SI

Sergei Fedorov Made the Coolest Entrance As Red Wings Retired His No. 91 Jersey

That’s how you arrive in style.

Blake Silverman

The Red Wings retired Sergei Fedorov’s No. 91 Monday night
The Red Wings retired Sergei Fedorov’s No. 91 Monday night / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
In this story:

The Red Wings finally put Sergei Fedorov’s No. 91 into the rafters Monday night as Detroit took on the Hurricanes at Little Caesars Arena. Despite the wait, the franchise pulled out all the stops for its former star who defected from his native Russia to play for the Wings in 1990.

Fedorov came out onto the ice in style, sitting in the passenger seat of a burgundy C4 Corvette, the same car he picked shortly after his defection from Russia to Detroit as Mitch Album wrote in the Detroit Free Press back in ‘94. It only made sense that Fedorov would roll out to see his jersey retired in the same ride:

“I tried to buy a Corvette in Moscow,” he said Monday via Detroit’s 97.1 The Ticket. “That’s still my favorite car, but at the moment I have family to take care of so a two-seater isn’t going to cut it. Otherwise I’d have it—burgundy.”

It wasn’t just the car that made Fedorov’s big night so special. The current Red Wings wore the Russian star’s name and number on the back of their warmup sweaters, and the whole team had special skates with white trim to honor Fedorov’s white Nike skates from his playing days.

Fedorov helped end a 42-year title drought when he won his first Stanley Cup in ’97 as the star of the franchise’s iconic “Russian Five,” also made up of Igor Larionov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Slava Kozlov and Slava Fetisov. The Wings won the Cup the following year and once more in 2002 before Fedorov left to sign with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim after a contract dispute with Detroit, a moment he now wishes he could take back.

“Leaving Detroit was a huge mistake,” he said Monday via The Detroit News. “That is on me.”

Now, that’s all in the past as the Red Wings gave their former star one of the coolest jersey retirement ceremonies you’ll ever see.

More on Sports Illustrated

FREE NEWSLETTER. SI BTN Newsletter. Start off your day with SI:CYMI. dark

feed

Published
Blake Silverman
BLAKE SILVERMAN

Blake Silverman is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in November 2024, he covered the WNBA, NBA, G League and college basketball for numerous sites, including Winsidr, SB Nation's Detroit Bad Boys and A10Talk. He graduated from Michigan State University before receiving a master's in sports journalism from St. Bonaventure University. Outside of work, he's probably binging the latest Netflix documentary, at a yoga studio or enjoying everything Detroit sports. A lifelong Michigander, he lives in suburban Detroit with his wife, young son and their personal petting zoo of two cats and a dog.

Home/NHL