed: a paperwork mix-up that almost caused another delay in a year defined by them.
The Devils prospect, a third-round pick (80th overall) from the 2019 NHL Draft, was heading to Slovakia last month with his younger brother, Brandt, to play in that country's pro league.
An obtuse Air Canada check-in agent had other ideas.
The circuitous journey - Ottawa-Toronto-Frankfurt-Vienna by air, then a bus trip over the border to Slovakia - raised eyebrows because the Clarke brothers lacked Austrian paperwork.
Their father, Chris, finally convinced the agent that their final destination was Slovakia, for which the boys had the proper paperwork, and not Austria.
They were allowed through.

"It took 45 minutes but they gave us the right sticker," said Mr Clarke, an orthodontist, who was on the line from Iqualit, In Canada's far north, where he occasionally works.
Back from Europe, Graeme Clarke will soon arrive in Binghamton. He is expected to join the Devils American Hockey League affiliate for as long as the Ontario Hockey League season remains on hold.
Before Binghamton and Slovakia, Clarke was invited to Canada's World Junior selection camp but was among the final cuts. His release came after a strong training camp, one that was stopped for 14 days to satisfy quarantine requirements after members of Team Canada tested positive for COVID-19. After returning to the ice Clarke picked up five points in four intrasquad games. It wasn't quite enough to make a team whose entire forward corps was comprised of 13 first-round NHL picks, including Devils 2020 selection (18th overall) Dawson Mercer.
"I thought I had a really good Team Canada camp," said Clarke, "I was disappointed when I was released but it was a really competitive year…I'll just use it as motivation moving forward."
Clarke, a right-wing, was one of four Devils prospects on the Ottawa 67's last season. The club was at or near the top of the national rankings all season until the season was canceled 10 months ago. Clarke had already missed most of that season after undergoing shoulder surgery for a torn labrum in the fall of 2019.
Clarke selection at the 2019 NHL Draft came after a 23-goal season with the 67's as an 18-year-old. Two years earlier, while still in minor hockey, he suited up with the Toronto Marlboros with Jack Hughes as his center; together they formed the most potent duo in the highly competitive Greater Toronto Hockey League (though American, Hughes spent a large swath of his childhood in Toronto).

"I'm really happy for Jack," said Clarke, of the hot start of his former minor hockey linemate, "He's a great player and it was really only a matter of time before he broke out like (he's started the season). I hope to play with him sometime in the future again."
In Slovakia, Clarke played six games, registering an assist. The European pro leagues are not easy for teenagers who come in late without a training camp. Still, the whistle-stop experience was beneficial, especially since Clarke got to play with his younger brother for the first time.
"There was a lot of adjusting when we first got there," said Graeme Clarke, "the language, living on our own, the style of hockey. But after a couple weeks we settled in and everything was fine.
"My brother and I have never played together on a real team. It was a great experience…and he's still there."
When he gets back, Brandt Clarke's name will be called early when the next NHL Draft takes place, possibly in the top five. In an odd bit of sibling synergy, Brandt Clarke right now is on about the same level as Luke Hughes, Jack's younger brother. Both are defensemen, rated roughly 2-3 among rearguards in this year's class, behind only the University of Michigan's Owen Power.
Chris Clarke gives a rueful laugh when asked if he ever pictured having to send his two boys, both on the cusp of turning pro, overseas to play after already putting them through minor hockey.
"There has been a lot of things that weren't planned over the past year," he said, echoing the sentiment that could describe just about everything and anything in the hockey world.