League offered Evgeni Malkin $12.5 million a year while he’s still under contract. The league apparently is being propped up by Russian billionaires, led by Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev, the Russian government and the country’s hockey federation. League has a $22.5 million salary cap, vs. $60 million cap in NHL. The KHL tried to lure top teams from other European leagues and was unable to get even one, leaving it with a number of backwater Russian cities that have 5,000-seat rinks and charge the equivalent of about five bucks a ticket.