He's going to get about ~34m over the next 6 seasons if he can keep his nose clean. Including ~7m this year and 7.3m next year. Now his take home would be less than that. A good accountant gets that to maybe 20-24 over the term, and nearing 10m over the first two seasons. KHL salaries for certain players can be higher, but we don't really have anybody in that realm today (in the past we've seen 4-6m). Ship has been around $2m, but is closer to 1.25. IIRC the top paid player last season was Shalunov at 1.5m. They are not quite tax free, but the taxes are far lower... we're looking at ~13% vs 35-40% (excluding escrow since indications are that will be a low percentage and refunded the next few seasons).
Now Nuke could easily be the highest paid player. What that price would be is really up in the air. The Kuzy news, if it happens, could give us a realm. If it is say $4m, then once we get past the next two seasons... that gets competitive especially as we get to the 4.8m final 3 seasons of the deal.
Where I think this factor comes in is if Nuke violates again and gets suspended for a full year without pay. For ease, just say that happens at the end of this season after he's been paid out. He'd miss out on the 7.3m for 25-26. Meaning his deal would only be guaranteed if he could return for a total of ~20m through 2030. Assuming a 35% tax rate, he'd simply need to make ~$15m in Russia over that term to break even. If he could command ~3m a year, that would cover him and there'd be little risk of him losing his contract. This would be higher than what we have seen recently in Russia, but not outside the realm of possibility.
TLDR the next two seasons are way too high of salary for it to be considered. Following that it gets a lot closer. A year suspension without pay on his next violation could tip the scales.
