Former Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Staffan Kronwall has joined Russian KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl on a two-year contract, the club said Friday.
Kronwall played 66 games in the NHL, all but 14 of them for the Maple Leafs, while playing in North America between 2005 and last year.
“The player from Scandinavia has put his signature to a two-year contract with the Yaroslavl club,” Lokomotiv said in a website statement.
The Swedish international, 29, moved to Lokomotiv after a season at Severstal Cherepovets, where he scored five goals and notched up 14 assists in 58 appearances.
Kronwall is currently in Stockholm representing Sweden at the world championships alongside his brother, Detroit Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall, after they helped Sweden to reach the 2011 final, which the team lost to Finland.
The entire Lokomotiv roster was among 44 people killed when their plane crashed shortly after take-off on the way to the first game of the KHL season in Minsk, Belarus in September.
Since then, the three-time Russian champion has been assembling a new squad for its return to the KHL next season after fielding a makeshift team of youth players and loan signings in the junior MHL in the meantime.
In April Lokomotiv announced it had signed new coach Tom Rowe, who was previously Carolina Hurricanes assistant coach.
