Theo Fleury, Russ Courtnall and Russian figure skaters on for Battle of the Blades

While our dream of pairing Sidney Crosby and Olympic champ Tessa Virtue won’t become reality for this year’s Battle of the Blades, and Tie Domi has declined an encore performance, the list of participants for CBC’s smash hit provides ample reason to tune in for another Kurt Browning-hosted season of awkward NHL/silver blade skate-offs. The theme for this season is “the Russians are coming,” which explains the inclusion of Russian-born figure skaters Violetta Afanasieva and Ekaterina Gordeeva (the latter an Olympic gold medallist in 1988 and 1994), and former Habs and Flames winger Valeri Bure, who enrolled on the request of his wife. New NHL recruits include Russ Courtnall and Theo Fleury, while Shae-Lynn Bourne and Jamie Salé will return. The full list of participants, after the jump.

Hockey players Patrice Brisebois Valeri Bure Russ Courtnall Kelly Chase Theo Fleury Georges Laraque P.J. Stock Todd Warriner

Figure skaters Violetta Afanasieva Shae-Lynn Bourne Isabelle Brasseur Jamie Salé Ekaterina Gordeeva Christine Hough-Sweeney Kyoko Ina Anabelle Langlois

Battle of the Blades premieres on September 26.

• Meet the new teams for Battle of the Blades [Toronto Star]