Easy yes in my eyes. I feel like Wendel gets bashed because of how popular he is or maybe it's just an age gap thing. Could be they saw him later in his career, when his style of play was catching up to him.
Wendel for a lot of years was the lone bright spot for a dysfunctional franchise. Through the all the turbulence with garbage ownership & management, fans took a liking to Wendel's guts, scoring ability(which he doesn't get nearly enough credit for) & physicality. I started watching hockey in the early nineties. Lucky for me, this was the time where Ballard was about to croak, new ownership was taking over & the Leafs were about to experience a revival after years in the gutter. The 92-93 Leafs ignited my passion for the game of hockey, Wendel didn't put up great numbers that season, because of his back issues, which were a result of probably fighting. In the playoffs, when they went on the run, he was a force, a true top notch power forward. This was carried into the 94 season, where the trio of Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk(traded for in 93) & Wendel Clark were top three in scoring for the team. Andreychuk set the franchise record for goals in a season with 53, Wendel was off by 7 goals. All three of those guys, along with Felix Potvin I believe went to the all-star game.
People are looking at the numbers & saying because of that, Wendel wasn't a great or even good player. This to me is folly because injuries really hampered his career. Part of the appeal of Wendel was that he never backed down from a fight but in retrospect maybe he should of been told too. The argument that never gets mentioned is, how much better of a career would Wendel have had if he didn't fight? He would have been better off, would've been healthier & as a result wouldn't have had injuries & had a longer career. Wendel was Wendel though, he took on all comers.
All I know is this, as a Leafs fan in my lifetime. I've seen a lot of bad players but of the good ones I've seen Wendel wouldn't be number one but he is up there. Definitely one of my favourites. To say he is a bad player or not worthy of being honoured is such a farce on so many levels.