Dmitry Orlov has signed a new contract with the Washington Capitals.

Nice move by Washington.

Ok, so I think this can kinda go either way. As a player, Orlov is young and a 6 year contract brings him to like 31 years old. From there, depending on how he played over those 6 years they can decide what to do with him. Another thing is that the contract isnt too massive, especially for a 6 year deal.
My only concern is Washingtons Cap space. they only now have about 12Mill cap space remaining with several players currently unsigned. Now, they could trade some of them, but there are at least 7 at this point in time, including players like Shattenkirk who was a big part of the Caps blue line strength last season. If I could change anything about the signing, maybe a 4 year deal at about 3.75 Million a year, which could free up some much cap space.

Shattenkirk, Williams, and Alzner will all sign elsewhere. Winnik will also go elsewhere (but that barely matters), the concern now is signing Burakovsky and Kuznetsov. Burakovsky is worthy of a 4 year deal, while Kuznetsov needs to go long term. Also Grubauer needs to be signed. Whatever turn this takes expect WSH to fall back next year as Columbus and Philadelphia improve immensely. Washington should still make the playoffs, but another President's trophy is a unlikely, and beating Pittsburgh is now improbable.

Ya, maybe third in the metro but I dont see anything better.

I wouldn't rule out 2nd. With a core of: Ovechkin, Oshie, Backstrom, Kuznetsov, Niskanen, Orlov, and Holtby WSH still has something left. But it matters not, if you can't beat Pittsburgh you not getting far. Pittsburgh rules the Eastern Conference.

True

I'm a Philly fan, but WSH is still way better than us. We'll have probably the youngest defense in the NHL with Gudas (27), Ghost (24), Morin (21), Provorov (20), and Hagg (22) starting with Sanheim (21) & Myers (20) vying for spots throughout the season. That's one good vet (Gudas), two bad vets (Manning/AMac), four rookies, one second year player (Provorov), and one third year player (Ghost) on the blueline. Then factor in that our forwards will have Weal/TK as second year players and Patrick/Lindblom/Vecchione as rookies and we are going to be severely inexperienced to start the year. If Voracek/G bounce back we might be a better team, but with the emergence of CAR and other teams in the East we might regress record wise just due to lack of experience and proven NHL'ers. I'm hoping for improvement and a playoff spot but at this point I'd be wary to pencil us in. Especially with Neuvy/Stolarz/Elliot/etc. as goalies. Backstrom/Kuz/Burk/Oshie/Ovi/MJo/Nisk/Orlov/Carlson/Holtby has a significant edge on us at this point and I don't think it's even close lol.

Now, back to the contract, I think it's a good deal but I think they had to overpay to essentially keep him form going back to the KHL. I like Orlov a lot and he's probably a better well rounder defender right now than Ghost but they should have got similar deals IMO and WSH just had to ante up a little extra to dissuade him from looking elsewhere. Overall, good deal. I absolutely hate the Oshie deal though.

I really wasn't sure about this deal at first, then saw he was like a +30ish or whatever... Figure he has enough offensive upside to maybe score 10 goals in a season with 30-40 points or so... I remember when it looked like he might bolt for KHL or not stick around Caps... He still is a lower cap hit than Sekera or some other players, maybe he is well liked in the locker room or good for the team chemistry... The last two years are not bad if they have to buy him out eventually. So its a 4 year contract if he don't produce as they expect, he probably could have got this much or more on the open market anyways so its fair enough...

Ah, yes, plus-minus, the most meaningful of all statistics.

I don't put much stock in +/- though it does matter more for Defense than forwards... Drew Doughty had +24 with only 51 points... While King Karl had 82 points with a weak -2, Brent Burns had 27 Goals 75 Points with a -5. This year Burns has 29 Goals 76 points with +19 winnings Norris... Compared to King Karl having a +10 with only 71 points getting edged out. Orlov had a previous high of +8 on a stacked Capitals team with 8 Goals 29 Points. So I think its a pretty good step to have a +30 when Drew Doughty won Norris with a +24 while having 33 points a career high...

All stats have meaning if are able to apply them properly... People spew out advanced stats which really mean nothing in many cases... Who cares how much possess a puck or this or that... It matters the situations... Like if having the possession when ahead, trailing, tied... If down 3-0 but win the possession numbers some idiot will think oh we are doing so great or this player is good... Well if team is bad always trailing by multiple goals there is a chance might have the puck more for that reason alone. Forwards like that guy who was on the Predators have an easier time to jump off the ice to avoid taking a -... Or the top players on a bad team might get a high minus rating from being on the ice for empty net goals... While a good player on a team might pad his +/- by situations he plays in or avoids. There those who get many points on the PP so their - rating might be higher than others who get their points 5/5 or short handed. HE is only 25 when often D-men don't pan out or so until 28 to 30, least Capitals will have him under contract if he pushes 40 or 50 points already.

Jack Johnson was like a -90 on his Kings career before being traded for Jeff Carter... Two Cups later I still like that deal while others were big fans of him crying about it at time . I do think its a good sign when a player more than triples their + rating as a defender though. Maybe he will flop, its not like Capitals are ever going to win a Cup or probably even appear in a final in my lifetime .

My point was "plus-minus isn't even that good of a statistic, period." It counts even-strength goals and short-handed goals, but not power play goals, which seems like a very arbitrary distinction. And plus-minus doesn't correlate in any way, shape, or form to point-scoring, nor does it really indicate how good a defender may be. Jeff Schultz led the league in plus-minus in '09 - '10, and he's pretty much washed out of the NHL. It's some weird hybrid team/individual stat that fails to really say anything meaningful about either entity.

It's a good deal ... the team won't be any worse for it. He's locked up for a number of year so if he over performs going into his true prime (25-31yrs old) they win big.

I think Washington's problem starts at the top. Oveckin. He doesn't offer what other guys making that money do. Most are centers who take face offs and make their team mates better. Washington has some AMAZING forwards. Much better then Pittsburgh out side the top 3. The difference is Kessel grew out of being simply a goal scorer, and Malkin and Crosby always have have been more then goal scorers ... Ovy and Oshie not so much. Play them with a 3rd line player and their numbers will drop off a lot. Play Crosby with two 3rd liners, move Kessel all anywhere you want, and they win a championship or 2.

Pens didn't compare talent for talent to WSH this past year, but they win when it comes to playing up, rather then playing down, to the talent they have because of the kind of players they have.

Like Kane, compared to Toews. Kane will make his line mattes better, where Toews plays down to his line mates. Which is why Kane lost his line mate to get Toews' his back. Panarin trade for Saad.