Former Thrashers Assistant Brad McCrimmon Among 43 Killed in Russian Plane Crash

ATLANTA - Former Atlanta Thrashers assistant coach Brad McCrimmon was among the 43 passengers killed in a plane crash in Russia Wednesday.

He was most recently on the Red Wings staff and was named head coach of the Lokomotiv Yaroslav team of the Russian KHL League, the team he was traveling with Wednesday.

The plane was carrying the Lokomotiv ice hockey team from Yaroslavl to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where the team was toplay Thursday against Dinamo Minsk in the opening game of the season for the Kontinental Hockey League. The ministry said the plane had 45 people on board, including 37 passengers and eight crew.

McCrimmon was an assistant with the Thrashers from 2003 through 2008, and served under Bob Hartley in the team's only playoff appearance.

'HE'D DO ANYTHING FOR YOU'

Friends of McCrimmon said on the ice or off of it, he was always thinking and talking hockey.

”When you think of Brad, he's so passionate. He loved to talk hockey and discuss and when he was finished talking to you, he’d get on the phone and call somebody else, said Steve Weeks.

Steve Weeks coached with McCrimmon for five years with the Thrashers. He also played against him and coached him over the years.

”He was a weste Canadian kid, salt of the earth, Weeks said . ”He’d do anything for you."

The team was on their way to their first game of the season, McCrimmon's first as coach.

”His dream was to be an NHL head coach and this was an avenue he thought would best get him that, being a head coach, and this was a great opportunity, said Weeks. ”He jumped at it…was really looking forward to it excited about going."

McCrimmon's nickname as a player was ”The Beast, and with the Thrashers, he eaed a reputation for his strong opinions and straight talk.

”He had a couple favorite words and you'd hear them often in a conversation...as an adjective, a verb, a noun, you'd hear them over and over, Weeks said.

Weeks says in the NHL McCrimmon stood out with his big heart and passion for the sport.

”There are an awful lot of people throughout the hockey world that are going to miss that, Weeks said.

McCrimmon's wife and two children had stayed behind in Detroit while he was in Russia.

McCrimmon was 52.