An excerpt from Hockeybuzz.com (Bill Meltzer):

Last year, the Russian legislature closed a loophole in the country’s labor laws that allowed professional athletes to terminate contracts with their employers by providing two week’s written notice.

Under the new law, teams have a right to demand compensation for the contract to be legally terminated. The Continental Hockey League (KHL) allows teams to demand players pay up to two-thirds of their contracts in order to secure their early release.

Citing these rules and noting that he’s proposed a $200,000 transfer fee as part of a new transfer agreement, KHL president Alexander Medvedev has offered the Nashville Predators a $200,000 payout to release Alexander Radulov from the last year of his contract. Radulov would earn $984,000 this season if he were to play for Nashville.

In an interview with Sovetskiy Sport, Medvedev acknowledged that the NHL does not have an “early free agency fee” similar to the KHL’s, but claimed that the transfer fees Russian teams want to release their own players to NHL should be “a two-way street.” He also said that he wants to end the Radulov dispute quickly and peacefully, so the NHL and KHL can move forward with discussions toward participation in a new transfer agreement.