Ex-New Jersey Devils winger became one of KHL's highest-paid players

Things did not exactly work out with the New Jersey Devils over the course of a few months, but former trade acquisition Daniel Sprong has secured himself a nice payday over in Russia's KHL.

According to agent Darryl Wolski, with contributions from Hockey News Hub, Sprong, 28, is the fourth-highest paid player in the KHL based on his base salary, and become the top paid player if he reaches his set bonuses.

Here's the list from Wolski's post on X Saturday afternoon, in USD:

Sprong made himself a decent amount of money in the NHL over the last few seasons; Sprong had a $2 million cap hit with the Detroit Red Wings in the 2023-24 season and a more standard $975k cap hit with the Devils, Vancouver Canucks, and Seattle Kraken last season.

Before that, the Dutch winger was playing on an entry-level contract and veteran minimum contracts that never exceeded a cap hit of $750k.

So, while Sprong never scored a goal with the Devils and ended his season with just two goals, five assists, and seven points in 30 games between three teams, he found a way to more or less maintain and potentially exceed his 2024-25 salary.

Defense is not as big of a priority in the KHL as it is in the NHL, which is why there is such an emphasis on adaptation and "playing the right way," as we've seen in the past with players like Nikita Gusev and Yegor Yakovlev.

In a short amount of time, we will see how incoming rookie Arseniy Gritsyuk handles those challenges as a 24-year-old on a one-year contract.