Longtime NHL defenseman Brooks Orpik has announced his retirement. We recently spotted him doing volunteer work at Fort Dupont.
When Orpik signed a five-year, $27.5 million contract with the Capitals five years ago, a former Caps beat writer described the move to me as ‘stupid.’
But it stopped being an issue last year as he was traded for a second-round pick with Philipp Grubauer to the Colorado Avalanche. Then he returned to the Caps last year for about a million.
Considering Orpik’s age at the time (he was about to turn 34), and the length of the contract, the move did indeed seem odd, though it’s possible Matt Niskanen, who also signed with the Caps at the same time, wanted Orpik to come with him from Pittsburgh, and it was a package deal of sorts.