Hockey Hall of Famer Sergei Fedorov has a new job. Four years after his tenure as general manager ended, Fedorov was named the head coach of CSKA Moscow – the same team where he started his playing career as a teeanger.

Igor Nikitin, who had signed a three-year contract in June 2020, was relieved by CSKA of his duties. The reason for his departure was not provided.

“Following the results of the Supervisory Board meeting, Sergei Fedorov was appointed head coach of CSKA,” Igor Esmantovich, the President of CSKA, said in a press release. “The club thanks Igor Nikitin for the years spent at CSKA, the work done and wishes him success in his future career.

“Fedorov has been working at PHC CSKA since 2012, since 2013 he has been a member of the club’s supervisory board.”

Fedorov is one of the greatest players in NHL history and one of its top Russian-born players. A three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Detroit Red Wings (1997, 1998, 2002), Fedorov left Motown in 2003 and played his next two seasons with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Trades would send Feds, first to the Columbus Blue Jackets, and then later to the Washington Capitals, where he ended his career as a teammate of Alex Ovechkin.

“Sergei came in and gave us terrific plays that season and the full next season,” former Capitals GM George McPhee said. “We added a few other pieces but Sergei was the big one. He was a guy that a lot of guys on that team had looked up to growing up. Some of them had his poster on their wall in their bedroom. He lived up [to what] they had thought of him as a player and a person.”

Fedorov was the first Russian hockey player to score 1000 points and scored 483 goals during his NHL career, which now trails only Alex Ovechkin (730) by all Russian players.

“The way [Fedorov] played, the way he saw the ice, how he thought about the game, I got just tremendous pleasure [from watching him],” Ovechkin said. “When [Semin], and [Kozlov] and [Fedorov] and I were together, we took colossal pleasure in that, and when we got to play together, that was just outstanding. [Fedorov] is one of the best players of all time.”

Fedorov spent the last three seasons of his playing career with Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL before moving on to a management position with CSKA.