Russia's invasion of Ukraine began at dawn on February 24.

Five days later, the Russian hockey play-off Gagarin Cup started with a total of 22 Swedes in the 16 play-off teams.

Many foreigners decided to leave the league relatively immediately, but only two Swedes chose to do the same: Lucas Wallmark and Joakim Nordström.

Which meant that, according to information to SVT Sport, they lost as much as SEK 13 million.

SVT Sport has searched for Wallmark and Nordström without success, but the players' agent Claes Elefalk writes the following in a text message:

"We do not comment on the negotiation in detail, but the players waived substantial sums to get out of the agreement, which lasted until May 2023. The agreement itself is of course confidential."

"Left a number of millions"

Dynamo Moscow's André Petersson also chose to break his KHL contract after the club qualified for the quarter-finals.

How much money he lost is unknown, but the contract was written around the turn of the year and only extended over this season, so it should not be about huge sums.

One who has a good view of the situation is the International Ice Hockey Federation's former head of communications, Szymon Szemberg.

- Once they decided to break their agreements a few days after the invasion, we know that both Wallmark and Nordström left a number of millions on the table when they withdrew from this season, but also about ten million kroner was what they had earned next season .

What is important to them is the moral stance and not the money.

The lost money demonstrates the importance of conviction in the players' decisions.

To some extent, they will get back some of the money because they are so good that they will most certainly be able to get a contract in Switzerland, but there they get a maximum of 3-4 million per season because the Swiss teams pay their salaries based on hockey-related income , not salaries from oil and gas-related revenues that they use in Russia, says Szemberg, who is now CEO of the European Club Alliance, EHC

The remaining Swedes have chosen to stay

The remaining KHL Swedes have chosen to stay in the league.

Arguments such as that it would be difficult to get out of the contract or that you as a player risk becoming a so-called one-year case do not hold in Szemberg's eyes at all.

- Absolutely not.

In addition to the fact that about fifteen players have already terminated their KHL contracts, the international ice hockey federation has decided on the biggest sanctions that the federation has ever imposed against any individual country.

There is, of course, a clear position behind this.

Why they did it is because Russia started an unprovoked invasion war against another country where war crimes and genocide are committed and it is completely unreasonable that the same organization would punish a player who stated reasons of conscience when they want to leave Russia, says Szemberg.

According to him, there is only one reason why the Swedish players fulfill their contracts: money.

Partly the rubles they have left to earn in the future, partly the rubles they may be forced to pay back because they break the agreement.

How the contracts are designed differs from player to player, but in some cases it can be about substantial sums they are forced to pay back.

The better the player, the more favorable the clauses.

- All Swedes and also other foreigners who continue to play do so of their own free will, and the only reason they continue to play is money.

For a professional athlete, there are two driving forces: honor and money.

And in playing in the KHL today, there is no honor at all, it's just about money, says Szemberg.