Columbus Blue Jackets forward Artem Anisimov has signed a lockout contract with his former team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, the team said Thursday.
The 24 year old was traded to Columbus in July after spending four seasons with the New York Rangers, where he notched up 119 points in 270 games.
Anisimov, a product of the Lokomotiv youth system, played in Yaroslavl for two years before moving to North America in 2007.
"I’m very happy to return home and play for my native team," he told the club's website. "Almost everything has remained the same as it was five years ago; the organization is at a very high level."
It is expected that Colorado Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov will also make a lockout move back to Yaroslavl, where he played alongside Anisimov for the 2006-07 season.
Lokomotiv had to form a team from scratch for this season's championship after a plane crash wiped out its entire roster a year ago.
The deadline for averting a lockout passed last week that sparked a flurry of signings, the highest-profile of which have been Evgeni Malkin's return to Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Alex Ovechkin’s to Dynamo Moscow.
