2011 – 12 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl season The 2011 – 12 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl season is the franchise ' s 52nd season of play in professional ice hockey in Russia . It was supposed to be its fourth season in the Kontinental Hockey League ( KHL ) . The season was scheduled to start on September 8 , 2011 . However , on September 7 , while traveling to their season opener , the team ' s plane crashed , killing 43 people , including 25 roster players , and 11 members of the team staff . Only Alexander Galimov survived the initial impact of the crash with severe injuries , but died on September 12 . Another roster player , Maxim Zyuzyakin , did not travel with the team on the plane . As a consequence , the league cancelled the September 7 Opening Cup game between Salavat Yulaev and Atlant already in progress , postponing the opening of the KHL season until September 12 . The tragedy forced Lokomotiv Yaroslavl to cancel their participation in the 2011 – 12 KHL season . Instead , the club participates in the 2011 – 12 season of the Russian Major League ( VHL ) , the second top ice hockey league in Russia after the KHL , in December 2011 and will be eligible for the MHL playoffs . Also , Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ' s squad for the 2012 – 13 KHL season will automatically be qualified for the KHL playoffs that season , and the club may request allowance to use more than six non - Russian players in the KHL squad . Off - season . Lokomotiv lost in the 2011 KHL Western Conference Finals 4 – 2 to Atlant . Following this playoff disappointment , eleven players ( most notably former NHLers Daniel Tjärnqvist and Alexander Korolyuk ) left the team , and nine players were added to the roster for the upcoming 2011 – 12 KHL season . The players set to make their debut with the team notably included former NHLers Ruslan Salei and Kārlis Skrastiņš . Also set to make their coaching debuts were former NHLers Igor Korolev and Brad McCrimmon . Pre - season . Prior to the crash , the team played nine pre - season games , finishing with a 7 – 2 record . The team won their second straight Latvian Railways Cup ( August 23 – 27 ) , a pre - season KHL tournament . On September 3 , the players played their last game , at home against Torpedo , winning 5 – 2 . Alexander Galimov , the sole team survivor of the initial impact , scored the last goal of that game , sealing the win for Lokomotiv with an empty net goal . Crash . All players and most of the team staff were killed on 7 September 2011 when the Yak - Service Yak - 42 that was chartered by the team crashed on takeoff from Tunoshna Airport in Yaroslavl , into the Volga River . Alexander Galimov survived the crash , but later died of his injuries . Goalie coach Jorma Valtonen and forward Maxim Zyuzyakin were not on the flight . Rebuilding the team . It was announced by KHL president Alexander Medvedev that a disaster draft would be conducted to assemble a new team for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl . Every other team in the league would select up to three players for the pool of 40 – 45 players for Lokomotiv to select in the disaster draft , which selected up to 14 players , as five players were be promoted from Lokomotiv ' s youth team , and forward Maxim Zyuzyakin , who did not travel with the team , formed the core of the roster before the start of the disaster draft . The drafted players will continue to receive salaries from their respective teams . Lokomotiv ' s former coach Petr Vorobiev was hired as the new head coach . On September 10 , at the team ' s public memorial service , team president Yuri Yakovlev announced that Lokomotiv would not participate in the 2011 – 12 KHL season . Instead , the club participates in the 2011 – 12 season of the Russian Major League ( VHL ) , the second top ice hockey league in Russia after the KHL . In October 2011 , the team announced that its first game in the VHL would take place on 12 December 2011 at home ice . Players between 17 and 22 years old under contract to KHL and VHL teams were made available for Lokomotiv to build a roster . The team will play 22 games in the VHL , playing each team once . Its participation in the playoffs will be dependent on its winning percentage compared to other teams at the end of the season .