This coming May is the 40th anniversary of the Atlanta Flames moving to Calgary. To commemorate this occasion, we’re counting down the Top 40 Calgary Flames in history.
Coming in at #25 is Sergei Makarov.
Makarov was already going to be a Hockey Hall of Famer before he even pulled on a Flames jersey in 1989. He had already won five World Championships as the M in the famed KLM line for the Soviet Union when the Flames took a flyer on him in the late, late rounds of the 1983 Draft.
He came over in 1989 at the spry age of 31 – with two Olympic golds and another two World Championships in his pocket – and stepped right into the Flames lineup.