Russian Five

Soviet Union hockey jersey

During the Cold War, the best hockey players in the Soviet Union were not allowed to leave to play in the National Hockey League, despite their talents being on par with North American and Western European players. Before 1989, Victor Nechayev, who played three games for the Los Angeles Kings, was the only player from the USSR to play in the NHL. Sergei Pryakhin was given permission to play in the NHL in 1989 and played in 46 games through 1991.[1] Neither player was considered a star in their native Russia.[2]

In the fifth round of the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, the Buffalo Sabres selected Alexander Mogilny with the 89th overall pick. Mogilny had been called "the best 19-year-old player in the world" at the time. In May 1989, Mogilny became the first Russian player to defect from the Soviet Union in order to play in the NHL.[3]

In June 1989, Red Wings general manager Jim Devellano arrived at the NHL Entry Draft determined to "start drafting some Russians."[4] Devellano had discussed the possibility of drafting Sergei Fedorov with Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch; while Fedorov was considered one of the top young players in the world, the risk factor was high, as there was no guarantee that he would ever be able to come to Detroit to play, even if he wanted to. Ilitch instructed Devellano to draft the best players available, no matter where they came from, and management would worry about delivering them.[4]

Devellano consulted future Hall-of-Famer Steve Yzerman about Fedorov while the Red Wings captain was on an exercise bike in the Joe Louis Arena weight room. When he asked Yzerman for a scouting report, knowing that the two had played against each other in the World Championships, Yzerman simply replied, "He's better than me."[5]

Devellano drafted Fedorov in the 4th round, higher than any Soviet player had ever been drafted before. He later said of the high pick, "I used the theory, who are we gonna get here now in the 4th round from North America, really?"[6] The Red Wings followed up that pick with the 11th-round selection of Fedorov's Soviet teammate Vladimir Konstantinov, an imposing two-way defenseman who was already known as one of the best blue-liners in the world.[7]

Wings executive vice-president Jim Lites then contacted Detroit sportswriter Keith Gave about passing a secret message to Fedorov and Konstantinov from the Wings. Gave spoke Russian, and had a media credential that would enable him to get into an exhibition game in Helsinki where the Soviet national team was scheduled to play a Finnish elite-level club. Gave agreed to the mission, and in August of 1989, managed to meet with the players after their game and slip them each a Red Wings media guide with a letter hidden inside. The letters made it clear that the Red Wings wanted both of them in Detroit and were willing to help them get there.[8]

By July of 1990, Fedorov had decided to defect. The Soviet national team came to North America to play in the 1990 Goodwill Games, and had scheduled an exhibition match in Portland's Memorial Coliseum on July 22, 1990.[9] Jim Lites came to Portland, picked up Fedorov outside his hotel after the game, and brought him to Detroit in Ilitch's private jet.[4]

Getting Konstantinov out of Russia would be more difficult, for two reasons. Unlike Fedorov, he had previously signed a 25-year contract committing himself to the army, and if he deserted, he would be considered a felon in Russia, which would make him ineligible for a work visa in the United States. He also had a wife and daughter, and would not consider leaving without them. Fedorov introduced Lites to his friend, a Russian journalist named Valery Matveev, who had moved to Detroit just after Fedorov's defection. Lites and Matveev worked together to secure an army discharge for Konstantinov. With cash provided by the Red Wings, Matveev bribed six Russian doctors to diagnose and confirm that Konstantinov was suffering from inoperable cancer, and thus secured his medical discharge from the military in the summer of 1991.[10] The Red Wings were planning to fly Konstantinov and his family out from Russia and get him to Detroit in time for the start of training camp in September, but the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt forced a change in plans. With the airports closed, Matveev took the family by train to Budapest. Lites met them there, again in Ilitch's private jet, and went back to Detroit with Konstantinov aboard. His wife and daughter followed two days later on a commercial flight.[11]

Jim Devellano had been impressed by Slava Kozlov when he saw him play at a youth tournament in Lake Placid, New York, in 1987, when Kozlov was just 15. He called the Ilitches and told them, "I’ve just seen the best 15-year-old hockey player I’ve ever seen in my lifetime – and I saw Wayne Gretzky play at that age."[12] Devellano used his third round pick (45th overall) to draft Kozlov in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, breaking his own record, set the previous year, for the highest draft pick of a Soviet player. He admitted later that this was a bigger risk, since in the third round, "You can get some North American players. It's not the fourth round, it's the third round."[13]

In December of 1990, a Red Wings contingent including Lites and assistant GM Nick Polano traveled to Regina, Saskatchewan, for the World Junior Championships, ready to bring Kozlov back to Detroit with them. However, Kozlov, just 19 at the time, was not ready to commit to defecting, and returned to the Soviet Union with the rest of his team. Polano met with Kozlov three more times over the next year. Then, in November 1991, Kozlov was seriously injured in a car accident that killed his passenger, teammate Kirill Tarasov. Polano traveled to Russia again and offered to take Kozlov to get medical care in Detroit. Valery Matveev bribed Russian doctors, much as he had in Konstantinov's case, but this time secured Kozlov's release from his Red Army enlistment with a diagnosis of permanent brain damage and loss of peripheral vision stemming from head injuries sustained in the crash. Kozlov traveled to Detroit in February 1992 and made his debut with the Wings on March 12.[12]

After Scotty Bowman was hired as the Red Wings coach in 1993, the Wings finished first in the Western Conference but lost in the first round of the playoffs. Bowman felt the team needed more help on defense, and he and assistant GM Ken Holland talked to Sergei Fedorov about Slava Fetisov, a CSKA Moscow veteran who was then playing with the New Jersey Devils. When Holland asked Fedorov his opinion on making a trade to acquire Fetisov, Fedorov replied, "Absolutely. It would be great for our team." The Wings gave up a third-round pick to the Devils and Fetisov joined the team on April 3, 1995. He was 17 days short of turning 37. The Wings finished the lockout-shortened season with the best record in the NHL, but were swept in the Stanley Cup Finals by Fetisov's former team, the Devils.[14]

After that series, Fetisov began pushing Bowman to acquire Igor Larionov, another former Red Army teammate then playing for the San Jose Sharks. He told Bowman if he could make a trade happen, "We would have five (Russians) then, and if you ever want to, you could play them together." Bowman convinced management to trade 50-goal scorer Ray Sheppard for the 34-year-old Larionov. Three days later, on October 27, 1995, Larionov joined his new team in Calgary to play against the Flames. A few minutes into the game, Bowman sent all five Russians over the boards together, and the Russian Five was born.[14]

For much of the 1995–96 season, Bowman played the five Russians together as a unit. By that time, there were 55 Russians playing in the NHL. Only the Red Wings, however, had put together such a combination in starring roles on their team. At the end of the regular season, the five Russians had scored 117 of the Red Wings' 325 goals.[15] The team won an NHL-record 62 games, but fell to the Colorado Avalanche in six games in the Western Conference Finals.[16]

In the 1997 playoffs, the Russian Five were a critical part of each series. In the first round against the St. Louis Blues, Larionov led the team with 5 assists. In a second-round sweep of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, the top three Wings scorers were Fedorov, with five points, along with Konstantinov and Kozlov, with four points each. In a Western Conference finals rematch against the Avalanche, Fedorov led all scorers with three goals and four assists, while Larionov and Kozlov each had two goals and three assists. All three players contributed a game-winning goal during the series.[17]

1997-1998 season

Believe/Верим patch worn by the Red Wings in the 1997-98 season

The Red Wings players and coaches dedicated their efforts the following season to Konstantinov and Mnatsakanov. Kris Draper later said, "The motivation for us going into the Stanley Cup Finals in back-to-back years was definitely Vladdy. He was certainly in our hearts and in our minds and every time we played, he was that extra motivation that we need."[25] Assistant coach Dave Lewis later said, "I don't think anybody could have beaten us that year, because we were so focused on winning it for Vladdie and Sergei Mnatsakanov."[26]

In November 1997, Konstantinov's physical therapist, John Wharton, decided that it was time to take him to Joe Louis arena to see his teammates, and Konstantinov agreed with a thumbs-up. He was wheeled into the locker room a few minutes before practice ended, and the Red Wings arrived to see Konstantinov sitting in his stall with his jersey still hanging behind him. The players greeted him with hugs and handshakes, and the visits from Konstantinov became a regular occurrence for the rest of the season.[27]

The Red Wings managed the rare feat of repeating as Stanley Cup Champions, sweeping the Washington Capitals in the finals. Konstantinov was brought onto the ice in his wheelchair for the team's victory celebration, and Yzerman, rather than taking the traditional lap around the rink that the captain would normally skate, immediately brought the Cup to Konstantinov and put it in his lap. As he held the Cup steady, Fetisov and Larionov pushed Konstantinov's wheelchair as the entire team skated their victory lap to a standing ovation.[27]

The five players forever changed how North Americans viewed hockey players from Russia. Until the 1990s, there had been a perception that Europeans in general, and Russians in particular, were "soft", and that a team with too many of them would never be able to win a Stanley Cup.[28] The Russian Five dispelled those myths forever, not only with two Cup wins but also because Konstantinov was one of the most feared hitters in the NHL.[29][21] Steve Yzerman said of his former teammates, "The way they conducted themselves, the way they played for our team – that has changed the tone for European players in general."[29]

Beyond how Russians were perceived, the five also changed how hockey was taught in North America, in no small part because of the value they placed on puck possession. In the words of Jim Lites, "Everybody used to dump the puck in and chase it down behind the net. The Russians changed that. They changed our game."[29]

Jim Devellano believed that the impact the Russian Five had went beyond hockey. "I grew up with all this propaganda about how the Russians were our enemy. Now here we were, bringing the enemy over here. Then they were so good – the last missing piece for us to win. And they became our friends. I think I learned something about propaganda and how it gets our minds working against different people."[29] Sergei Fedorov agreed, saying, "We need to build more bridges than weapons. That’s my deep feeling about what should happen between our countries. Like we did in Detroit, you know?"[29]