The paycheck of the entire KHL is Maxim Shalunov.
Juha Metsola played in Salavat Yulev Ufa last season. ZUMAWIRE / MVPHOTOS
Russian media Sport-Express recently listed KHL’s most earning players. There were also Finns in the list of 160 names, although foreigners have escaped the KHL.
The highest paid Finns are the goalkeeper Juha Metsola and the attacker Teemu Pulkkinen. They can be found in the 13 shared places on the list.
Their annual earnings are 65 million rubles, or about 1.07 million euros.
Before the war in Ukraine, Metsola signed a financial agreement with Avtomobilist Ekaterinburg, but the Finnish watchman terminated his agreement with the Russian club. His new address is in Kloten, Switzerland.
Instead, Pulkkinen would be the only Finn to play in Russia next season.
– He has a year left on the contract. He will be back with one hundred percent certainty, Pulkkinen’s agent Aljoša Pilko told the Russian Championat.
They also made it to the list Miro Aaltonen and Jyrki Jokipakka, but they, like Metsola, made their dealings in Yekaterinburg before the events in Ukraine. The duo’s contract papers were canceled by the players, causing them to enter the player market.
According to IL data, Aaltonen would be heading to Switzerland and Jokipakka will return to the domestic troughs.
The salary for Aaltonen’s contract was 60 million rubles, or about 994,000 euros. The river pack would have netted 45 million rubles, making about 745,000 euros.
Russian stars are wage kings
The highest salary in the Sport-Express listing Earns Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Maxim Shalunov. His annual salary is 90 million rubles, or almost 1.5 million euros.
The next on the list were Traktor Chelyabinsk Anton Burdasov and a third from the NHL returned to Russia Aleksandr Radulov.
Among KHL’s most expensive 20 players, there were only four foreigners. There were still 12 in last October’s listing.