Russian Star Headed to Predators Alexander Radulov, the two-time most valuable player of the K.H.L., has bought out the remainder of his contract with the Russian club Salavat Yulaev Ufa and will join the Nashville Predators of the N.H.L. later this week, his Russian agent said Monday. "You can say that the contract was bought out," the agent, Yuri Nikolaev, told the daily Sovietskii Sport Monday. Radulov wrote a letter of resignation. He loses the portion of his K.H.L. salary that was to have been paid by April 30. But the Ufa club retains the rights to the player through the 2012-13 season. Nikolaev said Radulov went to the club's headquarters in Ufa, the capital of the Bashkir Republic, on Monday to complete the buyout of his contract. According to a report in the Russian daily Sport-Express, Radulov was expected to fly to the United States as soon as Tuesday. The first games the Predators play after Radulov's expected midweek arrival are at Pittsburgh on Thursday, at home Saturday versus Winnipeg, and in Chicago on Sunday. Radulov, the K.H.L."s career leading scorer and a mainstay of the Russian national team, is considered the best player skating outside the N.H.L. He jumped his Nashville contract to join Salavat Yulaev in 2008. The Predators retained his N.H.L. rights through the end of this season. Last week the N.H.L. ruled that he could rejoin the Predators without passing through waivers. His return to the N.H.L. after a four-season absence has been the subject of heated speculation over the past week. Radulov joins a Predators team believed to be taking its best shot at a Stanley Cup before salary cap issues force the breakup of the roster. Led by a defense duo considered the best in hockey, Shea Weber and Ryan Suter, and the top young goalie Pekka Rinne, the Predators had the third best record in the Western Conference on Monday morning, with 92 points from 72 games. His departure for Salavat Yulaev in the summer of 2008 touched off a bitter dispute between the N.H.L. and the K.H.L. and resulted in an agreement between the two leagues to respect each other's contracts. Radulov's departure from the K.H.L. on Monday was done "cleanly and honestly," Nikolaev said. Nikolaev said Radulov and Salavat Yulaev have a contract for next season, "with the caveat that Sasha has a right to play the 2012-13 season overseas." But if there is an N.H.L. lockout or strike next season, Nikolaev said: "There is no problem for Sasha to go back to Ufa. He can decide to start the new season in the K.H.L. It's all in his hands. During his brief stopover in Ufa on Monday, Radulov also received a souvenir puck from Ufa fans, commemorating the three teeth he lost when he was hit by a stick earlier this season in a game against Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg.