Back to the Detroit Red Wings Newsfeed

Russian Five excerpt: Covert mission brought iconic Red Wings to Detroit

Remembering the impact of the Detroit Red Wings' "Russian Five" more than 20 years ago. Ryan Ford, Detroit Free Press

In “The Russian Five: A story of espionage, defection, bribery and courage,” Keith Gave, the spy-turned-Detroit Free Press newsman whose clandestine mission to Helsinki, Finland, put the Red Wings’ acquisition of the iconic quintet in motion, shares the pulse-pounding and unforgettable tale of how Sergei Fedorov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Igor Larionov unlawfully left the Iron Curtain for crumbling 1990s Detroit, helped build a championship empire and changed the landscape of American hockey forever.