Even players for rival teams were impressed. They brought a different style of playing with them, known as “keep away,” that involved constant passing of the puck. “We had five Russian players now, and you wondered, how did we ever do without them?” says Devellano. But the Russians’ skills on the ice soon won everyone over.
The Russian players were not exactly greeted with open arms by the fans or their American teammates, the latter of whom were resentful of the arrivals who didn’t even know any English. He was eventually followed by four compatriots: Vladimir Konstantinov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Igor Larionov.
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Devellano asked a local sports reporter who knew Russian to make contact, and in a series of machinations worthy of John Le Carré and depicted in a series of animated interludes, Federov managed to enter the U.S. It was indeed was a risky move, especially since there was no guarantee that Federov would even be allowed to leave his country. “The problem was, there was an Iron Curtain.”
“I knew there were good players in Europe, especially Russia,” he says. The team’s fortunes began to change after Devellano had the inspired idea to pick Russian hockey star Sergei Federov in the 1989 NHL draft. Enter a new owner, Mike Ilitch, the founder of the pizza chain Little Caesars, and a new general manager, Jimmy Devellano.