Before baseball, Blue Jays’ Ernie Clement was dynamite in high school hockey

If you’re a baseball fan, you probably already know that Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Ernie Clement is a great story. He scrapped his way to the big leagues as an unheralded prospect, and is now starting in the World Series. But you might not know that Clement was at one point a great hockey story, too.

The Rochester, N.Y. native was a star high school hockey player in his day. In 79 total games played for Brighton High School, Clement scored a whopping 70 goals, including a dominant 27 goals in 20 games during his senior season. Who knows? The Toronto Maple Leafs might need to borrow Clement to provide some offensive pop to their top six.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss Clement’s past as a high school hockey legend, and the value of playing multiple sports.

Tyler Yaremchuk: “I love talking baseball right now. I’m all in on it. But the hockey tie in of Ernie Clement. Who knows what could have been? A two-sport athete potentially.”

Carter Hutton: “You know what’s funny? Before we even decided this for garbage time, I had looked this up yesterday during the game, and I was telling my wife about it. I was promoting it to my son as well. He’s a hockey player, he loves it, and he’s a baseball player. I was just trying to explain, merge the two. The cross-training is just so important for athletes. It just goes to show how good of an athlete Ernie Clement is. Last night though, we could’ve used a hit from him. For how reliable he’s been, we could’ve used a hit. But he’s one hell of a player.”

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…