CSKA Moscow takes a step the Detroit Red Wings haven't: Retiring the jersey of team legend Sergei Fedorov

Today, as part of a belated celebration of his 55th birthday (which he celebrated on the 13th of December), KHL club CSKA Moscow honored Sergei Fedorov by retiring his jersey—number 18 instead of the 91 sweater he made famous as a Detroit Red Wing.

The subject of Fedorov's 91 is a regular conversation piece among Red Wing and hockey fans alike.  That is, of course, because Detroit has not taken the same step as CSKA Moscow—better known as "the Central Red Army" or "Red Army Team" among North American hockey fans—in retiring Fedorov's digits.  The topic came up on last night's national TNT broadcast of the Red Wings' win over the Philadelphia Flyers:

Chris Chelios—a former Red Wing teammate of Fedorov's and current TNT panelist—said "it's hard to believe" Fedorov's 91 hasn't yet been retired.  Though that is of course true from the perspective of résumé (Fedorov won three Stanley Cups in Detroit, along with two Selke Trophies and a Hart Trophy, to say nothing of the cultural and sporting impact of the Russian Five's journey from Soviet defection to NHL stardom), but the reason 91 doesn't hang from the rafters is no mystery.

Though he remains the only player to sport the number 91 in franchise history, Fedorov's jersey is not retired because of the rift his decision to sign an offer sheet Detroit matched before ultimately leaving in free agency to join the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (as they were then known) in 2003.

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.

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