DETROIT \u2013 Sergei Fedorov had no idea why Detroit Red Wings governor and CEO Chris Ilitch called him out of the blue in mid-August.<\/p>\n
A few minutes into their conversation, Fedorov learned his No. 91 jersey was being retired and raised to the rafters at Little Caesars Arena<\/a> in an honor many felt was long overdue.<\/p>\n \u201cWe talked about 3-4 minutes about family stuff, and I had no idea what he\u2019s going to end up (saying),\u201d Fedorov said. \u201cEventually he broke the news and (I) stopped breathing and it was, again I\u2019m going to use this word, overwhelming. Memories, feelings, everything that happened just click. I tried to gather my thoughts together and thank him for the tremendous honor and a little bit in disbelief that that kind of thing happened to the Russian kid who came to North America when he was 20. <\/p>\n \u201cStill not easy to grasp and put it into words what January 12th will be. Nervous already.\u201d<\/p>\n The ceremony takes place before the Red Wings game against Carolina. Fedorov\u2019s number will be the ninth the 100-year-old franchise has officially retired \u2013 joining Terry Sawchuk (1), Red Kelly (4), Nicklas Lidstrom (5), Ted Lindsay (7), Gordie Howe (9), Alex Delvecchio (10), Sid Abel (12) and Steve Yzerman (19).<\/p>\n Fedorov, one the greatest two-way players in franchise history for 13 seasons from 1990-91 to 2002-03, helped the team win three Stanley Cups. He won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP in 1994 and is a two-time winner of the Selke Trophy as the league\u2019s top defensive forward. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2015.<\/p>\n Fedorov is among dozens of former Red Wings in town this week for the Hockeytown Centennial Fanfest.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cTremendous honor,\u201d Fedorov said of having his number retired. \u201cThoughts are very simple. I got lucky to play with the greatest players in the game, coaches, staff, and I cannot thank enough ownership that gave me a chance, sent a plane to Portland, Oregon (at the 1990 Goodwill Games) to get me. So, Mr. Ilitch\u2019s family did a great job and I\u2019m glad we won. Finally, we won.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s been back to Detroit multiple times since retiring as a player in Russia in 2012, but this trip was different.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s tough, to be honest with you,\u201d Fedorov said. \u201cAs soon as I landed, a lot of memories came, and it\u2019s still overwhelming. So, trying to control myself, but great to see you guys and follow Red Wings from Moscow from time to time.\u201d<\/p>\n Lidstrom, seated next to Fedorov while speaking with media prior to Friday\u2019s game against the New York Rangers, called it a well-deserved honor.<\/p>\n \u201cSergei had a tremendous career,\u201d Lidstrom said. \u201cSergei was already a start when I joined the team. A couple of years later he was a superstar in the NHL. Hart Trophy winner, Stanley Cup winner. Selke, you\u2019ve won everything. So, it\u2019s well-deserved to see his jersey up in the rafters, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Fedorov had a successful career as a coach and general manager in the Kontinental Hockey League but doesn\u2019t see himself returning to the NHL in any capacity.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m totally family man,\u201d he said. \u201cI do help Russian team I work for, representing ownership team. Had a great relationship with coaches and guys when I\u2019m there, but it\u2019s not an everyday job. I want to stay with the family (in Moscow) and grow together with my (two) kids and be around.\u201d<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2013 Sergei Fedorov had no idea why Detroit Red Wings governor and CEO Chris Ilitch called him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-279241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}