Does a Dmitry Orlov Capitals reunion make sense?

After Dmitry Orlov’s new team the Boston Bruins got upset in the first round in embarrassing fashion to the Florida Panthers, blowing a 3-1 lead, the defenseman told reporters on breakdown day he was open to a return to the Washington Capitals.

Now Orlov isn’t crazy. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent after the Caps traded him to the Bruins to finish out the season as part of their mid season sell off tank fest. But does an Orlov to the Caps reunion make sense?

It does if he’s willing to take a hometown discount.

Orlov is 32 and a big reason the Caps got rid of him prior to the trade deadline was that the team was highly unlikely to afford him for the high salary that he wanted.

Orlov specifically said this: “It’s tough… probably yeah. Going to talk to my agent. How I see, if they trade me, I don’t think it’s going to work out, but we’ll see.”

Orlov had been with the Capitals since 2009 prior to the trade. He spent 11 years with the Caps recording 256 points in 686 games and becoming a franchise leader in games played by a defenseman. He also had a big impact in the 2018 Cup run.

Orlov added as far as his offseason plan is:

“I still don’t know what my plan is, if I fly back to Washington or stay here, so it’s just a lot of things. Obviously gonna have to make a decision where I’m gonna be. I need to talk to my family and go from there.”

Per Ian Oland of RMNB, with the help of a Capitals fan who was there, Orlov was spotted with Evgeny Kuznetsov in the DMV. They were at Skate Quest in Reston, VA taking part in a beer league game. Gotta keep in shape I guess.

Chris Cerullo of RMNB added that the Bruins are expected to only keep one of either Orlov, Garnet Hathaway or Tyler Bertuzzi.

It wouldn’t be the first time we had a reunion and it probably wouldn’t be the last. But like Orlov, I’m not quite sure how a return to the Caps would look unless he took less money.