This isn’t some rebuilding or emerging team. Bowey’s development will happen on its own.
No Freaking Chance you hand a tie to the newbie over the guy that just helped you win a Cup. That would be insane. These hockey players are human (so many people forget that...it’s absurd) and they obviously believe in Orpik. All of them. It was obvious...I should hope you saw that.
Look, I get that I’m posting in Hockey’s Future Forum. So the young kid will always trump the grizzled vet.
However, that’s not real life, nor should it be....if you think for a second that any coach (much less his confidant Reirden) would bench the leader of the defense, an assistant captain, and one of the backbones of the summer Cup run, you are crazy.
It shouldn’t happen, and it won’t.
If Bowey plays lights out over the season and wins the job, then great. But Good Lord would it be foolish to start the season with Bowey as 6 and Orpik as 7. Reirden knows this. The team knows this. It’s ok that you don’t.
We can agree to disagree.
a.) The team doesn't
know anything until we've seen it. That'll take camp+, so, no.
b.) People "agree to disagree" on opinion, not fact. If you'd like to present your opinion as an opinion we can agree to disagree, but it's another thing to play both cards simultaneously and it's not exactly the friendliest look.
c.) The italicized goes both ways. If Orpik shows up and plays like he's 30, nobody (myself included) would bat an eye at him starting over a young player with plenty of time left. What we're doing here, and would be doing in any projection of the coming season whether this website has the word 'Future' in it or not, is trying to figure out how likely that is moving forward, and it's simply not very likely at all that Orpik improves. It's only barely likely that he treads water. I don't know why you seem to think Brooks Orpik is getting locked away in a time capsule when he's not being used.
d.) All of these romantic reasons you've given are just that, romantic. They won't make him a better player, and that's what the Capitals should be looking for in training camp. They are arguably the reason he was re-signed this off-season, but weren't enough to save him from being traded and subsequently bought out. You should value that at about what it brings to your hockey team: a locker room/practice presence, a role model for young professionals, and
maaaybe some hockey games when necessary.
e.) These hockey players are
human, they
believe in Orpik. So what's stopping Orpik from telling them "yeah, I'm fine with it. You're all still hung over anyway so let the kids take October, I'll still be here in February if you need me." It's only some awful sleight destined to cause locker room drama because you've decided it is, but you can
easily spin it the other way where ol' uncle Brooksy has bigger fish to fry, he's got a whole second career he's training for, and he's literally still there whenever the team collectively needs him.