February 1, 2000

The destiny of NHL prospect: Yevgeny Belosheykin

Let no man write my epitaph;
for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them,
let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them.
Let them rest in obscurity and peace!
Let my memory be left in oblivion, my tomb remain uninscribed,
until other times and other men can do justice to my character.
Robert Emmet (1778–1803), Irish patriot.

American singer, writer and diplomat Pearl Bailey (1918–90) uttered, "There are two kinds of talent, man-made talent and God-given talent. With man-made talent you have to work very hard. With God-given talent, you just touch it up once in a while."

The last case could be applied to Edmonton’s draftee, former Russian NHL prospect, goaltender Yevgeny Belosheykin, who had always been considered a favourite.

He was born to be an athlete. He could play soccer, basketball and volleyball with excellence. Yevgeny had been endowed with strength, endurance and outstanding reaction.

His first coach, Yevgeny Tobolkin, recalls his apprentice, "Surprising unique coordination, quite outstanding moving skills. Probably he could make a bright career in any kind of team sport. He could pick up everything even in other fields of activity."

He was preordained to become a champion. Belosheykin was destined to be put alongside such prominent goaltenders as Vladislav Tretyak. But at that time nobody could guess what terrible thing would happen to him in the near future.

At an early age, Yevgeny was so involved in different kinds of sport that many coaches started looking for this gifted boy. At the age of eight, he was already offered to go in for slalom but Yevgeny turned it down because his real love was ice hockey.

He was enlisted into the hockey school of SKA St. Petersburg and all the specialists who saw him were amazed by his quick progress. He leapt from one age group to another so that the boys of his age were left far behind him. At the age of sixteen (1982), he skipped the junior team and joined adult team SKA St. Petersburg coached by Boris Mikhailov.

His debut was a success. He played four games in the relegation tournament of the 1982/1983 season and allowed only 5 goals. The next season Belosheykin managed to make experienced goaltenders Sergei Cherkas and Dimitri Kuroshin watch the game from the bench.

At the age of 17, when he was named to 1983/1984 USSR junior team, he became the champion of the world. The rumours of this talented goaltender reached the center of Soviet hockey in Moscow.

Viktor Tikhonov, the head coach of legendary CSKA Moscow, was adept at using the primary right of taking part in the mandatory military service requirement of Russian gifted men. Using the auspices of the military, CSKA always had the first chance to "enlist" men into the Red Army only to use their hockey skills. He had lured some of the brightest SKA names in the game such as Alexei Kasatonov, Alexei Gusarov and Nickolay Drozdetsky. Yevgeny Belosheykin must be the next one.

So this young, out-of-the-ordinary goaltender was required by CSKA in 1984 to accomplish his mandatory military service. Tikhonov needed the goaltender who could replace legendary Vladislav Tretyak. A glorious future was opening before the boy.

People say that once during the practice Tretyak approached Yevgeny and tried to give him advice, "Hey guy, listen to me, it seems that you hold your glove in a strange way. Look at me, it should be done in this way." On this the newcomer answered, "Sorry what’s your name sir?" The brightest goaltender ever seen in the world hockey hesitatingly answered, "Tretyak!" "Mine is Yevgeny Belosheykin and I’ll hold the glove as I like," a little bit impudently and self-confidently answered the prospect. This accident was a sign of the character which helped him to be an outstanding athlete.

Unfortunately, at the 1984/85 Junior World Championships Team Russia won only the bronze medal but fortunately enough for Yevgeny he had been named to the tournament's All-Star Team alongside current Colorado Avalanche defenseman Alexei Gusarov and former Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nickolai Borshevsky.

In the 1984/85 season he made an excellent debut on the superstar roster of CSKA and finally became one of the key figures of the team for which such prominent players as Vyacheclav Fetisov, Alexei Kasatonov, Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov and Sergey Makarov played.

That year he became the champion of the Soviet Union for the first time in his career and represented the USSR at the World Championships.

The 1985/86 season was the peak of his successful career. Imagine he became a four-time gold medallist!

Yevgeny played for team USSR at the international tournament formerly known as the Prize of Izvestia (now it is called the Baltic Cup) where he won a Directorate Award as the top goaltender and got a gold medal.

Shortly after that he became the champion of the world for the second time at the Junior World Championships where he had been selected to the tournament's All-Star Team alongside Mikhail Tatarinov and Igor Vyazmikin. He also won a Directorate Award as the top goaltender.

He also took part in lots of international tournaments where he usually made the All-Star Team and was named the top goaltender. At the 1986 World Championships held in Moscow’s Lyuzhniky Ice Palace, his play was magnificent and team USSR regained its title of world champions from team Czechoslovakia.

Belosheykin got the gold at the USSR Championship and was selected to the All-Star Team alongside his legendary teammates Vyacheclav Fetisov, Alexei Kasatonov, Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov and Sergey Makarov.

The guy was only 20 years old. Evidently he didn't know much about life itself and there was nobody by his side at the right moment to share the burden of fame during his immediate rise and long fall, so the paths of glory lead him to the grave.

As in the case of everything mortal, his talent had its ups and downs. Like Yevgeny, his talent experienced the good and the bad, but because talent is part of the man, it ultimately suffered the same fate.

At the 1986/87 season he once again lead CSKA to a gold medal at the USSR championships. Yevgeny was named to the All-Star Team alongside his legendary teammates Vyacheclav Fetisov, Alexei Kasatonov, Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov and Sergey Makarov.

At the age of 21 he was selected to the 1987 USSR Canada Cup team and was the finalist of the tournament. He hoped to make the 1988 USSR Olympic team. He was invited to the training camp along with Vitalie Samoilov from Dynamo Riga and Yuri Shundrov from Sokol Kiev and all three were selected to the team but at the very last practice Belosheykin, who was regarded as the starting goalie, was terribly injured. His leg was broken. So Sergei Mylnikov from Tractor Chelyabinsk was called up to replace him. On returning to the USSR he twice underwent difficult surgery on his leg and had to forget about hockey for a while. He couldn’t bear his forced idleness and went on a drinking binge. Unfortunately Yevgeny was deeply depressed and couldn’t find escape from drinking.

The articles about the drinking of Belosheykin appeared even in the biggest foreign newspapers, such as Swedish Expressen and the hockey magazine "Hockey".

"Goaltender Belosheykin and defenseman Alexei Gusarov had been on a heavy drinking party while they had some time off. From the nightclub they went home with two women to Gusarov's apartment. The following day they were both found unconscious. Not a single thing of value was left in the apartment. It's assumed that the women slipped something into their drinks and then "cleaned" the apartment. After this incident Belosheykin was suffering from liver problems and damage to his color vision. Gusarov is still regularly in and out of the hospital for followups."

After several incidents of this kind, Yevgeny’s wife, Svetlana, soon left him because she didn’t want to live with a man who is no longer the star of Soviet hockey. She said, "I married a man who was always the star and I don’t want to live with mediocrity." Sandra, the wife of Alexei Gusarov who introduced Sveta to Yevgeny later recalled, "Sveta was a girl from a rather well-to-do family. She had no need for money. She was just attracted by the glory which surrounded the outstanding goaltender." So Yevgeny Belosheykin was divorced and was left to himself.

Then came another hard punch of destiny. His father was killed by some thugs who one day burst into the cafe where he worked and broke his head with heavy metal pipes.

Yevgeny was completely broken and had no strength to keep guard over himself, to fight, and to keep on alert amid the obstacles. Nothing had changed in his life even after returning to St. Petersburg, but one more chance was given to him. He was given another chance but instead of taking advantage of the opportunity, he squandered it and ended up paying for it with his life.

In 1990, NHL professionals visited St.Peterburg and it turned out that there was no good goaltender on the roster of team SKA St. Petersburg. So Yevgeny had to step onto the ice once again in the game against the Washington Capitals. The most interesting thing was that he had not practiced for a long time and demonstrated his superb goaltender skills even while being unprepared for the game. Shortly after this brilliant performance the Edmonton Oilers invited him to its training camp. He was the Oilers’ 11^th round selection, 232^nd overall, in the 1991 Entry Draft. It is rumoured that in exhibition games he looked much better than Grant Fuhr, but nobody knows what prevented Edmonton’s management from signing a million-dollar contract with the bright Soviet prospect. Perhaps it was his knee injury or something else.

One thing is known for sure, a well-known hockey agent named Serge Hunley played the destructive role in the destiny of his client as well. He didn’t negociate much to get a profitable contract for Yevgeny Belosheykin and he had to return St. Petersburg.

Upon his return he went on his drinking binges. Many well-known people held out a helping hand to him but all this was in vain. He was invited by Boris Mikhailov to join SKA St. Petersburg or Izhorets Kolpino. Yevgeny accepted the invitation but after two weeks he disappeared. He went on a binge. He tried to give up drinking but he couldn’t do it. It was already his fatal disease which could only be cured through his own will.

The last few months of his life were terrible. He lost all his friends and his relations with his mother were terribly spoiled. So he lived with some acquaintances of him and spent all his money, if he had any, on alcohol. While being drunk, he suffered sudden bouts of madness. He was unpredictable and capable of anything.

One day while abusing alcohol he tried to cut his veins and then Yevgeny hanged himself. When the police arrived, they came to the conclusion that he committed suicide.

U.S. author Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938) said, "If a man has a talent and cannot use it, he has failed. If he has a talent and uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded, and won a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever know."

In our case Yevgeny Belosheykin had a talent and learned somehow to use the whole of it, he had gloriously succeeded, and won a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever knew. The only thing he missed was how to learn patience, remain calm at the very difficult moments of life, and to part its brightest hour for some time.

So let it be written of him, not "Died in bitter pains," but "Moved on to another star!"

Denis Neznanov
HockeyZone's Russian Correspondent