The KHL are paying players more than they could make in the NHL.
- yttrohs

The salary cap changed from a soft cap to a hard cap, set at 1.1 billion rubles (approx. US$36.5 million), but each club can waive the cap for one player transferred directly from the NHL, if he is eligible to play for the Russian national team. NHL players joining the KHL have been making approximately 65% of their NHL salaries, and have also had to deal with huge insurance costs... Oh and also factor in the KHL's reputation for having trouble paying their players.

So the belief that the KHL pays players more money is incorrect.