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Sergei Fedorov/AP
I doubt that there is a Washington Capitals fan out there who feels that having Sergei Fedorov around for a year and a half did not make them excited. Fedorov, a three-time Stanley Cup champion, brought a lot of experience to offer a very young team when he joined the Capitals at the trade deadline in 2008.
Capitals' General Manager George McPhee told me recently: "I think it was certainly nice to have Sergei here for a year and a half. He has helped these kids a lot."
Fedorov's former line mate Alexander Semin also confessed that "It was so easy and comfortable playing with Feds. I knew exactly how he played the game, I knew exactly where to go so he would pass." Semin also noted how Fedorov's presence affected his game saying: "I started to get a lot more points and started taking less penalties."
Now playing with Metallurg Magnitogorsk in Russia, Fedorov scored his first goal in his native country in almost 20 years. Sovetsky Sport's Pavel Lysenkov recently spoke with Fedorov about his days in the NHL and the Capitals. Here is an excerpt:
Sergei, congratulations on your first goal in the KHL! Do you know that it has been 7,143 days since you scored a goal in your home country?
“I didn’t know. But the number is amazing! It’s been almost 20 years…”
And how many days did it take you to decide whether to sign a contract in Magnitogorsk?
“It was a very quick process. KHL season started a month earlier. It was time to start training. And I needed certainty. We made the decision thanks to good relationships between Metallurg management and my father. And my younger brother Fedor played here before leaving a good impression.
I felt that Washington did not have long term plans for me. It was confirmed when the second half of the NHL season started. I realized that I would play in the playoffs and, would probably leave the team. I think Washington wanted to keep me. But in professional hockey there is also a financial side. And each player sees it in one way and each teem sees it different.”
The way you were viewed didn’t change even after the series winning goal against the New York Rangers?
“Everyone was happy to make the second round. But certain issues came up that had to do with the salary cap. If I am not mistaken, some players from the farm club had their two way contracts automatically turn into one way contracts. And this was an extra burden on the Capitals’ payroll.”
What would you tell the critics who state that only pensioners come to KHL, who want to finish their careers getting paid a lot of money? Yes, they are stars, but they are not needed in the NHL anymore.
“Maybe there is some truth to that. But I know a lot of players who are 10 years younger who left the NHL before I did. That’s because the salary cap was introduced, and it was to clubs; advantage not to sign experienced players, but to pick young cheap players who could perform the same tasks in third and fourth lines as the veterans did.
I stayed in the NHL for long. I don’t know if I fell [victim] to the same concept of the salary cap. Play-wise, Washington was fully satisfied with me. I was given a chance to play both in defense and as a forward.
And when I am criticized for my age… What can you say? Put anyone on skates. And I will race 30-60 meters with him. And then we will see who is a pensioner.” [Fedorov sais with a smile]
Was it imperative for you to play in defense?
“Not really. But when the team needed me that way. If they did, so be it. That means that the coach decided so who saw me as a half-back. What was more important is that I got a lot of ice time, felt the rhythm. It was very interesting to play for Washington overall.”
And your statistics didn’t keep you in the NHL? 17 more goals, and you would have reached a classic 500 goals mark.
“Maybe it was worth scoring those 17 goals. But, actually, what would they decide in my career? Life doesn’t stop here.
I didn’t want to go to another NHL club if I were to leave Washington… And then a chance to play in the KHL came up. I thank Metallurg management… for bringing me back to Russia. I will tell you honestly that I didn’t think about the statistics in the NHL at all during those days.”
Do you still follow the NHL?
“The regular season has not started yet. But I probably will.”
What would you say the possibility is for a new NHL lockout in 2011?
“From a professional point of view, I think there will be no lockout. They will just sign a new CBA. The league and players don’t have big disagreements. Although who knows what will happen in hockey… It is big business.”
And NHL players are being ripped off. Tell me if I am wrong, but virtually a player is paid $5 million, but he would take home $1,5 million.
“Financiers can explain everything in detail. But in a few words: there is a federal tax, and there is a NHL tax, which is rising year after year lately. There is a percentage that is being deducted from a player’s earnings – the so-called escrow. It is added to a common pool and is kept there during the season. Then the NHL, and not the players (!) decide how it did financially during the year. If the league did bad and didn’t make money, then players won’t get practically anything from that pool. But if there is profit, then players will get some percentage back. But I will tell you that this escrow is seriously damaging players’ finance.”
Is this one of the reasons to leave America for Russia?
“It’s not the main reason. The NHL is still the best league in the world. You need to be in great form to play there. But escrow is one of the factors that cannot be ignored nowadays.”
Time will tell how the Capitals will readjust to not having Fedorov around. But, as Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins noted this summer, not having Sergei may affect the Caps: "The Capitals are taking a course on getting younger. I don't know who the Capitals signed. But Fedorov and [Viktor] Kozlov are serious losses."
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