The Toronto Maple Leafs are adding another member to their player development staff this season.
On Thursday, the Toronto Marlies announced that team captain Rich Clune was retiring and joining the Toronto Maple Leafs player development staff.
The Leafs are adding a great character guy to their development staff in Rich Clune. All his teammates love him, the team staff love him, and the fans love him
. Clune played a total of 139 NHL games along with 593 games in the AHL during a 16-year career.
(Stats from eliteprospects.com)
Toronto Maple Leafs and Rich Clune
Clune will now have the pleasure of working with Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser in player development along with another former Maple Leaf, Mark Fraser. Another recently retired player, Jason Spezza, might also spend some time working with Clune, Fraser, and Wickenheiser as he learns multiple roles as Special Assistant to the General Manager. Safe to say that Clune will be working with good people.
Since the 2015-16 season, Clune has been a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization. He spent the last two seasons as the captain of the Marlies. As someone who attends Marlies games often, it was a pleasure to watch Clune play. For anyone who has seen his documentary (Hi, My Name is Dicky), how could you not want to cheer for him?
For those of you that haven’t had the opportunity to watch the documentary, it explores Clune’s downward spiral from drug and alcohol addiction. You then learn about his time in rehab and how he overcame his addictions. Clune hit rock bottom but managed to get help and find his way back. Through his experiences, Clune has been able to help so many other hockey players who battle addictions.
He can now take everything he’s learned on and off the ice and use it to his advantage in a player development role. I think Clune will be highly valuable to the Toronto Maple Leafs organization. His knowledge of what it takes to overcome adversity and to work hard to capture your dream will be so beneficial.
I had the pleasure of meeting Rich Clune last season while he and some other Marlies players were at Bottom Line sports bar. A few weeks later, I took my daughter to her first Marlies game, and Rich Clune tossed her a puck over the boards. She was beyond excited about getting that puck and still cherishes it. It’s sad to see him hanging up the skates, but I’m glad he’s staying within the Toronto Maple Leafs organization.