The Nashville Predators won’t have Alexander Radulov to kick around anymore.
Slava Malamud of Russia’s Sport-Express reports Radulov has agreed to a four-year contract with CSKA Moscow of the KHL, thus ending his not-so glorious return to the NHL.
Malamud reports CSKA general manager and former NHL star Sergei Fedorov was instrumental in recruiting Radulov back to Russia, and that they have their sights set on Alexander Semin next.
Radulov’s brief return to Nashville was initially meant to help make the Predators serious Stanley Cup threats. Instead, Radulov -- along with Andrei Kostitsyn -- wound up getting busted for breaking curfew and suspended by the Predators for a game. That distraction, along with other poor play, saw the Predators get bounced out of the second round by the Coyotes.
Now Radulov goes down as the guy who did more to hinder a team’s Cup chances than helped. At least he’ll always have his performance in the first round against Detroit to look back fondly upon.
Update (10:04 a.m. ET): Yahoo! Sports’ Dmitry Chesnokov reports Radulov will make $9.2 million a year with CSKA. Safe to say he wasn’t going to make close to that in the NHL.