Sergei Fedorov admits he regrets walking away from Detroit

For a long time, Sergei Fedorov’s story in Detroit felt unfinished. Not unresolved, per se, but unhealed.

The Red Wings gambled on a Russian teenager at a time when almost no one else would. They pulled him from a system determined to keep him, handed him a stage, and built a dynasty around his gifts. In return, Fedorov gave Detroit something rare — speed that defied belief, versatility that reshaped what a star could be, and playoff moments that remain etched into the soul of the franchise.

But he also made a business decision. Two of them, really. And for years, that’s where the story froze.

On Monday night, it finally moved.

Ahead of his long overdue jersey retirement at Little Caesars Arena, Fedorov sent a message to Red Wings fans on social media that was disarmingly direct.

“I made a wrong decision to leave,” he said. “By far, that’s the most and probably the only regret I would have.”

And then, standing at center ice, on a stage built by everything he helped create, Fedorov went even further:

“Leaving Detroit when I did was a huge mistake," he said. "That is on me. There was one good thing that came out of that situation. It set me on the path to meeting the love of my life.”

It wasn’t an excuse. It wasn’t a deflection. It was a human being telling the truth about a choice that altered the shape of his career and his relationship with a city that once adored him.

Sergei Fedorov finally said what Red Wings fans had waited years to hear

Hockey is a business. Players have leverage. Teams have limits. Egos flare. Pride hardens. And sometimes, even the most perfect marriages crack under the weight of timing and money and misunderstanding.

For years, the Fedorov chapter sat in that crack. Detroit fans didn’t forget the brilliance, but they couldn’t fully forgive the ending. And Fedorov, it turns out, never stopped carrying the weight of that door closing behind him.

And what made this moment powerful wasn’t the jersey in the rafters. It was the admission. It takes humility to say I was wrong — especially when your résumé is already Hall-of-Fame proof. Especially when history could have let you stay silent.

Instead, Fedorov chose honesty. He chose to tell the city that he knows what he walked away from. And in doing so, he gave Detroit the thing it never really asked for, but always needed: closure.

This wasn’t a rewrite of history. It was an acknowledgment of it. A superstar admitting that even legends misjudge moments. That even icons leave something sacred behind.

The Red Wings and Sergei Fedorov were great together. They changed each other. They built something that still echoes. And now, finally, both sides can look at that era without flinching – not as a what-if, but as a complete story.