The Colorado Avalanche are not planning to keep Brooks Orpik around for long.
The Avs acquired Orpik and goalie Philipp Grubauer in a trade with the Washington Capitals on Friday. Washington made the move in an effort to clear cap space to re-sign John Carlson. Colorado wanted Grubauer and plans to buy out Orpik.
Joe Sakic confirms #Avs intention to flip or buyout newly acquired D Brooks Orpik: "I told him I owed him the respect to let him know that the plan is to buy him out and let him be a free agent. I'm sure he'll have a lot of teams that'll want to add him to their group."
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 23, 2018
“I told him I owed him the respect to let him know that the plan is to buy him out and let him be a free agent,” Avs exec Joe Sakic said on Friday, via TSN’s Frank Seravalli. “I’m sure he’ll have a lot of teams that’ll want to add him to their group.”
Orpik is set to earn $4.5 million in the final season of his contract and holds a $5.5 million cap hit.
Orpik is highly respected around the league and coming off winning his second Stanley Cup. The 37-year-old defenseman had five points during the Caps’ postseason run, which was half his point total from the regular season.
