One Less Reason To Leave

One of the reasons Sergei Fedorov was purportedly thinking of heading back to Russia to play out his hockey career was to play in his homeland with his brother Fedor (who has bounced from league-to-league and country-to-country over the past decade).

Well, according to European Hockey.net, that option is off the table as the younger Fedorov has signed with the New Jersey Devils.

So while the Caps and the elder Fedorov wait for the dust to settle with respect to the team's RFAs, it seems increasingly likely that #91 will be back in the fold for the red, white and blue. That is, of course, if a guy who has made $61,519,036.20 in salary alone as an NHL player can accept a potentially "insulting" offer and take a few fewer rubles for the good of a team that probably needs him more than he needs it (and if he's honestly thinking about walking away from his comrades and the game over $2 million now, he probably doesn't have enough desire to be in it anymore anyway).

The bottom line is that George McPhee is "pretty confident" that Fedorov will return to D.C., which is comforting... until you recall the last UFA GMGM expected would return.