We will remember…

KHL arenas were dark on Thursday, as always on September 7th, in observance of the anniversary of the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl air disaster. The crash of Yak-Service flight 9633, carrying the team to Minsk to face Dinamo in their opening game of the 2011-12 KHL season, killed all 26 players on board, all 11 members of Lokomotiv’s coaching and training staff, and seven out of eight members of the flight crew.

Players: Vitaly Anikeyenko, Mikhail Balandin, Alexander Galimov, Gennady Churilov, Pavol Demitra, Robert Dietrich, Marat Kalimulin, Alexander Kalyanin, Andrei Kiryuhin, Nikita Klyukin, Stefan Liv, Jan Marek, Sergei Ostapchuk, Karel Rachůnek, Ruslan Salei, Maxim Shuvalov, Kārlis Skrastiņš, Pavel Snurnytsin, Daniil Sobchenko, Ivan Tkachenko, Pavel Trakhanov, Yury Urychev, Josef Vašíček, Alexander Vasyunov, Alexander Vyukhin, Artem Yarchuk.

Coaches: Alexander Karpovtsev, Igor Korolyov, Nikolai Krivonosov, Brad McCrimmon.

Staff: Yury Bakhvalov, Alexander Belyaev, Evgeny Kunnov, Vyacheslav Kuznetsov, Vladimir Piskunov, Evgeny Sidorov. Andrei Zimin.

Airplane crew: Nadezhda Maksumova, Vladimir Matyushkin, Elena Sarmatova, Elena Shalina, Andrei Solomentsev, Igor Zhevelov, Sergei Zhuravlev.

The memory of the disaster remains a very painful one, for the hockey fans of Yaroslavl especially but also throughout the hockey world, as witness the large numbers of tributes and remembrances that appear every year at this time. But there is another story to be told here, because Lokomotiv came back. Although it would be a full year before the team, rebuilt basically from scratch, next appeared in a KHL game, the club’s junior side continued to play in the MHL, and midway through that 2011-12 season Lokomotiv iced a professional hockey side once again. Read on, for the story Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the VHL.

Just three months after the accident, on December 12th, 2011, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl took the ice again to play a competitive professional hockey game. In the interim, players had been promoted internally from the junior team, Loko Yaroslavl, and had been acquired from the youth programs at other clubs as well. The coach, too, was brought up from Loko; Pyotr Vorobyov, then 62 years old, had played under Viktor Tikhonov at Dinamo Riga in the late 1960’s and into 1970’s, before beginning his coaching career in the early 1980’s.

And now the rebuilt team was ready to go again, although it would not, at first, play in the KHL. Instead, the second-tier men’s professional league in Russia, the VHL, would be Lokomotiv’s hosts for an abbreviated 2011-12 campaign. The VHL, in deference to the Yaroslavl team’s shortened season and the tragic circumstances behind it, decided to switch to points percentage rather than points alone in determining the standings, in order to give Lokomotiv a chance to make the Bratina Cup playoffs.

Nikita Lozhkin, from Lokomotiv’s own junior system, was their goalie on that December night, as the reborn team hosted Neftyanik Almetyevsk (incidentally, Neftyanik’s goalie that night was Stanislav Galimov, who has gone on to a superb KHL career). Alexei Kruchinin, brought in from SKA St. Petersburg’s youngsters, wore the captain’s ‘K.’ And they were a young bunch, that 2011-12 Lokomotiv VHL team; the oldest players on the squad were only 22, and a large number of the players were still teenagers.

Fired up by an emotional pre-game ceremony honouring their fallen friends, not to mention by a packed and thunderous home arena, Lokomotiv took an early lead as Dmitry Maltsev got his name in the history books with the team’s first goal. Oleg Yashin made it 2-0 for Lokomotiv after 40 minutes, and when Kirill Kapustin and Daniil Yerdakov scored before the mid-way mark of the third to push the score to 4-0, the final result was no longer in doubt. While Neftyanik did pull a goal back, Lokomotiv captain Kruchinin put the cap on the evening with the final tally of the game, and 5-1 it finished in the home team’s favour (you can see the entire box score here). A better rebirth for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl would have hard to imagine, and here are the highlights:

Lokomotiv went on from there to be something of a force in the VHL in 2011-12, winning 13 of the 22 games in their abbreviated campaign and making the playoffs with ease. In the best-of-five first round of the post-season, VMF St. Petersburg, farm team of SKA, were the opponents, and Lokomotiv overcame them in five games. However, all good things must come to an end; the second round saw Dizel Penza get the better of the rebuilt Lokomotiv side, again in five games of a best-of-five. And so ended Lokomotiv’s comeback campaign. By the fall of 2012, the club had rejoined the KHL, and the story of the VHL team began to slip quietly into obscurity.

Since that season, the members of the rebuilt Lokomotiv team have gone on to a wide variety of hockey fortunes. Given their youth, and the fact that this was after all only six seasons ago, it is no surprise that most of them are still active in the sport at a high level. Some are established KHL regulars, and have even pulled on their country’s sweater in international hockey, while others have walked the journeyman players road and find themselves on rinks back in the VHL or other leagues. And here they are, the kids of the 2011-12 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl VHL team (the number in brackets is the player’s age in December of 2011):

GOALIES:

Nikita Lozhkin (20): Stayed with Lokomotiv until 2013, before making his KHL debut with Metallurg Novokuznetsk in September of that year. Now tends the twine for Dynamo St. Petersburg of the VHL, and was a huge part of their deep playoff run last season.

Pavel Shegalo (18): A wandering career has taken him to the VHL, two junior leagues, Belarus, and most recently Britain; he is now goalie for the Edinburgh Capitals of the EIHL (he was also briefly a KHL backup at Sibir). In the summer of 2017, he married a netminding colleague in Russian national team and Agidel Ufa goalie Anna Prugova.

Alexander Skrynnik (20): He did not play for Lokomotiv’s VHL team that season, but did dress as back-up for one game. Skrynnik has yet to make his KHL playing debut, and this season will be the goalie for Kunlun Red Star Heilongjiang of the VHL.

DEFENCEMEN:

Artur Amirov (19): Seems to be out of hockey now, having last played in 2015-16 for Metallurg Novokuznetsk in the KHL.

Anton Klementyev (21): A former World Juniors player for Russia, and a New York Islander 2009 draft pick, Klementyev bolted from the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL in 2012 (and was subsequently suspended by the Isles). He joined Lokomotiv for the end of that VHL campaign. Since then, he has seen action in the Polish and Belarusan; in the latter of those, he suited up for HK Gomel in 2016-17. I’m not sure where he will play this coming season.

Andrei Konev (22): Already an established KHLer with Traktor Chelyabinsk in 2011, he moved to Lokomotiv to help with the rebuilding. Played last season for Admiral, but is currently suspended until November 19th, 2017, after a positive drug test this summer.

Yan Krasovsky (19): He has never made it to the KHL, but is a VHL regular now, and played for Rubin Tyumen 2013-14 Bratina Cup Final team. In 2017-18, he will suit up for Sputnik Nizhny Tagil.

Pavel Lukin (21): Part of another great hockey story just this past season, when he helped Vityaz Moscow Oblast make the KHL playoffs for the first time ever. He’s back with Vityaz again for 2017-18.

Yegor Martynov (21): Martynov has established himself as a KHL regular, albeit of the journeyman variety. He played last season for Avangard, and is back with the Omsk side in 2017-18.

Oleg Misyul (18): A rarity, in that he has played internationally for two different countries: Russia (U18 team in 2010-11) and Belarus (most recently in 2014-15). Misyul is now a solid minor league pro, and will turn out in 2017-18 for Neftyanik, Lokomotiv’s first VHL opponents back in December of 2011.

Maxim Osipov (18): A very under-rated KHL defenceman, Osipov spent the last four seasons with Torpedo before moving on to Salavat Yulaev this summer. Made his Russian national team debut in 2016-17.

Yegor Yakovlev (20): Yakovlev was recruited from Ak Bars’ youth system after the plane crash, and stayed with Lokomotiv until 2015. He is the only member of the Lokomotiv 2011-12 VHL side with a Gagarin Cup ring, won in 2016-17 with his current team, SKA St. Petersburg. He has also been a regular on the Russian national team since 2013-14.

Vitaly Zotov (19): Got a bit of KHL experience with Lokomotiv and Metallurg Novokuznetsk, but more recently has established himself back in the VHL. Currently with Rubin Tyumen of that league.

FORWARDS:

Rafael Akhmetov (22, Assistant Captain): Akhmetov made his KHL debut in 2013-14 with Metallurg Novokuznetsk, and over the next three seasons played for six different teams in the league. However, he now seems to have settled in at current team Lada Tolyatti, where he has been since mid-way through 2015-16.

Daniil Apalkov (19): Apalkov was acquired in the fall of 2011 from the Metallurg Magnitogorsk program as part of the rebuilding program, and he’s been with Lokomotiv ever since. He had an excellent 2015-16 season (59 gp, 16-27-43), although he plummeted to only 17 points last time around. A 2011-12 World Juniors alumnus, he has also played a number of games for the senior Russian national side over the years. Apalkov is now an assistant captain in Yaroslavl.

Emil Galimov (19): Galimov was brought in from Neftekhimik’s youth system as part of the Lokomotiv rebuild, and provided solid depth service to the Yaroslavl team right up through 2016-17. This past summer, he finally returned to his hometown of Nizhnekamsk, and is one again suiting up for Neftekhimik in 2017-18.

Magomed Gimbatov (21): A varied career has taken Gimbatov through a number of different and leagues, and as far afield as the San Francisco Bulls of the ECHL, for whom he played 15 games in 2013-14. Last season found him back in the VHL, playing alongside his brother Akhmed at SKA-Neva St. Petersburg (their coach? Pyotr Vorobyov), but we still await word on his 2017-18 destination.

Kirill Kapustin (18): Kapustin played for Russia at the 2012-13 World Juniors, then stuck with Lokomotiv in the KHL through 2015-16. Last season saw him suiting up for Amur Khabarovsk, and he is now with Lada Tolyatti.

Vladislav Kartayev (19): Kartayev arrived from the Salavat Yulaev system to bolster the VHL team, and is one of the few members of that 2011-12 squad to still be playing for Lokomotiv in 2017-18 (he did have a brief stint with Metallurg Novokuznetsk in 2013-14, but subsequently returned). The 2015-16 season was the best of his career; he scored 7-11-18 in 52 games, and made the Russian national team as a solid defensive forward.

Alexei Kruchinin (20, Captain): Having departed Lokomotiv for Traktor Chelyabinsk in 2014-15, Kruchinin enjoyed the best season of his career in 2016-17. He scored 10-15-25 in 45 games for Traktor, and made his first Russian national team appearances as well. He’s back with Traktor again for this season, and just extended his contract with them through 2018-19.

Alexander Lebedev (17): Lebedev played for Russia at 2011-12 U18 Worlds, before settling into a career as a depth forward in the VHL, mostly with current team HK Ryazan. He was also a member of the 2015 Winter Universiade Russian team that took home the gold medal.

Dmitry Maltsev (20): He departed Lokomotiv after the 2013-14 season, and since then has played for five different KHL teams. His most recent port of call, in 2017-18, is HK Sochi.

Danil Romantsev (19): Romantsev has flitted back and forth between the KHL and VHL over the years; last season he played in the big league for Amur Khabarovsk in the regular season, then dropped down to the VHL with Sokol Krasnoyarsk for the playoffs. He does not currently seem to have a team for 2017-18, but we will see what happens.

Alexei Shubin (18): Another player who has found his home as a VHL journeyman, Shubin will play for HK Ryazan in 2017-18.

Timofei Tankeyev (18): Seems to have wrapped up his high-level hockey career in 2014-15, with Yunost Minsk of the Belarusan league.

Vladislav Vorobyov (18): He became a depth forward in the VHL as his junior career wrapped up, and then finished up 2016-17 with HK Tambov of the PVHL, Russia’s third-tier men’s pro league. Does not seem to have a contract anywhere for 2017-18.

Kirill Voronin (17): He has now played in the KHL, the Asia League, the Slovenian league, and the Croatian league… and that was just in 2016-17 alone (and he played for two different KHL teams to boot)! 2017-18 finds him once again a KHLer, with Admiral Vladivostok.

Oleg Yashin (21): Yashin was Lokomotiv’s joint-top scorer in that 2011-12 season (22 gp, 9-6-15), and afterwards developed into a depth forward with several KHL teams. He played last year for Kunlun Red Star Beijing, but seems to be a free agent for 2017-18, at least so far.

Daniil Yerdakov (22): Yerdakov came to Lokomotiv that fall from VHL side Sokol Krasnoyarsk. He has some brief KHL experience since, most recently in 2014-15 with Metallurg Novokuznetsk. He played most of last season back in the VHL with Saryarka Karaganda (and played well, too), and rejoins the Kazakhstan-based team for 2017-18.

Maxim Zyuzyakin (20, Assistant Captain): He has some brief KHL experience, but has mostly been a VHLer to this point. Zyuzyakin has played for Rubin Tyumen since 2015-16, and is again this season, having previously been part of their 2013-14 run to the Bratina Cup final.

In addition to that list, there were two forwards — Andrei Grushin and Ivan Krasnov — who dressed for one of Lokomotiv’s early VHL games but did not play. Neither is playing professional hockey any more at this point, as far as I can tell. You can see the statistics for the entire team for 2011-12 by clicking here (playoff stats are here).

With the club re-established in the KHL for 2012-13, the VHL team nonetheless continued on, with many of the same players, and contested one more season in the second league, this time serving as Lokomotiv’s farm team. Once again, the Lokomotiv made the VHL playoffs, although this time they were knocked out in the first round. Following 2012-13, the club made the decision to fold the VHL team, and use affiliation agreements for the farm squad instead. And so ended the tale of the rebirth of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl — or at least, so ended the beginning of that story.

Thank you for reading!