So - does this mean the NHL 'salary cap' for players may end up getting ...errr... 'looked at' or something?

The implication is that a cap-less Russian league could poach all the best players, similar to what happened during the (NHL) strike season.

I seem to recall hearing that one of the Russian teams (one from central/eastern Russia, IIRC) that year actually had the highest single-year wage bill in hockey history and something like the 4th-highest in all of sports history - in the region of $100million dollars, I think.

This is all just from my (slightly tipsy) memory though, so those figures could be somewhat off.