OT: Wings to retire Fedorov's #91?
Holland says discussion will begin regarding Fedorov's jersey being retired..sounds like it might happen.
— Ted Kulfan (@tkulfan) July 2, 2015'
RW Career Points
1. Gordie Howe 1809
2. Steve Yzerman 1755
3. Alex Delvecchio 1281
4. Nicklas Lidstrom 1142
5. Sergei Fedorov 954
RW Playoff Points
1. Steve Yzerman 185
2. Nick Lidstrom 183
3. Sergei Fedorov 163
There's no doubt about it, he deserves it. Has the numbers and is a first ballot HOF.
"...There's no doubt about it, he deserves it." I disagree--there is doubt, at least in my mind.
I won't say "absolutely not," but isn't there more to having your number retired than putting up numbers? I would retire Fetisov's jersey before I would retire Fedorov's.
Sure, there's more to it. Fedorov was one of the two dominant forwards on the team when the Wings won 3 Stanley Cups. I think that's enough to warrant #91 in the rafters.
The Wings would not have won any Cups without Fedorov. You can't say the same about Fetisov.
have still won it in 2007 but the dude was legit. I was so sad when he bolted for Anaheim. My little sister burned her Fedorov jersey IIRC.
Dude scored 5 goals in a 5-4 win over the Caps in 1996. Should have won the MVP over Vernon in the 1997 Stanley Cup Final.
(the Red Wings modern era championships are 97, 98, 02, 08) please try again.
I don't think he was saying the Cup in 96 rather it was just a game where he scored 5 that season.
But couldn't you make the same argument for putting Syd Howe's #8 in the rafters? He was a dominant forward on Detroit's 1936, 1937 and 1943 Stanley Cup teams.
Not to mention Marcel Pronovost & Red Kelly for making the 1950s possible. It wasn't all about the Production Line & Sawchuk.
You could also make the case for Ebbie Goodfellow and Herbie Lewis (both hall of famers), but it's been so long that hardly anyone remembers them. Hopefully they have a team hall of fame at the new arena so they can honor legends from the early years.
There needs to be a way to honor former greats short of having a number retired. Anybody with their name on 3 or more Cups as a Red Wing, and anybody who is in the hockey Hall of Fame who is known primarily as a Red Wing should be honored somehow in the new arena.
Number retirement needs to be a very rare event, not just for every hall-of-famer who plays in Detroit.
How about Legends patches??
Awesome! And then everybody could argue about whether or not Jakub Kindl deserves to wear Ebbie Goodfellow's #4 legends jersey.
this is more or less what the Maple Leafs have always done
I don't think I'd use the Maple Leafs as an example for proper franchise management.
For a long time Harold Ballard owned that team. He tried to take the old Stanley Cup championship banners and stuff them into an incinerator at Maple Leaf Gardens. He also had Danny Gallivan's gondola where he broadcasted torn down. Why? Because he could.
Getting lessons about NHL tradition from the Maple Leafs is like asking Stevie Wonder about a good place to take driving lessons.
you do realize that the reason the Leafs use the system they do is because they have too many players to retire numbers for, right? Sure, most of them pre-date the expansion era but shitting on the Leafs from a tradition standpoint is a losing argument
No doubt. Fedorov was one of the greatest 2 way players in hockey. He won the Heart trophy in 1994 and the Selke in 1994 and 1996. He scored 20 points in 20 games in the 1997 playoffs. He was one of the most dominant players during his career. Gretzky and Lemieux were great players but they didn't play both ends of the ice like Fedorov did.
If that's your basis, the Lions shouldn't have retired Barry's number. The Wings don't win three of those Cups without Federov, who was arguably the best player in the game for a 5+ year stretch. While Yzerman was threatened with trades to Ottawa until he became a better two-way player, Federov was playing defense when needed, and doing it at a high level.
And Fetisov? Solid, not spectacular. They can retire his number in Moscow or New Jersey where he may have earned it.
if not the greatest running back of all time. he almost always ran behind a crap O-line, had mediocre QB's at best, and still would've easily set the all-time game, season, and career rushing records if he had his eyes on any of those prizes.
love sergei, great HOF player, but would not retire his jersey. he wasn't here long enough, left on less-than-perfect terms.
That was less than perfect also. As a fan, I was pissed. But once I realized how awful the front office was, my anger was focused on the front office. And I went from being angry at Sergei for leaving, to understanding that he had one last big contract to get in his life and Anaheim was willing to give it to him.
Plus, Sergei was here 12-13 years and dominated most of those years. If that's not long enough to get your number retired, I don't know what is.
he was here for 13 years. in what universe is that not long enough? he was arguably the best player of the 1990's, period. Your argument doesn't make sense. Sid Abel and Ted Lindsay left the Wings on bad terms, too.
Only Howe, Yzerman, Delvecchio, Lidstrom, Holmstrom and Draper have played more games as a Red Wing.
Assuming I can math, that means Lindsay, Abel and Sawchuck have their numbers up despite not being a Wing as long as Fedorov.
He was one of the best players in the league in his prime and without Sergei we don't win those three Cups. The only doubt would be from people who are still bitter about the way he left.
BTW-Wings actually tried to trade for him when he was in Columbus, but the Jackets wanted Filppula and 1st round pick.
He was a great player and the Wings wouldn't have won their Cups in the '90s without him. No doubt about it. I don't get bitter about free agency either--you have to do what you have to do.
I just like number retirement to be rare: no more than 1 player a decade or so, and that's stretching it. It needs to be for people with a clear place in hockey history. Yzerman & Lidstrom are no-brainers. What about Datsyuk? I think he might deserve it at least as much as Fedorov, right?
It depends on how he finishes his career, but I think he will. Pavel is sixth on the all time scoring list with 869, Sergei had 954. One thing about Fedorov, he was an incredible playoff performer for the Wings. He ended up with 163 points in 162 playoff games.
Yzerman was gushing w/ praise of Federov's play after the Cup was won that year.
Forsberg may have been a better finisher than Federov, but Federov outskated him brilliantly which led to little time for Forsberg to do the damage he did to us in other years.
He only scored one of the seven goals in that Game 7. That was an awesome game that I was unfortunately unable to watch.
Fedorov was the best all-around player the Wings have had since Gordie based on physical skills alone. I know, Stevie Y fanboiz just had an aneurysm, but Fedorov could skate like the wind, had a slap shot timed at over 100 mph, was an offensive force just as the neutral zone trap choked the life out of the game, and was so indispensable as a two-way forward that the left wing lock was practically created for him.
Then there's that whole "Dude, can you play defense for a few shifts? We're trying to win a Cup but we're pretty thin at the position" thing. Bowman swore that Fedorov would've made it to the HOF at D if he spent his career at the position.
Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times, yes, retire 91. It belonged to the best overall player Russia ever lost to the NHL (remember, dude had to defect back in the day) and even at the end of his career in the NHL he was still showing guys like Ovechkin and Semin how the game is correctly played.
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He is a hall-of-famer who won three Cups, he aboslutely deserves to have his number retired.
I don't why people have such a hard time giving him the credit he deserves, but he is one of the greatest two-ways forwards to ever play the game.
But I'm happy to see both sides coming together on this. While they're at it, they should retire Konstantinov's jersey.
It's not retired, it's out of circulation. If it was up to me I'd put a white 16 banner up, but I can see where people are coming from with just about any other plan; it's a unique situation with a lot of emotions on all sides.
I always felt the best way to handle 16 would've been to keep it out of circulation until his last teammate retired. Other than that I'm not sure there's a not-awkward way to put it back in circulation, and permanent retirement doesn't seem quite right either.
He was fantastic---Wings are remiss if they don't have a representative of one of the greatest lines in NHL history
Phenominal player, HOF'er, MVP, and helped us win a few cups.....
Spurned the Wings' in 2002 to head to Anaheim. Got a lot of flack for that, well deserved too.
The positives far outweigh the negatvies, so I think his jersey belongs in the rafters.
"Fedorov shot, he SCORES. That's why you pay him a billion dollars!"
And still put up 10-10--20 in the playoffs.
Does Zetterburg and Datsyuk get theirs hung up ? I think they do some people tell me no
Not without some ridiculous run that involves Datsyuk not retiring to Russia after 2017. Love those guys, but Fedorov is the only recent player with an argument, IMO.