Sorry for the typo. Orpik actually has 170 hits. But trading him for Schenn and Rinaldo might seriously help both clubs, since it gives Washington more tough guys, and gives Arizona another leader with a Cup ring to help right the ship, who is signed through next year. Yes, his cap hit is high. That's why I threw in prospects.

any concept of trading for Lucic is ridiculous. Connor Hobbs actually looks like a good prospect, probably be better than Bowey. So PASS.

Minutes, hits, ice-time, unadjusted corsi and zone starts aren't great data points, Eli. Gotta broaden your statistical horizon and look at stats in a holistic view or else you'll continue convincing yourself that Brooks Orpik is good.

A bird in the top ten rookie defensemen in points (and producing even strength points 23% faster than Mike Green) is worth two in the AHL getting suspended for gooning it up, so, no big deal.



So, the link above to the Toronto Star says that each extra hit that a team dishes, beyond the number it takes, increases its odds of winning that game by about 1%. That's from the Toronto star. You might not believe in global warming, either, but I'm not throwing away my thermometer.

Orpik is tied with Wilson for 9th in the NHL in hits.

Now I hope you'll start watching the playoffs, sometime, instead of just listening to Milbury's ant-Caps nonsense and looking down at your beer.

That NYI trade is hilarious. Bura is a young top 6 player, while Clutterbuck is an overpaid 4th liner. Let alone we added Stephenson who's a good, young 3rd liner.

ARI trade, it would be nice to get rid of Orpik, so I would do the trade then instantly get rid of Rinaldo. Biggest waste of space in the NHL.

EDM trade is terrible too. We get an overrated dman and a terrible terrible contract in Lucic. Pass.

That's what I thought when the Islanders traded for Clutterbuck, too. And again when they signed his stupid contract extension. In this case, yeah, I don't think the Caps make that deal. But out of loyalty to the concept of the exercise, I had to try to keep this thing under the salary cap.

If anything, Bura goes to a different team for picks and prospects, one of which goes for Clutterbuck to help the Isles sign Tavs.

EDM, yeah.... Doesn't work from any perspective except hits. Maybe just Oshie for both?

Biggest waste of space that gets three hits a game in 4th line minutes? UFA this summer, so really just a rental to beat up the Pens once.

Understood. But did you bother to read the article? Hits are relative to possession. Possession can be defined by team, line, pairing and individual. If you put down your beer, and watched Tom Wilson and how he utilizes his hits (along the wall on the forecheck and in the neutral zone to regain possession) compared to Brooks Orpik whose hits are largely constrained to stagnant defensive zone & PK responsibilities while driving possession downward for the team, you'd be able to see the relative value of his quantity of hits.

Once you do that research and look at statistics HOLISTICALLY within the concept of the broader picture, get back to me. Otherwise, stop with the lazy single data point analysis.

Now, I'm sure there's a diminising return, but if each marginal hit yields a 1% increase in the chance of winning one game, having five guys who average more than three hits a game instead of two of them should give the Caps almost a 9% better chance of winning each game. Now, it would be unscientific to speculate on how much of that effect is cumulative between consecutive games in a playoff series, but if it does add up, it would explain what Krysztov Oliwa and Brooks Orpik used to do to the Caps. Turnabout is fair play.

That's a great point. I'll try to look out for that. Theoretically, the NHL doesn't count a hit unless it leads to a possession change, but I'd be interested to see the scoresheet from "the Shift," and see how that actually plays out.

Now, you do realize you're questioning my intellectual rigor by attacking Orpik on a team where I traded Orpik away for two cheaper tough guys, to let Arizona brag about his Cup ring next year? Like, I can take a bad review, but maybe read the trades first?

I am 100% questioning your ‘intellectual rigor’ if you actually believe all the things you’ve been saying about Orpik across your 10000 trades you post per day. I’d rather look at realistic deals based in fact and thought.

If you’re doing it as a sales tactic, god I hope GMBM is trying the same thing and someone buys it and takes him off our hands.

Lol. I'm admittedly partisan here, but I also think there's a lot of hyperbole on Orpik, all around this board. He's a goon/superpest who can play a regular shift of 18 minutes but not, as this year has shown, 20. Replacing Djoos with Kempny or Jerabek should get him back down to 18, and he should theoretically go back to being slow and dependable like last year. But as for overpaid, just look at the above roster. As far as goons who can play eighteen minutes a night he's in company with: Adam Larsson.

It's really too small of a market to judge. If you add in Clutterbuck and Lucic back when they signed their contracts and seemed immortal, maybe you get some comps. Then Orpik's paycheck seems... slightly above average.

If there were a football player as tough as Orpik, relative to the NFL, he would earn 100 million dollars (and get signed by the Washington football team, and never do anything meaningful again). Should we as a society reward violence? No. But should a hockey franchise compensate players for participating effectively within a set of sports rules that, according to the Toronto Star, is scientifically proven to reward violence? Yes. If they have to win to create shareholder value, then most franchises are probably contractually bound to various ownership groups to reward violence as if it were just another performance measure.

You take the violence out of Orpik's game and he's a hair better than jerabek or Kempny, which is still impressive at his age. But that only beomes relevant if you take the violence out of hockey.

You're right that Orpik doesn't crush opponents just to take away the puck. He hits them to wear them down and make them not want to get the puck. Then he leaves the puck there, and they get it, and he hits them. It's pretty sick, really, but it's within the rules of the NHL, and the Caps are better off with him in Washington than in Pittsburgh. If they trade him to a team out of the playoffs, well.... did you hear about the Derrick Brassard trade?

And I'm not honestly sure that hockey should try to eliminate all violence. I think that violence in hockey is why the armed forces buy so many ads at events. It serves a poetic function, teaching people not only about the tribalism and feuds and gang wars of America's past, or about how the perspective that someone is fighting on your side can change Orpik or Hunter from a monster into a hero, but it teaches people that the most awful and uncontrollable parts of our personalities be channeled towards positive, or at least, community oriented purposes. The goon in hockey provides metaphoric redemption to the school bully watching on TV. He provides a sense of safety in an uncertain world. If we suspend disbelief and forget that we are watching working people clobber each other for the entertainment of millionaire business owners, and allow ourselves to believe in the inherent value of our cities, then a hockey fight allows catharsis of a thousand tiny frustrations of everyone watching. A recent study showed that listening to heavy metal music calms people and makes them less likely to engage in violence. I think that watching hockey fights might serve as a similar release valve on psychic pressure. Should something more be done to prevent body checks from causing concussions? Absolutely. But as long as checks are given as negative reinforcers throughout the playoffs to try to teach opponents to stop trying to play the puck, it's worth noting that Orpik has 481 hits in 125 playoff games. Hjalmarsson has 81 in a similar sample.