Defencemen that played forward? (who, when and how much, and some Coffey)

[double5son10]

Savard and Lapointe would play forward on the Montreal pp in the late 70's mainly to get a big body in front of the goalie. Lafleur would usually take the right point position. You can see some of this in the 1979 CF's. I don't know for sure if they did this against any other team other than Boston.

Both Bowman and his predecessor/successor Claude Ruel used defensemen as forwards and vice versa. Savard, Lapointe, Robinson while obviously in the HOF as defensemen, were used up front on occasion by both men. Jimmy Roberts and Rick Chartraw also played both D and RW.

Speaking of the 1979 CF, Cherry used Dick Redmond up front to take faceoffs on the PK.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

a lot of enforcers are drafted as defensemen but eventually converted to forward, where they can do less damage (e.g. belak, ciccone).

i'm unsure about marty mcsorley though. i know he played mostly wing when he came into the league with the penguins, and played both on the oilers before moving to full-time D with LA. but i'm not sure whether he was a defenseman in junior (he is listed as one on hockeydb, but he's also listed as a defenseman in pittsburgh on hockeydb, which is definitely wrong) and was converted to wing like many other young enforcer defensemen, or whether he pulled a reverse-wendel. if so, that's pretty damn impressive, especially given how good he became (thinking '93 playoffs).

 

[agent082]

According Jatkoaika.com Petteri Nummelin played 2000-2001 in Columbus most of the season as a forward.

 

[Elwood Blues]

As I recall Eric Messier and Jon Klemm did it for Colorado.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

Wade Brookbank...

 

[Elwood Blues]

Come to think of it Larry Robinson took shift as a left wing in the 76' Canada Cup.

 

[mattihp]

Lasse Kukkonen played some center for the Flyers where the coach seemed to hate his guts.

 

[Skobel24]

Staios and Belak. Wasn't Andrei Markov a forward originally?

 

[mattihp]

Staios

Drafted as a right winger!

 

[Skobel24]

Drafted as a right winger!

He's still a defenceman who played forward

 

[Sadekuuro]

Jonathan Ericsson was a center until 01-02. He was played on defense for one game, which HÃ¥kan Andersson happened to attend. For some years after Detroit drafted him he reportedly continued to bounce around between forward and defense as needed by his team.

I cannot recall seeing him play any forward in the NHL, though.

 

[vecens24]

Reijo Ruotsalainen played forward pretty extensively with the Rangers. For instance, the 1985 season he definitely played on a line with Mark Pavelich and Anders Hedberg. He also did it on occasion in 1983.

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=46411635&postcount=249

 

[Lunachicken]

If I recall, Eric Messier switched to play wing full-time because the Avalanche had too much depth on their blue line and needed some talented defensive forwards. In 2001, he played with Podein and Yelle at even strength on the third line, and with Yelle on the first penalty kill. Great shot blocker. The penalty kill may have been the exhaust port on Colorado's Death Star, but Messier was the best forward on that penalty kill.

This is correct. He actually was a pretty decent penalty killer for the Av's as a forward. If I recall correctly Stephane Yelle took him under his wing, carrying on the mentorship that Mike Keane provided for him as a PK'er. Jon Klemm, and also Brent Severyn (as an enforcer type) both also spent significant playing time as forwards for the Av's.

 

[liquid swords]

nathan paetsch skated on the 4th line for the sabres a couple times in (i believe) 06-07 and maybe even 07-08. there were definitely games he played forward in 06-07 due to the sabres cap situation, if i recall correctly. darcy had yet to figure out how LTIR worked and we carried around connolly's dead cap space for 80 games.

 

[ted2019]

Sami kapanen played D a bit I believe.

For the Flyers in the playoffs.

 

[ted2019]

Paul Coffey also played Forward for the Flyers after His Defensive skills got so bad, that He couldn't be trusted to play as a Defenseman anymore. He played the point on the PP as well.

 

[ot92s]

OK, I dared to ask in the Oilers forum too, and it seems the guys there don't remember Coffey playing forward.
http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=955797

I have read though, and probably heard too, that he did play forward (on a line). But it might be some myth, like Gretzky getting significant amounts of phantom assists, the league had an unofficial agreement of not checking Gretzky too hard, etc.

someone probably mentioned this already but you may be thinking of marty mcsorely.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Glen Cochrane, who Mark Howe has mentioned numerous times as an important defensive partner early in Howe's days with the Flyers, later played forward for parts of two seasons. He was on a line with the Sutter twins at one point.