It’s been a year since one of the worst disasters in sporting history; a Yak-42, carrying the KHL team Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, crashed shortly after take-off on September 7, 2011, killing virtually the entire squad and its head coach, former Flame Brad McCrimmon.

Former NHLers Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Salei and Josef Vasicek also died.

One year later, the team has rebuilt itself and is trying to bring joy back to millions of devastated fans.

Sportsnet 960 The Fan’s Dean Molberg says the amount of work officials have done in restoring Lokomotiv is remarkable.

“A lot of people within the hockey community have donated money and done whatever they can to get this team back,” he says.

McCrimmon had just started his new venture in the KHL, living out his dream of being a head coach.

The team was on its way to the first game of the season when disaster struck; the game also would also have been McCrimmon’s debut as the leader of the Lokomotiv.

Molberg says the hockey world lost a real star that day.

“If he (McCrimmon) was anywhere near as tenacious, and persistent and ornery as he was as a player, as a coach, he would have been hugely successful,” he says.

McCrimmon’s father was recently in Yaroslavl, as part of a two-week trip with officials from Hockey Canada.

He tells 660News some days have been tougher than others, since the tragic crash.

“Special dates bring back memories, thoughts that other people aren’t even aware of,” he says.

The senior McCrimmon says he’s grateful for the support his family has received in the past twelve months.

“I just wanted to see the scene and wanted to see where it happened,” he says. “It was an accident, what can you say.”

He says family members have not heard much in the days since the crash from investigators.

McCrimmon hopes his son will be remembered for his “unbelievable love of the game.”

“He touched a lot of peoples’ lives, it’s just so sad that he had so much more to give and it was cut short.”

Brad McCrimmon was 52 and left behind a wife and two children.

Players from Sweden, the Czech Republic, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine were also killed in the crash.

Reuters reports the pilot that flew the plane had been granted permission to fly it based on forged documents.

Russia and the former Soviet republics have one of the worst air safety records with a total accident rate that is three times the world average.