logo
Uncategorized

Former Kings feared lost in crash

144 Comments

A plane carrying the KHL team, Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, crashed today in Russia with players and staff en route to their season opener. According to initial reports, there were two survivors among the 43 people on board, but feared dead in the crash are former Kings forwards Pavol Demitra (above left) and Jan Marek (right). Demitra’s agent, Matt Keator, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that Demitra was aboard the plane and died in the crash. According to reports, Marek is also among those who lost their lives.

Demitra, 36, spent the 2005-06 season with the Kings and totaled 25 goals and 37 assists in 58 games before he was traded to Minnesota the following summer. Marek, 31, joined the Kings organization in the Feb. 2007 trade that sent Sean Avery to the New York Rangers, but Marek never played a professional game in North America, as he spent his career in the Czech and Russian leagues.

[UPDATE: The Kings have issued this statement regarding today’s plane crash: “The Los Angeles Kings organization is deeply saddened with the tragic news of this morning’s plane crash in Russia that was carrying the members of the KHL’s Lokomotiv organization, including former Kings forward Pavol Demitra, former Kings prospect Jan Marek and many other members of the NHL Family. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the family and friends of those affected by this terrible occurrence.”]

Rules for Blog Commenting

  • No profanity, slurs or other offensive language. Replacing letters with symbols does not turn expletives into non-expletives.
  • Personal attacks against other blog commenters, and/or blatant attempts to antagonize other comments, are not tolerated. Respectful disagreement is encouraged. Posts that continually express the same singular opinion will be deleted.
  • Comments that incite political, religious or similar debates will be deleted.
  • Please do not discuss, or post links to websites that illegally stream NHL games.
  • Posting under multiple user names is not allowed. Do not type in all caps. All violations are subject to comment deletion and/or banning of commenters, per the discretion of the blog administrator.

Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.

Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.