University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's hockey alumni Mike Pelino earned his third Gagarin Cup serving as an assistant coach with the KHL champions Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

Pelino joined the staff of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl at the midway point of the 2025-26 KHL season, stepping in as an assistant for former NHL head coach Bob Hartley. The defending champions would go on to finish the regular season in first place in the Tarasov division, making a postseason run that would culminate in a 4-2 best-of-seven series win over Ak Bars Kazan in the Gagarin Cup Final.

"It is outstanding to be a part of a championship team anytime and especially to win for a third time," said Pelino. "Winning never gets old, and I learned a long time ago to celebrate each and every victory.  It is always so great to win.  Coming part way through a season, and making a contribution for Lokomotiv to win, especially knowing what the city and the organization had needed to deal with following the tragic crash of 2011, and to remember my friend and colleague Brad McCrimmon who died in that crash, made it even more special."

Pelino competed with the Varsity Blues men's hockey team for five seasons from 1979 to 1984, winning two Queen's Cups (1982, 1984) and a national championship with U of T during the 1983-84 campaign. He registered 142 career points as a Varsity Blue with 21 goals and 121 assists.

"I am so so proud of having been a Varsity Blue, and so proud to have been a part of the University of Toronto. The people I met and played with at U of T, the coaches I had, all had an influence on me and helped shape my life. The friendships I made over those years are still with me today and I so grateful at having made the decision to attend the U of T and become a part of the Blues' family."

Following his time with the Blues, Pelino has had a long coaching career spanning the university ranks, CHL, ECHL, AHL, NHL, KHL, and several national teams. He helped guide Canada to a World Junior Championship gold medal in 1996-97, and World Championship gold and a Spengler Cup in 2002-03. Serving behind the bench in over 600 KHL games, Pelino previously won the Gagarin Cup as a member of Mike Keenan's Metallurg Magnitogorsk staff in 2014 and 2016.

"I have been very blessed to have had such a long career in coaching. I was blessed with an incredible amount of role models, coaches and teammates along the way where I have learned so much to help me apply my career as a coach. Tom Watt, Mike Keenan, Gord Davies, Al Fleming, Ron Harris, Paul Dennis, Bill Purcell, Paul Titanic.  I learned so much from my teammates over the years - especially from the U of T teams."

"U of T was so special to me in so many ways and for that I will always be thankful. Everything from going to my classes, to our practices, to being a part of the golf team, our games and trips with the hockey team, playing intramural football, the dressing room, sweeping Varsity Stadium as a team, laying the basketball floor down in Varsity Arena, refereeing intramural hockey, eating as a team at Hart House and New College, life after U of T and staying involved with these friends - hockey tournaments, golf tournaments, fund raising events, so so many wonderful memories!  I could go on and on...but in a nutshell – it is just so special to be a U of T Varsity Blue Hockey player."