I think you may be oversimplifying it. I think there is a good chance Rykov chooses to play for NYR. In part because you are there, the goalie and Kovalchuk may be joining him, and a solid ex-pat community exists in NY. I am not sure that he would have wanted to play for NJ. Either way, the player has to take a pay cut to begin an NHL career, which means it is the off ice part of the equation that has to appeal to him. Some Russian players have come and gone and some have taken years to arrive. It varies and each situation is unique. I agree it's a bad narrative in that it assumes that the same factors weigh the same for each player.
So did Tarasenko not want to play in St. Louis? These players want to play in the NHL. They understand that they don't get to pick their initial destination. I don't think they even are accustomed well enough to American culture that they'd really care about where that is the first few years.
The pay cut issue is also made into a bigger deal than it is. Most of these players at 18-23 year olds in are not paid 5M per year. Even if they are really good, they make like 1M-3M, which compared to an NHL ELC and performance bonuses can be made up easily over the course of a career. The problem is them having to play in the AHL where they only make 70k. The NHL ELC pay compared to KHL pay for players in the 18-23 range is not that much of a difference.
And I don't think NJ fans should be trashing Rykov out the door with the "He's Russian, he'll never come over anyway" type of mantra. I'm not saying thats exactly what you are saying, although it kind of seemed like that, but I'll take your word. Either way, you guys still have some good prospects over in Russia who might play for your NHL team, and I don't know why the mindset wouldn't be that they'll come over once they are ready for the NHL, and help your NHL team.