[Drake]

According to Pavel Lysenkov of SovSport, Kovalchuk will be making that money up as the premiere star of the KHL – and in short order.

Lysenkov reports that Kovalchuk will be joining SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL, the team for which he played during the NHL lockout. There’s where he will “become the most-paid player in the world,” according to SovSport.
How much? He speculates that if it was “a $15-20 million per year (at the taxation in 13%)” it would not be a surprise. (No word if that's on the KHL cap or some of it off the books.)

On top of that, Puck Daddy’s Dmitry Chesnokov believes SKA could front-load the contract and pay Kovalchuk an enormous sum of money up front.

Keep in mind Alex Radulov – hardly the superstar Kovalchuk is – was making over $9 million per season with CSKA in the KHL.

Know this about Kovalchuk: His close friend is Roman Rotenberg, vice president of marketing at SKA St. Petersburg and the son of Boris Rotenberg, a friend of Vladamir Putin and a billionaire. The Rotenberg family recently bought Jokerit and Hartwall Arena in Finland.

So yeah, Kovy's getting paid.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-pu...210237775.html