Sergei Berezin is one of the most underrated Toronto Maple Leafs of all-time.
Instead of sitting around and waiting for the Toronto Maple Leafs to ever play again, I thought I would take this time to talk about one of the most underrated players of all-time: Sergei Berezin.
Since the next NHL season’s start-date is unknown, hockey fans could use this time to spend more time with their families, or instead, fall down a rabbit-hole of old Toronto Maple Leafs videos on YouTube for the next two months. I’ll be doing the latter.
With time-off from watching countless hours of sports every night comes reflection, and within that reflection comes reliving the past. As a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, there has been plenty of downfall, but there has been upside. Everyone should have a few good memories, unless maybe you’re 15-years-old and the team hasn’t been good during your entire life.
Since 2005, there’s been nothing but Game 7 losses, waffles thrown on the ice and 18-wheelers falling off the cliff, and more likely than not, the kids in Toronto are Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks and Washington Capitals fans anyways. However, there’s still been a few playoff overtime victories, the Bozak Winter Classic shootout goal and of course winning the NHL Draft Lottery and getting Auston Matthews.
However, for me, the one name within my childhood that never gets enough love is my guy, Berezin.
Berezin Was Incredibly Underrated
As a kid, it used to be so much fun to imitate Berezin. His best move was to skate as fast as he could from end-to-end, deking out almost every opponent, before losing the puck at the other teams blue-line. If he could have figured out that last move, he may have broke Gretzky’s goal record.
The former 10th round pick in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft joined the team in the 1996-97 season after dominating the DEL. Scoring 25 goals in first NHL season, Berezin finished third on the Toronto Maple Leafs in goals scored.
The team missed the playoffs in his first two seasons, but for the next three years after that, Berezin was one of the Toronto Maple Leafs most prolific players. Mats Sundin, Curtis Joseph, Bryan McCabe, Tomas Kaberle and Gary Roberts always get talked about first when discussing the late 1990s, early 2000s teams, but Berezin in my opinion was the man.
Berezin’s 1998-1999 season was his best, as he led the Toronto Maple Leafs with 37 goals. He also finished second on the team in playoff scoring with 12 points in 17 games, which included a game-winning goal in Game 6 of the First Round against Philadelphia.
In 357 games played, Berezin finished with 126 goals and 220 points as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Of the over 900 players in franchise history, that point total ranks 68th all-time. Someone who probably gets more recognition than Berezin is Matt Stajan and he only had three more points, but played 88 more games than him in the blue-and-white.
The newly acquired Alex Barabanov is coming over from Russia and is the same size and age as Berezin when he joined the Leafs. Maybe he can provide similar memories to young Leafs fans like Berezin did for me.