Will Kovalchuk’s move to KHL inspire other Russian stars to leave?

Before leaving for Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League at the start of the NHL lockout, Alex Ovechkin suggested that he and his fellow countrymen might stay there if a new collective bargaining agreement reduced their salaries.

So it wasn’t far-fetched when Ilya Kovalchuk considered staying in Russia in January, even as hockey in North America resumed without a salary rollback.

“There was tremendous pressure placed on all of the top Russian players at the end of the lockout to stay in the KHL,” player agent Allan Walsh said in an interview Friday. “And they were offered huge money — upwards of $10 million — just to stay and play the balance of the season.”

Kovalchuk, Ovechkin and other stars, like the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin and the Detroit Red Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk, returned. While Malkin and Datsyuk recently signed contract extensions to keep them in the NHL long term, Kovalchuk announced Thursday he was retiring at the age of 30 to go home.

That voided the final 12 years and US$77 million of his contract with the New Jersey Devils and ended what was believed to be months of indecision about his future. But Kovalchuk’s departure also raised a host of questions about what’s next, and whether his move will start a trend of Russian players bolting for the KHL.

Most tend to believe it’s an isolated incident, with two agents and one former agent and general manager singling out the once-in-a-generation circumstances that led to Kovalchuk leaving and the Devils permitting him to go without keeping his contract in place or preventing him from signing with a KHL team.

“I don’t think it’s an epidemic or anything like that,” agent Mark Gandler said. “I think each person makes his decision based on the circumstances that he’s in, based on his environment, his family, his upbringing.”

When Kovalchuk decided to file his voluntary retirement papers, he all but blocked himself from returning to the NHL. Coming back would require him to sit out a year or get approval from all 30 teams.

“I think these are very unique circumstances,” said agent J.P. Barry, who represents Malkin. “How many players would want to remove the NHL option from their future? Because by doing this voluntary retirement, they’ve essentially done that.”

Malkin did not want to do that, and he had a choice to do so in the near future. The Pittsburgh star’s current contract expired after the 201314 season, and Barry said there were multiple offers from KHL teams for Malkin’s services.