Retire Sergei Fedorov’s Jersey Immediately

[LeftWinger 4,961]

As I can see even my memory is clouded a bit when it comes to who traded him and when. He was traded in early 05-06 season (under Randy Carlysle, there was no 04-05 season due to lockout and 05-06 was Babcocks first in Detroit.

[kickazz 5,459]

So we've concluded then that it wasn't Babs necessarily but a handful of people including Babs that didn't want him back here due to Fedorov one ice performance decline and life and things that were going on in his real life at the time.

Now what I feel is as though this whole retirement of jersey thing may pose the same problem. There may be folks in the management that are against it and perhaps Holland and some others are for it. What I wonder is what the Illitch stance on it is. Guess we will find out sooner rather than later?

Edited July 9, 2015 by kickazz

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

If the decision isn't an automatic astounding "Yes!", then it shouldn't happen, considering we're talking about the Wings here. The fact that he bailed for Anaheim will be the reason he won't have his number retired. He's now in the HOF, as he should be, and that's enough.

Keep in mind this guy was one of my favorites growing up and remains one of my favorites of all-time. He was skilled beyond belief and a generational talent, but loyalty counts when Detroit considers retiring someone's jersey.

[Euro_Twins 4,476]

Re-read that. Babcock was no longer with Anaheim when Fedorov was traded.

Ya. Don't know how I misread that. My apologies. I read it as Babcock was no longer with Anaheim when fedorov was there... Oops lol

[Guest Playmaker]

Sparky Anderson had to die before Mike Ilitch would let go of the grudge with him and retire his number. He won't retire Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker's numbers, for what reason, I can't even imagine. They had the numbers, the championship, the longevity, stellar off field personalities.

"We" can all talk about forgiving him and grudges, but we weren't the ones who had to try and scramble to come up with $28 million dollars to cover a check to Fedorov on a team still fresh off the a Stanley Cup win and the shock of the limo accident. Not to mention that it involved Pete Karamanos just to add salt to the wound. Just when Detroit was ready to forgive and forget, he bolted for Anaheim. It really isn't a secret that Mike Ilitch loves to reward players, but he also expects loyalty in return. So when you consider Fedorov basically spit on him, not once but twice, it's not that hard to see why Ilitch wouldn't be rushing to raise #91 to the rafters. His team, his rules.

I'm not really sure how it was "well known" that Fedorov had marital problems, because it wasn't even known he was married to Kournikova until years later. In fact, she still denies it ever happened. That whole situation was a total embarrassment. But it just reinforces the point that Fedorov couldn't keep his off ice problems there. It also makes it that much more amazing when you see how guys like Yzerman and Lidstrom handled things, kept their private lives private and always got contract negotiations done with relatively little drama.