Home > Hockey > Hockey Hall of Famers > Viacheslav Fetisov

Viacheslav Fetisov

NHL, the National Hockey League is a premier professional North American Sports League played in indoor stadiums. It’s divided into two conferences, each comprising of three divisions of ice hockey teams. The league was established in 1917 in Montreal, Quebec and it is composed of 30 teams out of which 24 teams based in U.S. and 6 in Canada.

Viacheslav Fetisov is a well known hockey player. He was born on 20th April, 1958 in Moscow, Russia. He played in 9 NHL seasons from 1989 to 1998 and was inducted in the hall of fame in 2001. He applied for release from the army after the end of the 1988 Soviet hockey season, however his release was abandoned by authorities. Viacheslav Fetisov created one of the best defence pairs in the game of hockey when he was teamed with Alexei Kasatonov with the Soviet National Team in the 1980s. The pair was part of the Big Five for the Soviets with the line of Vladimir Krutov, Sergei Makarov, and Igor Larionov.

Fetisov was cherished by his teammates for his character both as a player and as a person, and he served as a captain of both the National Team and of the Central Army team. He was a nine time All-Star and five time winner of the best defenceman award at the senior World Championships and played on a total of nine Olympic and World Championship teams during his worldwide hockey career. In 1989, at age 31, Fetisov began his NHL career as a member of the New Jersey Devils. He went to play for nine years in the NHL, together with his final three in Detroit. While with the Red Wings, Fetisov took part in the 1997 and 1998 All-Star games, and got two Stanley Cup rings in 1997 and 1998.

He retired to accept a position with the Devils as an assistant coach and earned his third Cup ring following New Jersey's championship in 2000. Fetisov possessed exceptional mobility and impulsively knew when to pinch in from the blueline to create a scoring chance in the offensive zone.

Back to Hockey Hall of Famers