Russian hockey players have risen in price

Deals involving two Russian hockey players were among the most notable on the first weekend after the opening of the free agent market in the NHL. A great game last season helped sign very expensive contracts to defender Dmitry Orlov, who moved from the Boston Bruins to the Carolina Hurricanes, and goaltender Ilya Sorokin, with whom his New York Islanders club decided to conclude a new eight-year agreement without even waiting for the expiration of the term actions of the current one.

The free-agent market that opened on July 1 in the NHL immediately exploded into a machine-gun burst of deals. There were more than a dozen of those in which hockey players were involved, not ordinary, but claiming, if not for key, then at least important roles. And two deals with Russian hockey players were among the most notable.

Defender Dmitry Orlov made the second transition in six months. Orlov started last season next to Alexander Ovechkin at the Washington Capitals, the club where he spent his entire North American NHL career, which started back in 2011. The Russian was the leading defender of “Washington”, but in February, having already, it seems, spitting on the unsuccessful fight for the playoffs, he exchanged him for “Boston”. And this step, apparently, sharply raised Orlov’s quotes.

Boston went on to win the regular season with a record-setting record, but was cut off in the first round of the playoffs by the Florida Panthers.

Nevertheless, personally for Orlov, the Boston segment turned out to be successful. He has always been distinguished by an exceptionally balanced game: that is, he was useful both in defense and in attack.

But it was Orlov’s attacking skills that flourished in Boston. And their club managers usually appreciate especially. In 23 games of the regular season for this club, Dmitry Orlov scored 17 points, scoring four goals – only two less than he had in those 43 meetings that he played in the season for Washington. In seven playoff games, Orlov added eight more points to them.

The result of this surge was the interest in him that appeared after Orlov acquired the status of a free agent from another very strong club, which the same Florida stopped in the semifinals. The interest is indicative in terms of assessing the potential of a 31-year-old Russian. The fact is that the defense could not be called weak, in need of urgent reinforcement by the Carolina line, which has a whole group of classy defenders from Brent Burns, Jacob Slevin, Brett Pesci and Brady Shay. But she still felt compelled to take advantage of the spot under the salary cap (it was set at $82.5 million last season and will likely be raised by just $1 million next season) to offer Orlov a very expensive contract in including in comparison with the previous agreement of the Russian player for over $5 million per year. This is a two-year agreement for a total of $15.5 million.

Orlov was just a little short of getting into the top 20 defensemen of the league in terms of the average annual salary (he now has $7.75 million).

With Ilya Sorokin, there is also a curious case, though it has nothing to do with the concept of a “free agent”. Sorokin’s old contract with the New York Islanders will run for another whole season. However, the club’s management decided that it was necessary to save the Russian in advance for the long term. And the reasons for this approach are clear.

American analysts had no doubt that if it were not for Ilya Sorokin, with his 92.4% saved shots and the ability to constantly correct mistakes in situations that look absolutely hopeless from the outside, the average, unremarkable Islanders in the spring would not have been able to seep into the play- off. Last season was indeed a breakthrough for the 27-year-old goalkeeper, who is in his prime and ready, apparently, to progress further. And the awards for him were the second position after the Bostonian Linus Ulmark in the competition for the title of the best goalkeeper of the league and a pre-signed contract with impressive parameters.

Its term is eight years, and the total cost is $66 million.

Thus, on average, starting from the fall of 2024, Ilya Sorokin will receive $ 8.5 million per season, twice as much as he receives now.

Formally, this is the fourth indicator among goalkeepers, according to Spotrac. But in fact, the leader of the rating ($ 10.5 million per year), Carey Price, due to health problems, has actually retired from his career. So Sorokin is ahead of only two of his famous compatriots – Sergey Bobrovsky of the Florida Panthers ($10 million) and Andrey Vasilevsky of the Tampa Bay Lightning ($9.5 million).

Active weekend, meanwhile, did not destroy the intrigue in the free agent market. It left a few hockey players with sonorous names without contracts with clubs. And among them there is, for example, Russian forward Vladimir Tarasenko, who finished last season with the New York Rangers.

Alexey Dospekhov