Eliezer Sherbatov
His family was permitted entry into Canada by immigration officials because his father said he wanted one of his sons to skate like Guy Lafleur.The immigration service granted Canadian visas to his family only after his father stated that he wanted his son to skate like number 10, Guy Lafleur.At 14 years of age he had a rollerblading accident, seriously injured his left leg and knee, bones and nerves, developed drop foot, and had three surgeries.He spent the 2008–09 season with Laval-Bourassa Rousseau Sports of the Quebec Midget AAA Hockey League, leading the team in scoring.He briefly returned to Kazakhstan in the 2018-19 season, as he moved to Arlan Kokshetau, but never actually played a game for the team before leaving a month later.[3][28] The team plays just a short walk from the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp, where one million Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.Upon the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sherbatov found himself trapped in a city north of Mariupol before being aided by Israeli diplomats and members of the hockey community.He had earlier appealed to the Canadian Global Affairs Agency consular service for Ukraine for help leaving the country, but received a form letter in reply.[30] On August 8, 2022, the Jonquière Marquis of the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey, a professional league in Quebec, announced that Sherbatov would line up with the team for the 2022-23 season.[10][14] He scored 9 points (4 goals + 5 assists) in 5 games, as the team won a bronze medal, Israel's first in hockey in a championship tournament.[5] In the 2006 IIHF World U18 Championship, in Romania, Sherbatov scored 14 points (6 goals + 8 assists), which helped the team to rise to the second division by winning the silver medal.Sherbatov started playing with the senior national team at the 2010 IIHF World Championship Division II in Estonia at age 19.[14][33] Sherbatov became an internet sensation after scoring a highlight goal against Greece at the 2011 IIHF World Championship Division III, in Cape Town, South Africa, when he was 19 years old.[13] Sherbatov stepped on the ice for the national team for the 2014 World Championship Division II, in Serbia, where he put up 9 points (3 goals + 6 assists) in 5 games.