In 2002, Fetisov led the Russian Ice Hockey Olympic team as GM and head coach, attaining a bronze medal.

Considered one of the best defencemen of all time, he was voted as one of six players to the International Ice Hockey Federation's (IIHF) Centennial All-Star Team.

After the 2002 Winter Olympics, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered him the position as Minister of Sport, a post he held until 2008.

He was also the key member of the bidding committee that presented the Sochi 2014 proposal to the IOC in Guatemala in 2007, when a city was being chosen to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Fetisov has recalled the Soviet Minister of Defence, Marshal Dmitry Yazov, giving him an ultimatum at the time to either apologize or be sent to Siberia.

However, unable to play in North America at the time, he was re-entered into the 1983 NHL Entry Draft, where he was selected by the New Jersey Devils.

Head coach Sergei Nemchinov turned to Fetisov, president of the club, in need of a replacement for injured defenceman Denis Kulyash.

[1] He then helped the Soviets to three consecutive gold medals at the World Junior Championships from 1976 to 1978, taking back-to-back Top Defenceman honors in 1977 and 1978.

Fetisov became an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils following his playing career and won the Stanley Cup with the club in 2000 during his three-year tenure (1998–2001).

Following his tenure as assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils, Fetisov was named general manager of the Russian national team for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City,[1] where Russia won bronze.

Following the injuries of CSKA's several key defenders, Fetisov, aged 51 at the time, came out of retirement to play against SKA St Petersburg in a one-off return.

The Russian league sought greater financial compensation when its players departed for the NHL, instead of negotiating a flat rate for an unlimited number of transfers.

In North America, Fetisov was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame on 12 November 2001 along with Mike Gartner, Dale Hawerchuk and Jari Kurri.

In June 1985, Fetisov was involved in a car accident that killed his younger brother Anatoly, who was 18 years old at the time and a prospect within the HC CSKA Moscow system.

[1] Twelve years later, following a private party on 13 June 1997, Fetisov, along with teammate Vladimir Konstantinov and team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov, hired a limousine to drive them home after celebrating the Detroit Red Wings' Stanley Cup triumph.

The driver, Richard Gnida, whose license was suspended at the time for drunk driving, lost control of the limousine and hit a tree on the median of Woodward Avenue, in Birmingham, Michigan, a suburb north of Detroit.

Now is exactly the time when we need to step up, otherwise our athletes will actually lose a normal chance to compete at the Olympics.Fetisov was sanctioned by the UK government in 2022 amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[13] From April 2002 to March 2004, Fetisov was Chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Physical Culture and Sports (Goskomsport).

In September 2008, Vedomosti reported that the Presidium of the General Council of United Russia recommended Fetisov's candidacy for election as a representative of the legislative assembly of Primorsky Krai in the Federation Council (this seat became vacant after Igor Pushkaryov, who represented the regional legislature, was elected mayor of Vladivostok in May of the same year).

[19] On 12 February 2021, by unanimous decision of all participants of the XVIII Congress of the VOOP, Fetisov was elected Chairman of the Central Council of the All-Russian Society for the Conservation of Nature.