It's spelled KHL, before KHL, the russian highest league didn't pay that high salaries so all the drafted russians came over if they got drafted, now a pretty bug number doesn't ever come back, or just get here and then back again because they got minor league salary or missed motherland russia too much.
The KHL formed in 2008. The steering away from Russians began before then.
89 Fedorov Konstantinov
90 Kozlov
91 Motkov Malykhin
92 NONE
93 Yeresenko
94 Golubovsky Agarkov Suursoo
95 Kuznetsov Ustyogov Samokhvalov
96 Afanasiev
97 Butsayev
98 Datsyujk
99 Maximenko Borodkin
00 Semenov Seluyanov Bumagin
01 Bykov
02 NONE
03 NONE
04 Stolyarov Kolosov (Belarus)
05 NONE
06 NONE
07 NONE
08 NONE
09 NONE
10 NONE
11 Marchenko
12 NONE
So from 89 to 01, we drafted 21 Russians in 13 drafts, drafting a Russian every year but once.
In the 11 years since, we've drafted 2 or 3, depending if you count Kolosov as a Russian.
Now, maybe the Wings realized they suck at drafting Russians. Other than Datsyuk, the Russians have had lousy success with Russian picks over 20 years.
And this started before the KHL.
I would agree that the salary cap and the rookie salary cap has played an enormous role in this. But I think good Russian players are being passed over even in later rounds, where they are worth the risk.