Alexander Galimov survived the initial impact of the crash with severe injuries, but died on 12 September.
The players set to make their debut with the team notably included former NHLers Ruslan Salei and Kārlis Skrastiņš.
Also set to make their coaching debuts were former NHLers Brad McCrimmon and Igor Korolev.
It was announced by KHL president Alexander Medvedev that a disaster draft would be conducted to assemble a new team for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.
In October 2011, the team announced that its first game in the VHL would take place on 12 December 2011 at home ice.
Players between 17 and 22 years old under contract to KHL and VHL teams were made available for Lokomotiv to build a roster.