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Sabres Should Bring Brooks Orpik Aboard This Summer |
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By Michael Pachla
Every year aging vets with a wealth of experience who are declining physically will be headed to the scrap heap as teams re-load with youth, athleticism and/or potential.
And every year some of those vets will get picked up by teams.
The Buffalo Sabres will be doing just that as they head into the 2014-15 season.
Sabres GM Tim Murray will have some work to do to fill out the roster. Presently there are 11 returning veteran players (including Ville Leino) under contract for next season. Zemgus Girgensons is on an entry-level contract and will be returning as well. Patrick Kaleta was buried in the AHL and he could have a spot too, which leaves about 10 openings.
As it stands right now, the team has a cap-hit of about $36M and will need to spend some $16M just to get to the cap floor. Erasing Leino's $4.5M cap-hit will put them around $20M under that cap floor.
All of those spots will need to be filled and Murray has mentioned that they won't be filled completely by rookies. Both he and Nolan have said that the team will need a veteran presence to provide some leadership and guidance for the youngins.
Soon to be unrestricted free agent defenseman Brooks Orpik seems to be one of those players that Buffalo might want to take a look at.
The San Francisco born, Amherst, NY raised Orpik was taken 18th overall in the 2000 Draft (three spots behind the Sabres pick, Artem Kryukov.) He has spent 10 full seasons in the NHL playing in over 700 regular season games and 92 playoff games.
The 33 yr. old has packed in a lot of punishment in his NHL career playing a physical brand of hockey.
Suffice to say, he ain't no spring chicken.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are in a state of flux right now as GM Ray Shero was just dismissed. After a disappointing early exit from the playoffs this season, and no visit to the Stanley Cup Finals since they won it all in 2009, the team is in the process of tweaking their line-up.
According to Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Orpik will not be back with the Penguins:
"His physical play on the ice and candor off it will be missed, but an apparently serious knee injury sustained during the playoffs probably removed whatever sliver of a chance there had been that the Penguins would re-sign Orpik."
Regardless of his age and physical wear and tear, it would behoove the Sabres to bring Orpik to Buffalo.
With roster spots open and a cap-floor to hit, a veteran like Orpik on a one or two year contract seems like a good fit.
In Buffalo he will not be expected to log top-four minutes as the Sabres have at least three of those spots filled. Tyler Myers, Christian Ehrhoff and Mark Pysyk look to be those three while 19 yr. old Rasmus Ristolainen seems to have the inside track on the fourth spot. Head coach Ted Nolan could pair him with Pittsburgh native Mike Weber to provide a pretty edgy bottom-pairing.
The Sabres aren't going anywhere next season as Murray is committed to resetting the organization and redefining the team. Although he's said that he doesn't want the rebuild to be a long one he will not derail the process for a short-term run to the middle of the standings.
As for Orpik, he made $3.75M last season and a pay cut is on the horizon. Ideally he'd be picked up by a contender like a Detroit, Boston or even San Jose', but it's likely that he'll be waiting a while for a phone call this summer.
Injuries are beginning to pile up (he missed six of seven games in the NY Rangers' series) and concussion issues, thanks in no small part to the mugging he received from the Bruins' Shawn Thornton, are now a part of the overall picture. All the while, the age of 33 in the NHL borders senior citizen status for a physical d-man.
Should he not be able to find a contender for one more shot at the cup, something could (should) be worked out between Orpik and the Sabres.
Sabres Advisor Craig Patrick was the Penguins GM when they drafted Orpik in 2000 so they're plenty familiar with him. And, of course, there's the obvious Buffalo connection.
Signing Orpik would not be about sentimentality or territorialism or a "missing piece" to the playoff puzzle. It's about a player filling needs for an organization and the organization giving a player an opportunity. And Buffalo has plenty of flexibility to offer more in salary than any other team.
They will need vets to fill some of the roster spots and they might as well add some leadership in the process. Eventually they'll want to add veterans who've hoisted the Stanley Cup as well.
Orpik has already carried Lord Stanley's Cup and can fill the Sabres needs by adding some veteran leadership. He can also help himself out, by extending his career for another year or two.
Might as well bring him on board.
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