Should The Pens Buyout Brooks Orpik's Contract After This Season?

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Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik has a cult following in Pittsburgh and throughout the hockey world. He's a former first round pick from Boston College University, he was named after USA /NHL head coach Herb Brooks, he's a Stanley Cup champion, and was on the 2010 USA Olympic hockey team that lost to Canada in the gold medal game .

Orpik made his claim to fame when he simply had "the shift" in game 3 of the 2007-2008 Stanley Cup Finals against the Detroit Red Wings.

Then there was this hit....

This is what Orpik is all about, or at least this is what Orpik was all about. Orpik still gets a ton of hits, currently he's tied with Ron Hainsey for most hits by a defenseman on the season with 98. Orpik also gets a ton of blocked shots.

That's all fine and dandy, blocked shots and hits are nice, but what about actual defensive play and positioning? This season is the worst I've seen Orpik play defensively in his career. Constantly out of position, constantly allowing the opposing team to be open in the slot, or camp out in front of his goaltender.

Orpik's hit numbers are a mirage. I can't think of one meaningful hit he's had all year. Some of the hits he goes for takes him out of position, much like an even less skilled Deryk Engelland. Against the New York Rangers last night, Orpik and Engelland were paired up and boy it wasn't pretty. This picture right here will tell the entire story.

Orpik has become slow and doesn't have that edge he used to play with. Orpik has been one of the most outspoken players in the Pens organization over the years, even calling out the team publicly. That's great, but how can you call your team out when you're one of the main cogs that has become a total liability to your team defensively? And that is exactly what Orpik has become.

If you want to know how bad Orpik has truly been this year, just watch every goal scored on the Pens. That would basically be Orpik's 2013 highlight reel. The crazy thing is Orpik is a +12 on the year. But +/- doesn't really do a great job of showing how well a player performs defensively. Not to mention that, in the 10 losses this year, Orpik is a -6, with just two points.

Furthermore, Orpik has been on the ice for 45 of 94 goals that the Pens have allowed this year. That's almost half and 12 of those goals were on the penalty-kill but still. (Thanks Brian Bylstone for the info @ToonsBrian ) So basically, when the other team scores a goal against the Penguins, there's almost a 50 percent chance that Oripik was out on the ice. 

For being known as a tough rugged player, Orpik has never played a full season in the NHL. In fact, Orpik has missed at least nine games, each of the last three seasons, including 19 two years ago. Orpik often looks slow and worn down towards the end of the season, just like this season. The big hits start going away and the goals against start going up. 

Not only has Orpik played awful defense this year, he's also responsible for Sidney Crosby's broken jaw.

Orpik obviously misses Paul Martin and he should never be paired with Engelland ever again. But, Orpik makes $3.75 million a year. The Pens have a laundry list of players that they have to re-sign the next two years, and they only have around $8.5 million in cap space lined up for next season. Jarome Iginla, Pascal Dupuis, Matt Cooke, Douglas Murray, Brenden Morrow are all unrestricted free-agents after this year. I can't imagine the Pens will sign either  Murray or Morrow back. But they should and will sign Dupuis. And reports of Iginla wanting to sign back with the Pens has already been let out of the bag.

The bigger problem is the following year. That's when the contracts of Chris Kunitz, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang are up, along with Orpik's contract. Based on what I've seen from Letang this year and the Pens without Letang, I think it is vital that the Pens sign him long-term. Letang was on his way to winning the Norris Trophy this year, leading all defenseman in points.

In my opinion, Orpik is not worth $3.75 million a year. I don't think the Pens should have to suffer from another similar performance from Orpik next season. Especially at that price. So I went to capgeek.com and found out what would happen if Ray Shero and the Pens would actually buy out Orpik's contract after this season.

As you can see, the Pens would save $2.5 mil next season, which would give them around $11 million in cap space. Their blue-line would still be solid with Martin, Letang, Niskanen, Simon Despres, and I would even bring Mark Eaton back, who is a much cheaper and more dependable defenseman than Orpik.

The Pens also have a plethora of young talented defenseman just waiting to get a shot with the big boys like Scott Harrington, Olli Malta, and Derrick Pouliot. Unfortunately, the Pens will not buy out Orpik's contract and they would have to pay him $1.25 million in 2014-2015 without getting anything in return. It's simply not worth it.

Orpik just became the all-time leader in games played by a Pens defenseman. He's done more good than bad for the Pens. That being said he certainly hasn't been playing well and I definitely do not think Orpik should be re-signed to a new contract after next season. Hopefully Orpik will somehow find some magic in the old gas tank and unleash some free candy this postseason. The Pens are going to need him to be the shutdown d-man he's paid to be. So basically, he needs to play the opposite way he's been playing so far in 2013.