As the legendary Vladimir Tretiak's career would wind down in the mid 1980s, the Soviet Union had a young man waiting in the wings whose skills were comparable, and according to many, even better than Tretiak's. Life for him was no fairy tale, it ended badly, and on Sept 27th, 2019, perhaps the last chapter of his story was written when a collection of 17 of his medals, sold on eBay to an unknown buyer by a man living in Germany named Roman Malkov.
Evgeni Belosheikin was born in 1966. He came up to the Soviet Premier League without much fanfare in 1983, for SKA Leningrad. A year later, he ended up on USSR's best team, the CSKA Moscow to be the backup and to study from Tretiak. Although their styles were not the same, coaches believed that he was ready to step into some giant skates and gave him that opportunity after Tretiak's retirement in 1984. For the next two years, he dominated the league, with GAAs of 1.88 and 1.80 respectively. He also led the USSR national team to multiple triumphs, including a dominant World Championship in 1986, where he allowed only 8 goals in 5 games.
But his lifelong nemesis, alcoholism, took advantage of his success and reared its ugly head. In the next two years, as Belosheikin drank, his numbers dropped, and after repeated issues with discipline and a car accident in a highly inebriated state, Belosheikin was thrown off both CSKA and the national team by head coach Viktor Tikhonov.
He repeatedly tried to get his life together. Playing for smaller market teams got him cut again and again. He headed to North America in 1991 after being selected by the Oilers in the 11th round of the draft, 232nd overall. But after not making the camp, he spent all of three games in the AHL before leaving. Two marriages fell apart because of his disease, his father died as an innocent bystander in a shootout at a St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) cafe. He spent most of his time without a job (which is when he likely sold the medals) although did have part-time security guards gigs. On November 18, 1999, he tried to commit suicide by cutting open his veins, but seeing the futility of that attempt, hanged himself in his apartment.
The second coming of Tretiak that could have been, never came. And now his medals have changed hands again, for EUR 4,700 (approximately $5,145 USD). Sic transit gloria mundi.
Source: Sport Express
