Per NHL.com:

Yaroslavl Lokomotiv president Yury Yakovlev announced Saturday the team will not participate in the Kontinental Hockey League during the 2011-12 season.

Thirty-six members of the organization died Wednesday after the plane that was to take them Minsk, Belarus, for the opening game of the KHL campaign, died shortly after takeoff.

“The main priority now is to take care of the relatives and to pay last tribute to the late players and staff. The other aim is to re-build a competitive team,” Yakovlev said, according to Russia Today. “This will take some time as well as requiring human resources. But we are determined to resume participation in the KHL in [2012-13].”

Yakovlev, Yaroslavl Region Governor Sergey Vakhrukov and Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin met Saturday to determine the immediate future of the senior team. KHL chairman Vyacheslav Fetisov had previously said Pyotr Vorobyev, who recently was the coach of Lokomotiv’s youth team and had helped the club to its first championship in the old Russian Super League, would become the new head coach and KHL president Alexander Medvedev had vowed that Lokomotiv would be able to compete this season with a roster made of players loaned from other teams in the league.

The KHL announced Saturday that the league’s season-opening contest will now be called the Lokomotiv Cup to honor those who died in the crash.

It was reported that more than 30 players from around the league had volunteered to play for Lokomotiv this season. The Lokomotiv youth team will play on this season.

“I have a strong desire to win the [KHL's] Gagarin Cup now, to win the youth championship and dedicate the victory to my friends, who died,” said Kirill Kapustin, a Lokomotiv youth team player, to Russia Today.

Added teammate Mark Solyankin-Pasternak: “The coach told us that we should go out on to the ice and play for all the guys who lost their lives in this crash. He told us to win for them. We need to play our best.”

Per NHL.com:

A plane crash near the city of Yaroslavl in Central Russia has claimed the lives of at least 43 people, according to Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry. The majority of victims are believed to be members of the Kontinental Hockey League club, Lokomotiv.

The crash occurred at 12 noon Moscow time and the weather was sunny and clear, according to reports.

Eight crew members are also among the dead, according to reports. According to Russian aviation officials, two passengers survived the crash, but are in critical condition. According to Sovetsky Sport, one of the survivors is Russian forward Alexander Galimov.

Lokomotiv has confirmed that the entire main roster, plus four players from the youth team, was on the plane.

“We have no team anymore,” Vladimir N. Malkov, the team spokesman, said in a telephone interview with The New York Times. “All our starting players, and all the service people, they all burned in the crash.”

The agent for forward Pavol Demitra, an ex-NHL star, confirmed that Demitra was killed in the crash in Russia.

“This is just awful,” Keator said. “He was such a popular guy with everyone he has ever played with.”

The Lokomotiv roster was full of players with NHL ties.

The team’s head coach, Brad McCrimmon, played in the NHL and most recently served as an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings before taking the Yaroslavl job in May. The Russian Times confirmed that McCrimmon also died in the crash.

Defensemen Karel Rachunek, Ruslan Salei and Karlis Skrastins, as well as forwards Pavol Demitra and Josef Vasicek  all spent a good deal of time in the NHL and were listed on the most current roster on the KHL website. Forward Alexander Vasyunov played in 18 games with the New Jersey Devils this past season.

Former NHLers Igor Korolev and Alexander Karpovtsev were listed as assistant coaches for Lokomotiv.

McCrimmon played defense for six NHL teams — Boston, Philadelphia, Calgary, Detroit, Hartford and Phoenix — in a 17-year career, appearing in 1,222 regular-season games in the NHL, collecting 81 goals, 322 assists and 1,416 penalty minutes.

He was an assistant coach with the New York Islanders, Calgary Flames, Atlanta Thrashers and the Red Wings. He also served as head coach of the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades.

According to the reports on the crash, the plane, a Yakovlev Yak-42 passenger jet, went down and caught fire shortly immediately after taking to the air, crashing less than 2 kilometers from the airport.

The short- and medium-range Yak-42 has been in service since 1980. It was en route to Minsk, Belarus for a Thursday night game against Dynamo Minsk, Lokomotiv’s opener to the 2011-12 KHL season.

Former Montreal Canadiens defenseman Brent Sopel, who is now playing in Russia, tweeted shortly after the crash: “In shock. Prayers out to all of the KHL families.”

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said the crashed immediately after taking off from an airport near the city on the Volga River, which is approximately 150 miles northeast of Moscow.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has sent his transport minister to the site of the crash, 15 kilometres east of Yaroslavl.

The KHL season opened Wednesday with a game between Ufa and Atalanta, but that game was suspended as soon as news of the tragedy broke.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, founded in 1949 as the team of the Railways Ministry, is one of Russia’s leading hockey teams and came runner up in the Kontinental Hockey League in 2008 and 2009. In 1997 it took the Russian Superleague title and won back-to-back championships in 2002 and 2003.

Per Puck Daddy:

Miroslav Satan, 36, has signed with Dynamo Moscow of the KHL for the remainder of the season, according to his agent Alan Walsh. Which is of course a bummer for any NHL fan that considers the Satan Shuffle to be one of the best goal celebrations in recent memory.Satan played quite well (14 points) in 38 regular season games for the Boston Bruins in 2009-10, and then posted 10 points in 13 postseason games.

Why wasn’t that enough to garner an NHL contract? Actually, it was, according to Walsh: Three NHL teams made what he called “bona fide” offers for Satan during the season but none were offers that Satan considered satisfactory. Finally, he opted for the KHL.

CSN New England called this “a move that likely signifies the door closing on the Slovakian winger’s NHL career,” but Walsh denied that was the case, saying Satan could return to the League in 2011-12.

Then again, with the KHL, there’s always the chance for portability. All Satan would need is an NHL team convinced they require his services and offering the right deal as the playoff roster freeze approaches to potentially head back to North American for the postseason. As players like Evgeni Nabokov and Kyle Wellwood have shown, the NHL is just one terminated contract away (assuming someone wants to sign you, that is).

Hopefully this isn’t the end for the man who is No. ’666′ in the Yahoo! player pages.

(By the way: Pizzo and I play something called “The Jersey Game” on Puck Daddy Radio in which you say a player’s name and then say what sweater you immediately picture him in. Hence, Satan is a Buffalo Sabres forward here. Do you concur?)

Per Puck Daddy:

This morning the news surfaced that SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL and its prized goaltender Evgeni Nabokov(notes) amicably decided to terminate the player’s contract by mutual consent due to “family reasons.” Nabokov signed a four year contract in Russia last summer.

The overall reasons for the separation are unclear at this point. Those “family reasons,” however, may be very true.

“Nothing serious happened,” Nabokov’s Russian agent Sergei Isakov told Pavel Lysenkov of Sovetsky Sport. “There were some unforeseen family circumstances Evgeni had to face. He called me on Sunday and on Monday I took the train to St. Petersburg to talk to the SKA management. Nabokov asked to terminate his four year contract with the club. He had to do it for family reasons. He has to go back to North America. I cannot tell you what happened with my client’s family.”

Nabokov is expected to leave for the States on the “next available flight,” according to Isakov. Nabokov’s family left Russia a few days ago. Nabokov’s wife is American and his children were born in the United States.

It is quite possible that his family could never truly adjust to life in Russia, even though the money Nabokov was making in the KHL was very good. Isakov, however, denied that Nabokov’s family were uncomfortable in Russia. “There were no problems. Nabokovs had excellent living conditions in St. Petersburg. The club gave them a car. SKA was helping as much as they could. Even now SKA’s GM asked me ‘What assistance does Evgeni need with his departure?’”

Nabokov played only 22 games in the KHL winning only eight of them. His GAA was over 3.00 and his save percentage was .888. Isakov mentioned that the new SKA coach, Vaclav Sykora, trusted Nabokov a lot less than Ivan Zanatta. There were also reports that Nabokov refused to dress up for games as a back up after his less than stellar play for SKA. Nabokov denied such reports.

Nabokov’s agent Isakov said that the lack of trust was not the reason Nabokov decided to leave SKA. Because Nabokov and the club decided to terminate the contract by mutual consent, the goaltender won’t receive any money from the club apart from what he has already made.

“We don’t think that signing with SKA was a mistake. But such as the circumstances. Family is more important than hockey,” Isakov told Lysenkov.

The future is uncertain for Nabokov, who is more likely to try to come back to the NHL. He will, however, have to clear waivers.

His Russian agent Isakov said there is a possibility he may even be back with SKA at some point.

“He won’t end his career. Nabokov is wanted in the NHL, in Russia. Some issues have to be settled and then we have to think what to do next. By the way, it’s possible that Evgeni Nabokov will be back with SKA. At least I am not excluding this possibility. Right now everything depends on how quickly Evgeni sorts out his family issues.”

Nabokov made himself unavailable for comments. He turned off his phone making his agent a temporary spokesperson.

Don Meehan, Nabokov’s North American agent, told ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun that Nabby is ready to play, and that Meehan will now speak with teams.

Nabokov was also scheduled to play for Team Russia in the Euro Hockey Tour’s Russian leg in December, something that is unlikely to happen now.

Per ESPN:

The NHL and Kontinental Hockey League signed a formal agreement to mutually respect each other’s player contracts, the KHL announced Monday before a preseason game between the Carolina Hurricanes and SKA St. Petersburg.

Under the agreement, the NHL and KHL will honor each other’s contracts and only free agents can switch leagues.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed the agreement in an e-mail to ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun on Monday.

The agreement brings an end to several years of contentiousness over the rights to players, with much of the ill will between both leagues born out of star winger Alexander Radulov leaving behind a valid contract with the Nashville Predators and signing a deal in the KHL in the summer of 2008.

“The day before yesterday, Bill Daly and I reached a formal agreement about the appreciation and respect of the KHL contracts,” Medvedev told ESPN.com. “It’s very important. We have a legally binding agreement. This agreement confirms the validity of KHL contracts and is fully in compliance with hockey industry standards.”

“I sent him a letter confirming that we recognize and respect the validity of the standard terms of KHL SPCs,” Daly wrote. “But that’s always been our position — this doesn’t represent a change for us.”