PITTSBURGH — The question comes up often in Nail Yakupov’s meetings with NHL scouts and general managers. And even though the 18-year-old Russian is still learning English, he can’t help but tense up the second he hears the letters “KHL.”

The player projected to be the likely No. 1 pick when the NHL Draft gets underway in Pittsburgh on Friday understands why he’s continually asked how committed he is to playing in North America.

“In the draft they don’t want to wonder if some player is going to KHL,” Yakupov said. “They just want to (us to) play in NHL and work hard.”

Yakupov is growing tired of repeating himself, but skepticism is part of the territory now that the once fertile pipeline between Russia and the NHL has started to dry up. The bigtime paydays — not to mention shorter schedule — of the Kontinental Hockey League has many Russian stars opting to stay home rather than lace up their skates halfway around the world.

All Yakupov can do is shrug his shoulders and stress — again and again — that he prefers the Stanley Cup to Gagarin Cup, the one awarded to KHL champions.

“I say just what I feel inside and I say I want to play in the NHL,” Yakupov said. “It’s not my deal what teams think, if they don’t trust me or not. I want to play in NHL.”

So do two other players with Russian ties counted among the top forwards available, Alex Galchenyuk and Mikhail Grigorenko. All three pose high-risk, high-reward scenarios. If clubs get skittish, defenseman Ryan Murray from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada could rise to the top spt.

The Edmonton Oilers have the No. 1 pick for the third straight year and while general manager Steve Tambellini says he’s “comfortable” holding onto it, he’s not ruling out shipping the selection elsewhere if another team provides a package that would give the struggling franchise an immediate lift.

Though the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Yakupov insists he’s ready to play now after lighting up the Ontario Hockey League the last two years, some teams remain concerned if Yakupov and other high-profile players with Russian ties will bother playing in the NHL at all. The KHL, started in 2008 as an offshoot of the former Russian Super League, can offer

“There’s so much money in the KHL right now, it’s very easy for those guys to say, `I’ll take my $5 million and go play in Russia for two or three years and then I’ll come back,”’ Buffalo Sabres director of amateur scouting Kevin Devine said. “Well, it never becomes that easy.”

The prospect of entering a bidding war with the KHL has led to a steep drop in the number of Russian players selected in recent drafts. There were 18 Russians taken in the 2004 Draft, including top overall pick Alexander Ovechkin and No. 2 pick Evgeni Malkin, who won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s MVP on Thursday night.

There have been 16 Russians selected in the last two drafts combined. The Boston Bruins were fresh off a Stanley Cup win last summer when they grabbed winger Alexander Khokhlachev in the second round. Even the prospect of joining an elite team couldn’t stop Khokhlachev bolting for the KHL.

Sometimes, even when they do agree to play in the western hemisphere, there are no guarantees.

The Nashville Predators took a flier on Alexander Radulov in the 2004 Draft and eventually signed him to a contract. Radulov played two seasons with the Predators before signing a deal with the KHL’s Salavat Yulaev Ufa.