The main Russian contract of the NHL offseason! Will Orlov help “Carolina” get to the Stanley Cup?
July 1, 2023
The defender, who is in his best form, arrived at the club with the championship window wide open.
The opening of the free agent market in the NHL is good because the expected deals don’t have to wait long. And now, in just the first hour of the official market operation, the league clubs signed 35 contracts totaling almost $136 million, and part of this money went to the main Russian “batch” on the market, Dmitry Orlov. The quarterback, who finished last season with Boston, signed a two-year contract with the Carolinas.
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A native of Novokuznetsk and a graduate of the local Metallurg, he has been playing in the best league in the world for 12 seasons, and during this time Orlov not only won the Stanley Cup with Washington, but also established himself as an excellent all-round defender with the maximum set of useful qualities. Dmitry is good at both destroying and sustaining the attack, makes few mistakes, knows how to fight powerfully, and of course has leadership skills. Even while playing for the Capitals, Orlov had established himself as a top-tier defensive player in the NHL with no obvious weaknesses, and a brief stint with the Bruins only added to his value. The fact is that in Boston, the Russian showed a great performance, deserving comparisons with Zdeno Hara and Bobby Orr himself.
The playoffs for Orlov fell apart against the background of the grandiose failure of the Bruins in the first round, but Dmitry scored his 8 (0 + 8) points in seven games, confirming his revival from just a high-quality defender in a better player in his role. So it’s no surprise that some of the mainstream North American media called the Russian the top free agent of the offseason, and now, as soon as the market opened, Orlov became a player for Carolina.
Dmitry Orlov
Photo: Lynne Sladky/AP Photo/TASS
The Hurricanes have been testing the role of a contending team, a title contender, for several years now. There’s a backbone there who’s already managed to swear and fill punches in Stanley Cup games, head coach Rod Brindamore has been working on for a long time, but so far the Hurricanes are missing something, even to make it to the series. decisive of the season. . Last season, the Carolinas took a small step forward by returning to the conference finals, but there they “burned” Florida in four games, and indeed, in the next round, the Panthers were dismantled into molecules by Las Vegas.
It’s silly to say that Orlov will become the missing piece in the championship puzzle for the Hurricanes. This team lacks, above all, the variability of the attack, the ability to act in the playoffs according to the situation, and not according to the squad, the ability to think outside the box and show the spirit of the winners. And in many ways, these are questions for the coach, who seems to be hitting his own ceiling as a coach. However, the Carolinas still have a championship window open in the next year or two, the team has a lot to gain, and Orlov, who is probably at the top of his form, should be a big part of the new round of the Hurricanes Stanley Cup campaign.
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The Carolinas commented on signing a major contract with Dmitry Orlov
A cap contract of $7.75 million is pretty much what Dmitry might have hoped for. Orlov was slightly below the level of Mikhail Sergachev ($8.5 million), who was clearly ripped off in Tampa by both his youth and his contribution to two Stanley Cups in a row, but the defender definitely got his fair share of money. . At the same time, the Hurricanes did not sign a long-term contract with 31-year-old Orlov, which is also understandable: in three or four years, Carolina can go into perestroika, Dmitry can grow old and give up, and then his contract is over. will become a burden on the Hurricanes. Obviously, this operation points to the success of both the club and the player in the short term. And soon we will find out if the Orlov peak will help Carolina at the peak to become the best club in the NHL.
