Egor Yakovlev has become the first new player signed by the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team, whose main squad members were killed in a plane crash in September.
The 20-year-old, whose registration belonged to Ak Bars Kazan, was added to Loko’s roster under number 44 on Friday.
On their official website, the Yaroslavl team have thanked Ak Bars for their understanding of the club’s difficult situation during the negotiations of the move.
Yakovlev has been playing for Neftyanik Almetyevsk in Russia’s second-strongest league, the VHL, collecting five points in 15 games this season.
The youngster has already made his KHL debut with Ak Bars last year in a game against Kazakh side Barys.
Lokomotiv plan to return to the KHL in the 2012/13 championship. But for now the Railway Men will play just 22 games in the VHL – one against each team – and their participation in the play-offs will be determined based on the percentage of points earned by the team.
A Yak-42 aircraft, carrying the players, coaches and Lokomotiv team personnel, crashed immediately after take-off from Tunoshna Airport in the Yaroslavl Region on September 7.
Thirty-six team members were killed instantly, while the only player to survive the crash – 26-year-old Aleksandr Galimov – passed away later in a Moscow hospital.