Fetisov was already one of the most decorated players in hockey history before coming to the NHL with the New Jersey Devils in 1989.

The Moscow native was regarded by many as the best defenseman in the world for much of the 1980s. He helped the Soviet Union win the gold medal at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics and again at the 1988 Calgary Olympics, finish first seven times at the IIHF World Championship, and win the Canada Cup in 1981. Fetisov was also named player of the year two times in the Soviet Union while playing for the Central Red Army from 1976-77 through 1988-89, winning the Soviet Championship League title in all 13 seasons.

But after helping the Soviet Union win gold in Calgary in 1988, Fetisov began working to gain approval from Soviet officials to play in the NHL, rather than defecting. Helped by the glasnost policy instituted by Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s, Fetisov was among a group of players who were allowed to join NHL teams -- with the proviso that they would play internationally for the Soviet Union.

Fetisov joined the Devils in 1989, six years after they had selected him in the eighth round (No. 145) of the 1983 NHL Draft. He played five full seasons with the Devils, coming within one win of a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 1994, but was traded to the Detroit Red Wings on April 3, 1995. There, Fetisov soon became part of a five-man unit of Russian players put together by coach Scotty Bowman.

The îRussian Fiveî ñ which included Fetisov, Sergei Fedorov, Vyacheslav Kozlov, Igor Larionov and Vladimir Konstantinov -- helped the Red Wings end a 42-year championship drought by winning the Stanley Cup in 1997, and Fetisov celebrated by bringing the Cup to Russia for the first time. After the Red Wings repeated as champions in 1998, sweeping the Washington Capitals in the Cup Final, Fetisov retired at age 40 with 228 points (36 goals, 192 assists) in 546 regular-season games ñ numbers that belied his effect on hockey.

Fetisov rejoined the Devils as an assistant after retiring and was part of their Cup-winning team in 2000. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001 and was voted to the IIHFís Centennial All-Star team in 2008. He also served as the Russian Minister of Sport, was president of Central Red Armyís team (now known as CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League) and was part of the bidding committee that helped bring the 2014 Winter Olympics to the Russian city of Sochi.