Lokomotiv Extends Contract with Author of 'Golden Goal'

Forward Maxim Shalunov will remain with Lokomotiv until 2028. The Yaroslavl hockey club announced that they have signed a new two-season agreement with the player.

Maxim Shalunov is from Chelyabinsk, a graduate of the Traktor hockey school. His sports career began in 2009 with the Chelyabinsk club White Bears in the Youth Hockey League. He started playing for Yaroslavl«s Lokomotiv in 2021. Moreover, he scored his first goal in a memorable match on September 7, 2021, the day marking the 10th anniversary of the 2011 tragedy when the then-active roster of the Yaroslavl team perished in a plane crash.

In less than five seasons, the forward has accumulated 185 points — 104 goals and 81 assists. It was he who scored the decisive «golden» goal in the Gagarin Cup final.

Recall that another forward of Yaroslavl«s Lokomotiv, Alexander Radulov, was chosen as the team captain for the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) All-Star Game 2026 (6+).

The All-Star Game is an exhibition match featuring the best players of the sports league. In 2026, the KHL presented four teams: the «KHL Ural Stars» team, composed of players from Avtomobilist, Traktor, Metallurg, and Salavat Yulaev; the Russian stars team «KHL RUS Stars»; the young stars team «KHL U23 Stars»; and the legionnaires« team »KHL World Stars«.

Along with Alexander Radulov, Yaroslavl forward Georgy Ivanov will also play. Yegor Surin made it into the young stars team.