The Russian hockey team whose players were killed in a plane crash will be rebuilt in time to take part in this year's Kontinental Hockey League season, according to the league's leader.

All but one of the 28 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl players travelling to Belarus for their first game of the season were killed when their Yak-42 jet crashed on Wednesday.

KHL chief Alexander Medvedev said Thursday that each team in the league should volunteer up to three players each toward building a new Lokomotiv squad. He says it will free up between 40 and 45 players for Lokomotiv to pick.

"The 18 KHL clubs whose representatives I have managed to speak with have supported this proposal," Medvedev said in remarks to Atlant Mytischi hockey club's press service.

Medvedev said up to 35 players have already put their names forward to join Lokomotiv, but he didn't specify any names.

He said one idea was for players' salaries to be underwritten by the teams from which they had been transferred to Lokomotiv for the duration of one season.

"This is still an unofficial decision, but it has been supported by everbody, and many are putting this idea forward themselves," Medvedev said in televised remarks.

Along with recruiting from other clubs, Medvedev said Lokomotiv will promote five players from its youth team.

The KHL is an international club league that features 24 teams from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Slovakia.

Lokomotiv is a leading force in Russian hockey, winning the Russian League championship in 1997, 2002 and 2003. The team finished third in the KHL last season.

Among those killed in Wednesday's crash were Lokomotiv coach and NHL veteran Brad McCrimmon, a Saskatchewan native; assistant coach Alexander Karpovtsev, one of the first Russians to have his name etched on the Stanley Cup as a member of the New York Rangers; and Pavol Demitra, who played for the St. Louis Blues and the Vancouver Canucks and was the Slovakian national team captain.

Other standouts killed were Czech players Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek and Jan Marek, Swedish goalie Stefan Liv, Latvian defenceman Karlis Skrastins and defenceman Ruslan Salei of Belarus.

Russian player Alexander Galimov survived the crash along with a crew member. Galimov was transferred Thursday to the Vishnevsky Institute in Moscow, around 240 kilometres southwest from the site of the crash.

Andrei Alexeyev, a doctor in the institute's burns department, said Galimov has gained consciousness and was able to speak to his father.

Treatment "will be a complex process. Round-the-clock diagnostics will be needed, and we must prevent any infections," Alexeyev said.

Medvedev's suggestion of resurrecting Lokomotiv by recruiting players from other teams has a precedent in Soviet history.

In 1979, a plane heading from the Soviet republic of Uzbekistan to Minsk carrying the Pakhtakor Tashkent soccer team collided with another passenger aircraft, killing 178 people. Seventeen members of the Pakhtakor team were killed.

After the crash, all top-flight Soviet sides gave up three players to Pakhtakor so the club could play in the national championship. Pakhtakor also was guaranteed exemption from possible relegation for three seasons.

On Wednesday evening, Yaroslavl governor Sergei Vakhrukov addressed a crowd of some 3,000 mourning fans outside the Lokomotiv stadium and promised the team would be rebuilt. But that vow prompted anger from some fans over a perceived lack of respect for the dead.

KHL games planned for the weekend have been postponed. Games will resume Monday, the KHL said in a statement on its website.

A memorial ceremony for victims of the crash will be held Saturday at Lokomotiv Yaroslavl's hockey arena.

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock has heard the talk that the Wings might finally move into the Eastern Conference. His opinion: Forget about it.

“That’s not going to happen,” Babcock said during a question-and-answer session after giving a speech to the Livonia and Novi chambers of commerce Thursday. “And the reason that’s not going to happen, even though our owner has been promised it, is that if you’re Vancouver or Calgary, these teams, and you have a choice between keeping Detroit, Nashville or Columbus in the Western Conference, who are you going to keep? So when the vote comes out, we have no chance.”

So what will the NHL do?

“That’s not going to happen,” Babcock said during a question-and-answer session after giving a speech to the Livonia and Novi chambers of commerce Thursday. “And the reason that’s not going to happen, even though our owner has been promised it, i

“I think they’re doing three 10-team pools or something,” Babcock said. “I don’t know the answer to that for sure. But we’ll find out over time, we won’t be moving.”

Babcock clarified afterward that he was expressing only his opinion.

The Wings and many of their fans have expressed a desire to move to the Eastern Conference, where start times would be more favorable. Four of the other five Original Six teams (Boston, Toronto, Montreal and the New York Rangers) reside in the East.

The New York Islanders have agreed to a new six-year, $33 million contract extension with star forward John Tavares.

The team has called a press conference for Thursday at which they are expected to officially announce the signing of the deal.

Tavares still has one year left on his entry-level contract and will earn $3.75 million this season including bonuses. His extension begins in 2012-13 at $4 million, and will pay $5 million the next season. The contract will pay $6 million in each of the final four seasons of the contract.

Tavares, who turns 21 next week, scored 29 goals and 38 assists last year in his second season with the Islanders. He was the first pick overall in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

The Dallas Stars are expected to file for bankruptcy as early as today.

Sources say the purpose is to cleanse assets and ensure all outstanding liabilities are taken care of.

Technically, the NHL has been "financially managing" the team in conjunction with the team's lenders, for more than a year.

Are the New Jersey Devils in deep financial trouble?
The New York Post reports it has learned the New Jersey Devils missed a Sept. 1 loan payment and that the three-time Stanley Cup-winning franchise is on the brink of serious financial troubles.

According to the Post, the team's past-due loan payment is for about $100 million and is owed to a CIT-led lending group.

UPDATE: The Devils are disputing the story, calling it "patently untrue" and saying it contains "many inaccuracies."

Further complicating the matter, the Post says, is that the team-owned Devils Arena Entertainment owes $180 million. Devils Arena Entertainment operates the team's arena, Prudential Center, and guarantees the team's loans, according to the Post.

The Devils ranked only 25th in NHL attendance last season and owners Jeff Vanderbeek and Ray Chambers, each of whom has 47% of the franchise, are said to be on the outs.

Forbes last year estimated the Devils were worth $200 million. The Post says a Devils spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment.

The Devils also are on the hook for the 15-year, $100 million deal they signed with Ilya Kovalchuk in 2010.