Sergei Fedorov

Lore & Background

Fedorov was one of the first hockey players to defect from his native Soviet Union in order to play in the National Hockey League (NHL). While playing with Detroit, he won the Stanley Cup three times, as well as the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player in 1994. After leaving the Red Wings in the summer of 2003, Fedorov played stints with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Washington Capitals before retiring from the NHL in 2009.

He played in over 1,200 NHL games and scored 483 goals in the NHL. He is a three-time Olympian, the first European-trained player to win the Hart Trophy and is considered to be one of the best playoff performers in NHL history. In 2017, Fedorov was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history. Fedorov was considered one of the best players in the world from the 1990s to the early 2000s.

He last played for Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL, where he was made captain in early September 2011. He was also an ambassador for Russia at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Fedorov was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November 9, 2015, and to the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 2016. On August 19, 2025, the Red Wings announced that they would retire Fedorov's no. 91 jersey on January 12, 2026. Fedorov is the 9th Red Wing to have their jersey retired by the team.

Reader's Guide

When he was just 16, Fedorov was already playing for CSKA Moscow in the Soviet Union with future Hockey Hall-of-Famers Pavel Bure and Alexander Mogilny, among others. In 1989, Mogilny became the first Soviet superstar to defect in order to play in the NHL. Less than two months later, Fedorov was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in the fourth round, 74th overall, of the 1989 NHL entry draft. Red Wings general manager Jim Devellano had consulted team captain and future Hall-of-Famer Steve Yzerman about Fedorov, knowing that the two had played against each other in the World Championships.

Yzerman told Devellano, "He's better than me." Detroit sportswriter Keith Gave was asked by Wings executive vice-president Jim Lites to pass a secret message to Fedorov at an exhibition game in Helsinki where the Soviet national team was scheduled to play a Finnish club. Gave agreed to the mission, and in August 1989, managed to meet with Fedorov and teammate Vladimir Konstantinov, whom the Wings had also drafted, and slip them each a Red Wings media guide with a letter hidden inside.

The letters made it clear that the Red Wings wanted both of them in Detroit and were willing to help them get there. By July 1990, Fedorov had decided to defect. The Soviet national team came to North America to play in the 1990 Goodwill Games, and had scheduled an exhibition match in Portland's Memorial Coliseum on July 22, 1990. Jim Lites came to Portland, picked up Fedorov outside his hotel after the game, and brought him to Detroit in Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch's private jet.

Fedorov was described as "three great players in one". In his career, he "once held claim to the title of top player on the planet". Former Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman said Fedorov was the "best skater I've ever seen". During the 1993–94 season, Fedorov's outstanding play earned him the "oldest and most prestigious individual award in hockey", the Hart Memorial Trophy (awarded to the NHL's most valuable player), the Frank J. Selke Trophy (top defensive forward) and the Lester B. Pearson Award (awarded to the most outstanding player as selected by NHL players). He finished second in scoring behind the Los Angeles Kings' Wayne Gretzky with 56 goals and 120 points.