| Subject: Fedorov wants to be a WING - dope! |
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Buffy
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Date Posted: 19:20:42 09/19/03 Fri
Ducks star Fedorov says split with Anna led him to leave Red Wings
September 19, 2003
DETROIT (CP) - Sergei Fedorov says he might still be with the Red Wings had not personal problems distracted him from the business of hockey.
The Russian forward, 33, became an unrestricted free agent July 1 and subsequently signed with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Detroit owner Mike Ilitch had tendered a substantial offer, but Fedorov said his split with wife Anna Kournikova, the tennis star, had a large effect on his decision making last season.
"I got knocked down pretty hard," Fedorov told the Detroit Free Press. "It's tough to keep your mind on things when things that have been very, very dear to you - very personal to you - are taken away.
"That's why a lot of stuff happened. It's not the way the media wrote about it - that I turned down Mike Illitch's personal offer."
Fedorov kept it all to himself.
"Obviously, I didn't wanna let anybody know what's happening in my private life because nobody wants to know," Fedorov said. "They want to see me play hockey. But I can say, honestly, if I would not have my personal problems, I would have really considered the offer from Mike Ilitch right away, actually, without even going into negotiations. But, unfortunately, my head was not into the right place at the time."
He said he told Ilitch and GM Ken Holland that he was dealing with personal issues that kept him from mentally honing in on contract numbers. Had his head been clear, he would have taken Ilitch's offer, he said.
"Oh, yeah," he said. "Yeah, and believe me, I'm saying this with the bottom of my heart. I mean, it would be not a problem - not a problem to be back in Red Wing uniform."
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