Leafs was the first one to muffle the bugles until he had definitely become a Toronto regular.

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He finds it hard to realize he has hit the top of hockey, an ambition he has had since he first put on bob skates and slipped and stumbled across the ice at Flin Flon, Man.

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“I wanted to stay with the Leafs but I sure wondered whether I was good enough," he said.

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The big boy, who has yet to fill out his large frame, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Nesterenko who came to Canada 25 years ago from the Ukraine.  His father was with the Hudson's Bay Mining and Smelting Co. in Flin Flon when Eric was born.  Two years later a sister, Natalie, came along-to complete the family now living in Toronto.

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Eric learned to skate under his father's tutelage but didn't put a team sweater on until he walked in on Fred Jackson and asked for a tryout with Leaside Lions minor-bantams, which Jackson coached.

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“Eric was 108 pounds when I had him first," Jackson said. “It wasn't long after he co-ordinated his stick handling with his skating that he began to show promise.  After that there wasn‘t much left for me to do.  He just kept on developing into a hockey player.”

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Jackson claims Nesterenko is the closest thing to a new Conacher to come down the pike in years because he "digs" like the former Leaf star did in his heyday.  "He can skate, shoot, stickhandle and shift either way but above all he's a digger.  You never saw a great player reluctant to go into the corners for the puck.  Nobody ever has to go in and get it for Eric and that's the way Conacher played it."

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Staff Smythe, son of Conn Smythe, president of Maple Leaf Gardens, figures the rookie heralds a new "golden era of hockey," similar to that in the days of Bill Cook, Nels Stewart and Howie Morenz.

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“Nesterenko belongs to a different breed than even young players like George Armstrong," Smythe said. “These players always had some weakness to overcome when they made the jump into the NHL.  Players like Nesterenko and Beliveau do everything well, lacking only experience in the National League."

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It was Smythe who decided Nesterenko should climb up to the Leafs, at that time under strength due to injuries to players like Bentley, Armstrong, Kennedy and Rudy Migay.  The switch was made even though 5mythe's own Junior “A” club lost its star right winger in the deal.

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Once out of junior hockey, where his linemates called him the Hungry Hungarian, Nesterenko left North Toronto collegiate where he had only two French papers to take before getting his senior matriculation, and turned all his thoughts to making the big team.  Meantime he studies that tricky French at home and intends to get a tutor once the hockey season is over.

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We met Nesterenko first in the Maple Leafs’ dressing-room at the Gardens a few minutes after he had potted a goal behind Harry Lumley and was excused first from the practice session by Coach Joe Primeau.  There and later in his home we were convinced the boy is the most refreshing breath hockey has had in a decade.  He dies a million deaths when his father talks of his determination to be a big league hockey player and tries to shush his sister when she looks straight at him and declares “He’s wonderful.”

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Of course he is happy about having a Leaf contract, but he isn't quite sure yet that he has actually signed a contract, if such a distinction can be made.

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This reticent attitude, brought on by the fact that he still faced the prospect of Pittsburgh service until he made the grade and also by an underlying lack of conceit of his own ability, was no sham.  Nesterenko is honestly reluctant to talk about himself and leaves that to his father, mother and sister, although he’d rather they didn't say anything.  There is little chance all the publicity he has received will swell his head or possibly hurt his hockey career.  With some it might—there are cases where too much ballyhoo has ruined promising players—but the big guy with the brush cut isn't built that way.