10 million usd for 2years for a gm + 1 million usd to his club did they offer Skellefteå's former gm
http://www.eliteprospects.com/staff.php?staff=246.
Is ilya Kovalchuk still the highest paid player in the KHL?
Exchange rates are always changing, so the USD value of a KHL contract is always changing. Since I don't travel to Russia I don't bother to keep close track of it.
I understand that at one point Kovalchuk's contract was worth about $15MM US/year but since the devaluation of the ruble in 2014 it's been worth about half that -- or $7.5 US/year. Still a very, very healthy and respectable contract, but not what it once was.
And, of course, Kovalchuk was signed before the devaluation of the ruble and AFAIK is still the KHL's highest paid player.
So, while at one time there were contract offers from the K that were much, much higher than anything an NHL team could pay under the current CBA, that no longer seems to be the case.
If Kucherov really wants to go to Russia I'm sure he will get a highly competitive and extremely attractive offer, but it won't be anything so outrageous that Tampa Bay Lightning would not be able to meet it.
The Lightning, of course,do not have the a contractual right to match and keep an RFA outside the CBA -- so whether he stays or goes would be Kucherov's decision. I expect him to stay with the Bolts, but the KHL threat is genuine with or without the making of an "outrageous" offer.
Please forgive my derision and rudeness, which is not directed to the good people of Russia (nor of Tampa Bay), but rather to the ignorant poster that made a similarly rude comment on my own post last day and thoroughly pissed me off because there is no place for that in these fora.