Originally Posted by
pseudoswede
As a St. Louis Blues fan, I was devastated to hear that Pavol Dimitra was on that flight.
RIP Lokomotiv Jaroslavl
There were quite a few NHL alumni on that plane. Everybody will be missed, be they former NHL players, lifelong KHL players, or flight attendants that will be mourned by friends and family.
As a hockey fan, I'm wondering (with no disrespect to the dead) how the league will carry on from this tragedy. This is a major professional league in world sports. I know of plane crashes in the past that have obliterated/handicapped teams in the past, but most of them that I know of are international competition type teams (ala Sabena 548 with the US figure skating team, and Cubana 455 with the Cuban fencing team). This is unique in that it is a professional, high caliber, league oriented team involved. How will the KHL recover. Will there be a dispersion draft to attempt to reconstitute the team? Will the league play with 23 teams, and give a wild-card spot to the Western Division for post-season purposes? If they go with the second option, what will they do with all of those games that were already scheduled with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl?
I'm not trying to be callous, but in the modern era, of big money and sponsorships, an entire professional team being wiped out is unheard of. I just wonder (other than what caused the crash, which I'm curious about also) how the KHL will deal with this.