Grabovski supported Sharangovic as he aimed for the Belarusian record

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No one supports Egor Sharangovich more than Mikhail Grabovsky.

The retired NHL player held the record for most points in an NHL season by a Belarusian player since 2010-11, when he scored 58 points with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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In his first season with the Calgary Flames, Sharangovic has already achieved that mark and is confident of claiming his record with three games to go.

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And Grabovsky could not be happy about it.

“I'm happy for the whole country,” Grabowski said. “Of course I'm proud.

“He can score 50 goals and I wish him luck.”
The friendship between Grabovsky and Sharangovich started a few years ago.

They meet for dinner every time Sharangovic plays in Toronto, and Grabowski brought his son to Calgary earlier this season to watch the Flames play. Sharangovich took them around the dressing room and showed them both around the Dome.

If someone is going to break your record, you want them to be your friend, right?
And for Grabovsky, it is not surprising that Sharangovich is going to be named the best scorer of Belarus in one season.

They are not just friends. In 2020-21, Grabowski was an assistant coach for Dynamo Minsk, then the AHL affiliate of the New Jersey Devils, and Sharangovic returned home on loan for a few games.

“He wants to learn, he's smart, he understands what you want to do,” Grabowski said. “He's a reliable player, when you tell him you want to do something, he does it. He listens to you and compares you to the other players I coach, he absorbs the information and learns.

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“We'd have dinner and I'd tell her, 'Be strong, play your part, practice a lot and you'll be fine.' “He's a guy who always listens, he's a very good student.”

For Sharanovic, listening to a guy like Grabovski is no big deal.

No Belarusian has more points than Grabovski's 296 points in 534 NHL games. He is a big deal for hockey players in Belarus.

As Flames teammate Ilya Soloviev explained last week, the same can be said of Sharangovic these days.

“Everybody is watching him now,” Soloviev said. “I don't know how to say it in English, but young men look at her and want to be like Sharan right now. They want to be in the NHL and they want to score 30 goals. He is now a big man in Belarus.”

Sharangovic has also become a big event in Calgary. After the Flames acquired Tyler Toffoli in the trade that sent him to the New Jersey Devils last summer, the 25-year-old has quickly established himself as one of the team's most important players.

He became the first Belarusian player to score 30 goals in a season and tied Grabovski for the record with his next score.

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Yeah, that first season in Calgary was pretty cool.

Grabovsky is sure that there will be more to come.

“I always tell him when I watch games, you have to handle the puck more, you can get the puck and go to the net,” Grabowski said. “He played for us at Dynamo Minsk that year and that helped me work with him, I think it helped him develop and quicken his shot because he used to shoot from distance, which was a bad habit from then on. the game was slow and you had time.

“I always told him, 'You don't have time in the NHL, make your shot short, quick, put the puck close to the skate and shoot.'

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