Gun-slinging owners, mandatory overnights in remote team bases, sometimes before home games, and even planting illegal drugs on high-priced players whose team owners want to stop paying is all part of life in the wild KHL, a hockey league that, high-profile warts notwithstanding, has quickly established itself as the second-best in the world outside the NHL.

The KHL was started in 2008 with the support of then-Russian President Vladimir Putin. Its aim was to create a strong cross-ocean rival to the NHL, a league that the best European players, particularly the best Russians, would call home.

The KHL has attracted Alexander Radulov, a former Nashville Predators star forward, goalies Ray Emery and Evgeni Nabokov, and veterans such as Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Yashin, Maxim Afinogenov and Alexei Kovalev, players whose skills may be on the decline but who still draw fans.

Spurred by Putin, who sees the KHL as a showcase for national pride, KHL team owners, which include natural gas, mining and construction companies, are throwing millions at journeymen and stars — more money than they could ever see in the NHL.

Simpson made $400,000 tax-free each year over two seasons with Chekhov. The most he ever made in 12 NHL seasons was $500,000.

“You’ve got taxes, team dinners, going out, tips, there’s just a lot more that you blow your money on when you play in the NHL,” he said. “You come to Russia and there’s not as much you do besides play hockey. You make $400,000 in the KHL and it’s like making $700,000 in North America.”

Afinogenov arrived in St. Petersburg last year after playing 651 NHL games with the Buffalo Sabres and Atlanta Thrashers. While he made $15 million in an NHL career that stretched from 2000 to 2010, he never earned more than $3.5 million a year.

His five-year contract with St. Petersburg’s KHL team will pay him more than $20 million (again tax free) over five seasons.

“I remember calling my agent Donny Meehan and telling him I was coming to Russia and he said to me, ‘don’t go, you can still play in the NHL,’” Afinogenov says. “But I’m happy here. It’s good hockey, good money.”

Fat paycheques aside, Simpson and others agree the KHL remains “a pretty crazy place.

“You would have to have spent some time in Russia to understand,” Simpson said, adding that at least five times, he’s seen car crashes where “a person that was dead was left on the road with medical staff or police standing around looking like not much was wrong. That’s Russia.”

The story of Dave King’s time coaching in the Russian Super League is told in the appropriately named book, King of Russia: A Year in the Russian Super League. Written with distinguished sports writer Eric Duhatschek, the book is journal-style, with each “paragraph” having a date in front of it. Almost every day, King would write little entries about his adventures coaching Metallurg Magnitogorsk, one of the top professional teams in Russia. He offers an inside look into Russian hockey, as well as the day-to-day lifestyle of those who live there.

Prior to the NHL lockout, no Canadian coach had worked as a head coach in Russia, meaning Dave King was the first. He had previously been Canada’s long-time national team coach, and had also been head coach of both the Calgary Flames and Columbus Blue Jackets.

The book introduces us to current NHL players Nikolai Kulemin and Evgeni Malkin, before they became what they are today. Throughout the book, King would highlight Malkin’s growth, both on the ice, and off it. When King first arrived in Magnitogorsk for the 2005-2006 season, Malkin was one of those players who played the game like he was the only one out there. However, as the season progressed Malkin learned the value in using his teammates, players like Alexander Kaigorodov, and the late Igor Korolev.