Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Sergei Varlamov elected to come to Canada to play his Junior hockey, and the Swift Current Broncos are quite pleased that he did. After his first season in the WHL, Varlamov signed a free agent contract with the Calgary Flames. By his second year with the Broncos he was a 46 goal scorer, and his third season he was flat-out dominant firing home a league leading 66 goals while also leading the league in points with 119. Varlamov was named the CHL player of the year.
He appeared in one game with the Flames that year as well, but he did not score a point. He then capped off his busy season by joining Calgary's farm club in St. John for the AHL playoffs.
The 1998-99 season was spent entirely in the minors, but Varlamov was back up in Calgary for a short stint the following year. Varlamov played 7 games with Calgary and scored 3 goals. In 2000-01, Varlamov again found himself relegated to the minors for the year. He scored 51 points in 55 games for St. John then cranked it up in the playoffs, cranking home 15 goals and 23 points in 19 games as the Flames captured their first Calder Cup title.
In the summer Varlamov was packaged up with another St. John prospect Daniel Tkachuck and traded to the St. Louis Blues with goaltender Fred Brathwaite in exchange for Roman Turek.
With the Blues, Varlamov was given a chance to play regularly at the NHL level. However, the forward depth of St. Louis meant that Varlamov would play primarily on the fourth line and saw some time with the team's AHL affiliate in Worcester. The former Swift Current Bronco went on to play parts of three seasons with the St. Louis organization before being acquired by the Vancouver Canucks at the 2004 trade deadline.
On the international stage Varlamov represented his homeland at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and is a three-time member of the Ukraine's World Championship team (2000, 2004, 2005).
