ORLANDO, FLA - In the wake of Wednesday’s plane crash that wiped out the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl KHL team, people are wondering how the league will work through the loss of a team.

As of mid afternoon Eastern time, the KHL is planning to go on with the three games scheduled on Thursday night: Avangard vs. Sibir, Yugra vs. Avtomobilist and CSKA vs. Mettalurg Magnitogorsk. The Salavat Yulaev vs. Atlant game that was halted when news of the crash reached the arena will be dealt with at a later date.

The question arose about whether the Locomotiv team should be rebuilt for this season and where the players would come from. Longtime Russian Viktor Tikhonov has been quoted as saying that each KHL team “should send at least one player to Lokomotiv to salvage the team’s season”. A decision on Locomitiv’s 2011-2012 fate will be made in due time but out of respect to the families of the victims, it will not be made quickly.

The National Hockey League already knows how it would deal with such a tragedy. During the bankruptcy proceedings for the Phoenix Coyotes, documents revealed that under Section 16C of the league’s bylaws, there is an “Emergency Rehabilitation Plan” or ERP in place in the event that a team is left with fewer than 14 players and a goalie.

This is how the ERP would work:

Each team is mandated to carry a life insurance policy of $1 million on each player. In the event of a catastrophe like the Locomotiv plane crash, the team would be allowed to talk to other teams about purchasing players under contract using the insurance money.

If the team is not able to replenish its roster with the available insurance money, the league would hold a special ERP draft. It would be similar to an expansion draft in that each of the remaining teams would be able to protect one goalie and ten players from its player development and club playing roster. First year professionals and players who were drafted but not reached 20 years of age would be off limits. If a team has already sold a player to the team affected, its roster would be frozen and no selections could be made from its remaining roster.

No more than one player could be picked from a team. Each player selected would cost $1 million in insurance money.

Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com