{"id":5007,"date":"2025-10-15T00:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T00:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/5007\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T00:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T00:50:09","slug":"san-jose-sharks-happy-to-have-dmitry-orlov-after-carolina-hurricanes-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/5007\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks happy to have Dmitry Orlov after Carolina Hurricanes exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 Sharks defenseman Dmitry Orlov might have needed a change of scenery<\/a> after an up-and-down tenure<\/a> with the Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

San Jose might have been the ideal landing spot<\/a> for Orlov, at least in the eyes of Hurricanes coach Rod Brind\u2019Amour.<\/a><\/p>\n

Orlov signed a two-year contract<\/a> with Carolina in 2023 and had a combined 54 points in 158 games, with Brind\u2019Amour saying the 5-foot-11, 215-pound Russian was much better in his second year.\u00a0But that didn\u2019t prevent Orlov from absorbing a lot of outside criticism<\/a> for his play during the Eastern Conference final in May, as Carolina was eliminated in five games by the Florida Panthers, who would go on to win their second straight Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0disastrous 6-2 loss<\/a> to the Panthers in Game 3,\u00a0Orlov, playing on the right side to accommodate rookie Alexander\u00a0Nikishin, was minus-4 with a handful of turnovers. Jalen Chatfield, who was paired with Orlov for most of the season, missed the series against the Panthers with what was later revealed to be a hip injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWasn\u2019t his best, but that\u2019s the top team, right?\u201d Brind\u2019Amour said of Orlov\u2019s East final. \u201cWe were missing his partner, and there\u2019s a lot of things that went into that. But overall, (he\u2019s) a professional, and you get pretty much the same every night out of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what you\u2019re getting, and that\u2019s why he\u2019s probably a good fit for the group he\u2019s (with) now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orlov, a left-shot defenseman, signed a two-year, $13 million contract<\/a> with the Sharks on July 3, making him the highest-paid player<\/a> on the team\u2019s active roster.<\/p>\n

Going into Tuesday\u2019s game against the Hurricanes, Orlov was tied for the team lead with three points, all assists, and led the Sharks in average ice time per game (21:49).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I signed in Raleigh, you expect one thing,\u201d Orlov said in July after he signed with the Sharks. \u201cWhen (your play is not) showing up or the coach is not believing in you, and it\u2019s always the bottom (pair). Everybody has their own story and own career.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I learned on my way, and I just need to be more focused as an older guy, more experienced. \u2026 Right now, it\u2019s a new chapter, a new fresh start for me with a new team, a young team too. So it\u2019s going to be a new experience for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he went on to win a Stanley Cup, he might have said he loved his time,\u201d in Raleigh, Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said of Orlov. \u201cWe like him here with our group. He\u2019s doing the things we\u2019ve asked him to do. Works hard. He\u2019s in the gym, he\u2019s in the meetings. He\u2019s prepared. So, he\u2019s been a good fit for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orlov is getting used to a vastly different system with the Sharks than he was asked to play with the Hurricanes, and has also played with three different defense partners in three games.<\/p>\n

Orlov was with Shakir Mukhamadullin in last week\u2019s opener against the Vegas Golden Knights, rookie Sam Dickinson on Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks, and was slated to be paired with Mario Ferraro,<\/a> playing on the right side, for Tuesday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe leaves it all out there. He competes hard,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cPlaying against him last year, below the goal line, he can end plays pretty quickly. He gets in there. He\u2019s physical. We\u2019ve seen it a little bit right now, so he\u2019ll get more and more comfortable. We\u2019d like to get him set with a (defense partner) and let them roll here for a few games.\u201d<\/p>\n

MESSAGE TO GRAF<\/p>\n

With center Michael Misa making his NHL debut Tuesday,<\/a> the Sharks scratched winger Collin Graf from the lineup. Graf had been the third line right wing for the Sharks\u2019 first two games, but with Misa on that line, Ty Dellandrea was moved to the right side, with left winger Philipp Kurashev moving from the first line to the third.<\/p>\n

Warsofsky said he wanted to keep his fourth line of Adam Gaudette, Barclay Goodrow, and Ryan Reaves intact, leaving Graf, a leading penalty killer who averaged 15:33 in ice time the first two games, as the odd forward out Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like Graf has been playing horribly by any means,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201c(I\u2019d) like to see a little bit more conviction out of his game, playing along the inside, finishing checks. We don\u2019t expect him ever to be a guy who puts guys into the boards and breaks the glass.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we need a bit more conviction from him. He\u2019s been good on the penalty kill, so we\u2019re going to miss him in that area. But early in the season, we don\u2019t want to keep guys out too long here. I want to get some different looks.\u201d<\/p>\n

WAIVER WIRE<\/p>\n

The Sharks placed winger Egor Afanasyev<\/a> on waivers Tuesday. Acquired from the Nashville Predators in June 2024 for forward Ozzy Wiesblatt, and signed to a one-year deal in July after he spent a season in the KHL, Afanasyevn had one goal in three preseason games and began the season on the injured non-roster list. If Afanasyev clears waivers, he\u2019ll be assigned to the Barracuda of the AHL<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 14, 2025 at 2:43 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 Sharks defenseman Dmitry Orlov might have needed a change of scenery after an up-and-down tenure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,401,402,404,88,90,89,98,198,403,200,127,77],"class_list":{"0":"post-5007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-inside-sports","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-san-jose","14":"tag-san-jose-headlines","15":"tag-san-jose-news","16":"tag-san-jose-sharks","17":"tag-santa-clara-county","18":"tag-sharks-alert","19":"tag-south-bay","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}