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For the second time in the span of a couple of days, a Washington Capitals player has asked for a trade from General Manager George McPhee.
First it was forward Martin Erat, who was acquired by Washington in a trade earlier this calendar year. Most recently it was defenseman Dmitry Orlov .
Orlov has been bouncing back and forth between Washington and AHL Hershey (luckily it's not more than a couple hours away on the road) but hasn't played in the NHL yet this season. He is continually called up just to sit in the press box before being sent back to Hershey.
He and his agent have had enough of the yo-yoing and so agent Mark Gandler asked the Capitals to trade Orlov away because there is clearly no future in Washington for the 22-year-old. From Chuck Gormley of CSN Washington:
"Obviously, what Dmitry would like is to be traded," agent Mark Gandler told CSNWashington.com Wednesday, "because he has no future in Washington whatsoever, zero chance for him.
"I think his value as a player is diminishing with every day and the team is losing valuable time and also ruining his career."
The reason that Orlov has been going back and forth without playing in Washington was explained by Katie Carrera of the Washington Post on Tuesday: Orlov has a clause in his contract that says if he doesn't spend 30 days with the Capitals before Jan. 1, he can head to the KHL. By continually bringing Orlov up, he has racked up 19 days on the NHL roster so far.
Orlov played 60 games with the Capitals in 2011-12, scoring three goals and 16 assists in nearly 17 minutes per game. Since then he has only played in five NHL games for a mixture of reasons from injury to apparently not being in the favor of coach Adam Oates. The former second-round pick is just 22 and has a lot of upside, a player who GM George McPhee has referred to as being NHL ready and somebody who can play in the NHL now, it just isn't happening in Washington.
Maybe McPhee will try to kill two birds with one stone if possible and make Orlov and Erat a package deal. The addition of Orlov to any possible Erat deal makes the offer look a lot more enticing.
