Agree with Atas2000.
The reason why the KHL plans to cut teams is a big gap between top teams and the worst one. It is not only about money for players salaries, but also non-hockey things like quality of an arena, TV broadcasting, fans interest for new (VHL) team from other KHL clubs fans (related to attendance, TV ratings = bussiness), etc.
Another reason for reduction of teams in the KHL is a fact that the league has too many Russian teams, so can not expand to other markets. If there was a relegation/promotion, it would mean that better KHL Russian team is substituted by worse Russian VHL team. Makes no sense if the KHL wants to expand to abroad.