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A Flame from the Past: Perry Berezan
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Ryley Delaney
May 30, 2025, 12:00 EDTUpdated: May 28, 2025, 21:06 EDT
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Do you remember Perry Berezan?
Every week, we’ll look at a forgotten Calgary Flames player in the weekly series “A Flame From the Past.” Of course, the player had to have played a significant number of games for the Flames – at least a full season. Each week, I’ll put every Flames season (since moving to Calgary) in the Wheel of Names. This week, it landed on the 1987-88 season, with the player we’ll look at in today’s article being Perry Berezan.
Berezan started his junior career in the Alberta Junior Hockey League in 1980-81 with the St. Albert Saints, scoring two goals and five points in nine games during the 1980-81 season. The following season, he became a regular with the Saints where he scored 16 goals and 52 points in 47 games. In his final AJHL season, the right-shot centre scored 37 goals and 77 points.
With the 55th overall pick in the 1983 draft, the Flames selected the Edmonton, Alberta-native. But first, Berezan played two seasons for the University of North Dakota. In 1983-84, he scored 28 goals and 52 points in 44 games. Berezan’s sophomore season saw him score 23 goals and 58 points in 42 games.
That same season, Berezan immediately made the jump to the National Hockey League, scoring three goals and five points in nine games. Berezan also made his post-season debut, scoring a goal in two games.
The right-shot centre became a regular in 1985-86, scoring 12 goals and 33 points in 55 games, his best season of his NHL career. His most memorable goal also came in the 1986 post-season, as he was credited with the goal when Edmonton Oilers defenceman banked the puck in off his own netminder. Oilers are going to Oiler.
Berezan played just 24 games with the Flames in 1986-87, scoring five goals and eight points in 24 games, along with two post-season games with two assists. His highest point-per-game total of his career came in 1987-88, scoring seven goals and 19 points in just 29 games, but injuries once again plagued his season. That post-season, Berezan picked up two more assists in eight games.
Starting the 1988-89 season with the Flames, he scored four goals and eight points in 35 games, but was traded to the Minnesota North Stars for Brian MacLellan. Berezan finished the year with a goal and five points in 16 games, along with a goal and three points in five post-season games.
In his first full season with the North Stars, Berezan scored three goals and 64 points in 64 games, with a goal in five post-season games. Over the course of his career, Berezan only played nine games in the minors, with two of them coming in 1990-91 with the Kalamazoo Wings. However, he played 52 games with the North Stars that year, scoring 11 goals and 17 points.
Berezan was an original San Jose Shark when they entered the league in 1991-92, matching his career-high goal total with 12 goals and managing to tie his second-highest point total with 19 points. All good things must come to an end, and Berezan’s final season was in 1992-93, scoring three goals and seven points in 28 games, along with nine goals and eight points in nine games with the International Hockey League’s Kansas City Blades.
Shortly after retiring, Berezan finished his degree at the University of North Dakota and settled in Calgary. Berezan is active in the community, helping several charities in the region. Injuries plagued his NHL career, but Berezan has done tremendous work in his life after hockey.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for FlamesNation, Oilersnation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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