Welcome to our series on who wore each number best for the Penguins.
The idea is being openly borrowed from our new hockey writer, Cody Tucker, and his project at the Lansing State Journal covering all the uniform numbers worn through Michigan State football history, one that's been well received by their readers and prompted heavy discussion and debate.
Under the organization of Taylor Haase, and following the voting of a big chunk of our staff, we'll publish one new one each day until completion, which should be right around the start of training camp.
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Name: Brooks Orpik
Number: 44
Position: Defenseman
Born: Sept. 26, 1980, in San Francisco
Seasons with Penguins: 2002-14
Statistics with Penguins: 703 games, 13 goals, 119 assists in regular season, 96 games, two goals, 13 assists in playoffs
WHY ORPIK?
This was among our staff's most challenging choices, as I'll explain below, but focusing on Orpik here -- much the same way he'd powerfully stare at opponents with those famously wide eyes -- I'll start with a tale from his rookie season, a couple years after he was a first-round pick out of Boston College.
Marc Bergevin, now the GM of the Canadiens, was a veteran on that team. One day before a game in Phoenix, I asked the much older Bergevin about his mentoring of Orpik. Blunt then as now, Bergevin laughed and replied, "He doesn't need me. That kid's going to be the captain of this team someday."
That never happened, as we all know, but it's still instructive. Because in his dozen years in Pittsburgh, Orpik not only blossomed into one of the franchise's most accomplished defensemen but also an unquestioned leader who almost always went without a letter on his sweater. Dan Bylsma often spoke of that very thing, saying Orpik never needed one, that the players and coaches valued him that much regardless. That was, in part, because he'd play bad cop to Sidney Crosby's good cop. He'd take care of the rough patches while Sid would lead by example, and it was deeply appreciated by all concerned ... except, naturally, those on the receiving end.
Orpik got it done on the ice, too. Although he almost never scored -- or, really, even tried -- he did score in overtime to sink the Islanders in the first round of playoffs in 2013:
And longtime fans will never forget 'The Shift,' as this one-man demolition of four Detroit players in the 2008 Stanley Cup Final came to be known:
Three of those Red Wings hit the ice. Amazing every time I watch it. An iconic moment in franchise history.
His speed had eroded by the time he was done in Pittsburgh, but he dug deep enough to remain a viable performer for four more years with the Capitals and, ultimately, finally got that second ring in June. But for his time with the Penguins alone, from that NHL Draft I covered in Calgary in 2000 to his leaving as a free agent, he fulfilled what a first-rounder is supposed to mean as much as anyone I've witnessed.
WHAT'S HE DOING NOW?
Orpik, 37, signed a one-year deal to return to Washington just a month ago. He's far enough removed from Pittsburgh that he's had more than his share of dust-ups with the Penguins -- ask Olli Maatta about that -- but he remains friends with Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and others in the organization he knew from his time here.
IT WAS SPOKEN
"It was in the stars, I guess." -- Orpik, sharing with me his thoughts at that 2000 draft on being drafted by the franchise that was employing the legendary Herb Brooks, for him his parents had named him
"He's not going end-to-end, by any means. But, boy, he's a banger." -- the greatest coach in American hockey history, getting another one right
"No shot's a bad shot in overtime." -- Orpik, upon being teased that night in Long Island for his wobbly winner from the left point
"I mean, we've given him five breakaways, five two-on-ones and five tap-ins every game. He hasn't been his best, and he'd be the first to tell you that. But we've been terrible." -- Orpik, speaking with standard stand-up candor in defending Marc-Andre Fleury after a rough playoff game in Philadelphia
HONORABLE MENTION AT NO. 44
Robbie Brown
ANY DEBATE?
You bet. And plenty.
Because 'Downtown Robbie Brown,' as Mike Lange would dub him, put up some breathtaking numbers in his first stint in Pittsburgh, 1987-91, with 112 goals in 224 games -- literally a goal every two games -- including a 49-goal season in 1988-89. He did most of that damage alongside Mario Lemieux, but, unlike so many who just siphoned off Lemieux, he visibly gave almost as much as he got. I'll forever maintain no one has ever exhibited such an understanding of everything Lemieux wanted at all points of the rink. The two often appeared telekinetically linked.
Brown was always a subpar skater, and he had a quirky shot to accompany that. But his brains and tenacity -- embraced by the fans in part for how much he'd also irritate opponents -- more than made up for both.
Here's Ron Hextall's famous chasing of Brown around the Civic Arena ice after a goal against the Flyers in the 1989 playoffs:
He had a second stint with the Penguins, 1997-2000, for which he'd dramatically -- and I'm talking 180 degrees -- reinvented himself as a defense-first forward, but he still pumped in 38 goals over those three seasons.
Tomorrow: Taylor Haase has No. 45.
Yesterday: Conor Sheary