For example, Avangard plays against Sibir in PO now. Avangard 's budget is 5 times bigger than budget of Sibir. What are the chances that Sibir will win Ava?
I assume Sibir's budget is around 20 million USD, so you are saying Ava's budget is 100 million USD? I think Ava's budget is only 2 times bigger (and a bit) than Sibir's...
Parity of the league- I think it's also influenced by the fact that rich clubs' owners have become smarter and today aren't just buying names. I mean sure one can mention CSKA and Radulov, but Radulov ain't no fake KHL star and we see that every day, also in play-offs. If you look at SKA there's barely any of the old so called ''NHL stars'' left. Yeah they still have Max but he's like not contributing much these days... and you have guys like Kucheryavenko and Osipov running the show, great buys like Panarin and Varnakov, Chudinov, Tikhonov kid... It's a team that is young and wants to win, unlike in some previous years... There are no fake stars on the team, those few who there are (Dallman, Mortensson, Toresen) have produced year in year out, others are pretty much hungry youngsters + Prucha, Kalinin and Afinogenov.
AK Bars have also been smart this year and it shows. They have Lauris Dārziņš in 4th line (mostly) and he has 3 goals in play-offs, the team is stacked and it shows, the same about CSKA and Dynamo... I'd say at the moment these 4 teams are my main favourites to win.
Also some smaller teams probably lost some potential good foreigners to Lev, Slovan or Donbass. Riga being as example.... The bigger the market for foreigners in KHL, the less valuable material is around. And taking into account that the big clubs collect all the young and perspective Russians, there's nothing much left...
Then again if all the favourites are intact, we're in for a great 2nd round of play-offs.As if all favourites advance, I don't see only Severstal or Lokomotiv as a cup contender. Others have a roster to win and can win any day, 7 teams