As Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin climbs the list of all-time NHL goal scorers, his accomplishment has prompted reflections on Russians who have starred in the best hockey league in the world.
Specifically, the question for this Detroit Red Wings mailbag centers on Ovechkin and former Wings forward Sergei Fedorov. Reader Aster W. wrote to ask, “Who do you think is the best Russian ever to play in the NHL – Ovechkin or Fedorov? What Ovi is doing is pretty amazing.”
I knew my answer before I finished reading the question.
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Ovechkin just passed former Wings forward Brett Hull to move into fourth place with 742 goals, trailing Jaromir Jagr (766), Wings legend Gordie Howe (801) and Wayne Gretzky (894). Ovechkin’s history shows what a remarkably consistent player he has been to get to this point in his career.
Ovechkin recorded 65 goals in 2007-08, his third year in the league, and has seven other 50-goal seasons on his resume. He was at 48 goals when the NHL shut down because of the pandemic on March 12, 2020 (the Wings were in Washington to play the Capitals the day the season was paused), so there undoubtedly would have been another 50-goal watermark.
The Capitals drafted Ovechkin (6 feet 3, 238 pounds) with the No. 1 pick in 2004. (They also added defenseman Mike Green, using the No. 29 pick they acquired from the Wings in the Feb. 27, 2004 trade package that sent Robert Lang to Detroit. The Wings would go on to sign Green as a free agent in 2015.)
Ovechkin has shown no signs he’s slowing down at age 36, with 24 points after 14 games. He has 1,344 career points in 1,211 games, and a contract that runs through 2025-26. He’s already a 12-time All-Star, nine-time Maurice Richard Trophy winner, three-time Hart Trophy winner, and he was named the Conn Smythe winner in 2018 after leading the Capitals to the Cup, the only one of his career. (That was also the first time the Caps made it past the second round since 1998, when they lost in the Stanley Cup Final to the Wings.) Ovechkin is certain to make the Hockey Hall of Fame as soon as he’s eligible.
But given a choice between drafting the two, I’d take Fedorov. He was an incredible player at both ends of the ice, a superstar forward who impressed equally when asked by Scotty Bowman to play as a defenseman — so much so there was chatter within the organization that Fedorov would have been in the mix for a Norris Trophy had the experiment become permanent.
In 1993-94, with Steve Yzerman injured for a chunk of the first half, Fedorov’s expanded role led to a career year. He paced the Wings with 56 goals and 64 assists, and his 120 points were second in the NHL only to Gretzky’s 130. Fedorov was awarded the Hart Trophy (NHL’s most valuable player) and the Selke Trophy (best defensive forward), along with the Lester B. Pearson (most outstanding player as voted by NHL players).
No other player in NHL history has won the Hart and Selke in the same year.
Fedorov’s skating was on another level. His explosiveness came from the training he went through as a youngster, when he’d lie on the ice, jump up, race to the blue line, kneel, jump up and race to the other blue line then repeat the drill. His leg strength was legendary.
Fedorov once scored five goals in one game, capping a historic performance in overtime, 5-4 against the Capitals on Dec. 26, 1996. (The news was somewhat overshadowed in Detroit because that was also the day the Detroit Lions fired Wayne Fontes).
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Fedorov (6-2, 207) was the first Russian to surpass 1,000 games and was a first-ballot inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2015. A six-time All-Star, he won three Stanley Cups, all with Detroit.
The franchise organized his defection from the Red Army, and it’s a shame he left. Fedorov’s career was never the same after he ditched the Wings in 2003 and went to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, where he lasted less than two seasons before being traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets. He eventually landed with the Capitals, finishing his NHL career in 2009 with 1,179 points in 1,248 games.
Had Fedorov stayed and played until 2012, the same year fellow 1989 draft-classmate Nicklas Lidstrom retired, the Wings probably would have won a couple more Stanley Cups. After Yzerman retired in 2006, and the 2002 hockey gods team disbanded, the Wings had budding stars in forwards Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk and defenseman Niklas Kronwall.
To me, there has not been a better Russian in the NHL than No. 91.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.
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