re: NHL Free Agency Thread

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Like the Orpik deal was...

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If we're going to make the "only this team should make this deal" argument, you can make that argument with the Caps. I don't like the argument, but it's at least a logical take. Here it goes...

The biggest problem with the Caps has been a crappy defense. Last year, partly due to injuries, the Caps have been rotating AHL players as their third pair. The Caps hired Barry Trotz, and he's been given a pretty wide berth to build the team in his image. The window is now, Ovie and Backs ain't getting younger, and the Caps need to go all-in to win now.

So, if any team should overpay for D, it's the Caps. they had plenty of space and very few roster spots. And signing two way over market deals to blueliners doesn't put the Caps in cap jail due to the conservative management of the cap the past few seasons. And now a team weakness is now a team strength. The Caps drop their AHL guys back to the AHL and now have a blueline corps of Alzner, Carlson, Green, Orlov, Niskanen, and Orpik (with Erskine and Hillen as either injury replacements or, more likely, trade chits and cap casualties). The blueline went from the worst in the division to the best.

Orpik is a stay at home defensemen who ate the toughest minutes on the Penguins, plus he's a PK specialist, with the Caps lacked aside from Alzner. The Caps went from the wost D-corps to the best with two signings. Now, they are paying $5 million for a third pair D, but he's better than a minor leaguer. Or Erskine, who is an even shittier version of Orpik.

I don't entirely endorse that argument, but I see the logic. And I think for the money they spent, they could've signed Niskanen and Stralman instead. But Trotz wanted Orpik and if the cost of Trotz is Orpik... I can live with that. But I do think that a stay at home defensemen (and a greybeard -- people forget that the Caps are still one of the youngest teams in hockey) was more valuable to the Caps than to any other team, and can at least justify the overpay.

But why did it have to be Orpik? Ugh.