Sergei Fedorov turned 55 on December 13th. I know that because Fedorov was born on the same day and same year that my parents were married.
As the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton noted on Twitter, Fedorov’s former team, CSKA Moscow, retired the #18 that Fedorov wore during his time in Russia (via HockeyNewsHub):
Sergei Fedorov is at CSKA Arena where they are raising his number to the rafters.
— Hockey News Hub (@HockeyNewsHub) December 19, 2024
They are celebrating his birthday today (was Dec 13 KHL was on break)
🎥 CSKA pic.twitter.com/vh0zqSy72x
But we all know that #91 is not retired in Detroit, which Chris Chelios remarked upon during last night’s TNT broadcast of the Wings’ 6-4 win over Philadelphia:
Chris Chelios is surprised Sergei Fedorov's #91 isn't already hanging from the rafters in Detroit 👀 pic.twitter.com/ZLKd44LkhG
— NHLonTNT (@NHL_On_TNT) December 18, 2024
Stockton posted an article about the situation, and the situation is…complicated:
In a 2018 article for The Athletic, Craig Custance cut to the heart of the issue in an interview with Jim Devellano (who served as general manager then senior vice president of the Red Wings during the Fedorov years and who remains in the latter role to this day). “There are other things that I’m not going to get into,” Devellano told Custance. “Do you realize that he wanted out of the Red Wings (organization) on two occasions? Are you familiar with that? Did you know he turned the owners down on a 5-year, $50 million contract? Did you know he signed an offer sheet with the Carolina Hurricanes and we had to match with a $24 million signing bonus?”
Later in the story, Custance quoted an email from longtime Detroit Free Press reporter Keith Gave, who literally wrote the book on the Russian Five, discussing the feelings of owners Marian and Mike Ilitch toward Fedorov: “She and her late husband, Mike, valued loyalty above all things regarding their players and employees. Not once, but twice, Sergei Fedorov betrayed them. First in 1998 after the Olympics in Nagano, Japan, holding out and ultimately signing a $38 million, heavily front-loaded deal with Carolina that forced the Ilitches to scramble with their bankers in order to match it. They weren’t happy.”
It’s clear that even more than 20 years on from Fedorov’s departure from Detroit, the emotion created by that process remain acute for a number of key figures within the Red Wing organization. Until that changes, there will be no formal jersey retirement, even if 91 is already out of circulation.
The hot rumor in the Russian press in the summer of 2003 was that Fedorov left the Red Wings for the Anaheim Ducks because he felt that Mike Ilitch and Ken Holland pulled that 5-year, $50 million contract off the table, and Ilitch and Holland (and Devellano) felt that Fedorov agreed to the contract, and then bolted under the advice of his agent, Pat Brisson.
It was a real cluster-you-know-what, with accusations flying in both directions, with Sergei Fedorov’s late father, Viktor, speaking for his son to the legendary Igor Larin of Sport-Express…
So there are some issues unresolved between the Red Wings’ organization and Fedorov. I do not know whether they will relent and let #91 be raised to the rafters while Jimmy D and Mrs. I are around.
He should have remained a Red Wing and the deserting them when the team really needed him – very selfish and not easily forgotten!