St. Louis Blues Player to Defect to Russia… Will Pay LOWER TAXES

It’s an Obama world.
Vladimir Sobotka

St. Louis Blues hockey player Vladimir Sobotka may sign on with the Russian team Omsk in the KHL next year. The KHL comprises 30 member clubs based in Belarus, Croatia, Finland, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Russia and Slovakia. Sobotka would pay less taxes in Russia.
Sports Illustrated reported:

The St. Louis Blues aren’t ready to cut ties with Russia-bound forward Vladimir Sobotka just yet.

The 27-year-old restricted free agent signed a three-year contract with Omsk of the KHL earlier this week after he couldn’t come to an agreement with the Blues. But the team and Sobotka’s camp have plans to meet again on July 21 in Toronto for a club-elected arbitration hearing.

The arbiter’s ruling will set Sobotka’s salary for the season in which he returns to the NHL … whenever that may be.

It’s another odd turn in a relationship that didn’t need to go sour. Sobotka is coming off a season in which he set a career-high with nine goals and 33 points and led the league in face-off winning percentage (61.9)…

It was easy for the player to draw a line in the sand considering that he had the KHL option in his back pocket all along. But it turns out the multi-year Russian offer was nowhere near as lucrative as the $4 million per season that was originally reported. Instead, an agent says it pays Sobotka just $8.5 million over three years, with $2.5 million coming in 2014-15. Taking state and federal taxes into consideration, he’s still making more in Russia despite the lower dollar amount, but the minimal difference paints a picture of a principled stand rather than a cash grab.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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