The coach of reigning KHL champion Salavat Yulaev Ufa has signed a two-year contract extension, the hockey club said Tuesday.
Ufa native Vener Safin, who has been on the coaching staff since 2001, took over as head coach on a short contract in November after the resignation of Sergei Mikhalev.
"The new agreements with the specialists will last two years," the club said in a statement, referring to Safin, 47, and his assistants.
Safin spent his entire playing career as a left defenseman for Salavat Yulaev, apart from a year in the Fazer-liiga with Finnish team Hermes Kokkola in 1994-95.
The club also announced the resignation of president Pavel Kachkaev, and named Yuri Pustovgarov his replacement. Kachkaev is a former mayor of Ufa.
Pustovgarov is the president of the chamber of commerce for the region that Ufa is located in, Bashkorstan.
Salavat Yulaev won last year's Gagarin Cup but have struggled this year to live up to expectations, crashing out of in the first round of the playoffs to AK Bars Kazan, the team it beat in the 2011 final.
