Mark Howe's positional switch and award voting

[Regal]

I'm wondering if anyone has any info on Mark Howe's switch to defense from left wing. I've read various articles on it, and have seen a couple things on here, and the majority say that he switched to defense full time after his injury near the end of the '80-81 season.

Yet, in looking at his award voting, he finished 5th and 10th in Norris voting in '79-80 and '80-81 and 5th and 7th in All-Star voting those same seasons. Was this just a mistake by the voters?

It seems odd that they would make that mistake, considering he had just come from the WHA, where he had just won a first-team all-star at LW. I could see if he was known as a defenseman before those seasons, and voters didn't realize he had made the switch, but that's not the case here. Did he play defense as well during those seasons, or perhaps make the switch earlier than is usually suggested?

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[BM67]

Mark played most of the 80-81 season on D, and a good chunk of the 79-80 season as well. Making the "switch full time" doesn't mean that he didn't play more D than F over his first two years.

Howe made the transition to the NHL with ease, scoring 80 points that season. Coach Don Blackburn moved him back to the blue line to improve the team's transition game and quarterback the power-play. Later he was moved back to forward to add offensive punch and check the opposition's top scoring line.

- http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SearchPlayer.jsp?player=10668

Midway through the 1980-81 schedule, there were many who felt Mark Howe had become the NHL's best defenceman. He outpointed Larry Robinson, Randy Carlyle and Borje Salming in all-star voting at that time.

- NHL Pro Hockey '82-'83

 

[Regal]

Mark played most of the 80-81 season on D, and a good chunk of the 79-80 season as well. Making the "switch full time" doesn't mean that he didn't play more D than F over his first two years.

- http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SearchPlayer.jsp?player=10668

- NHL Pro Hockey '82-'83

Thanks. I'm not sure why I didn't notice that in Legends of Hockey. I kept seeing things such as this from Greatest Hockey Legends

Howe played primarily as a left winger in Hartford, but by 1981-82 he was playing more and more on the blue line. He would play the rest of his career on defense.

http://whalerslegends.blogspot.com/2007/06/mark-howe.html

As well, in an old post on here about when players switched positions, Pnep listed Howe as LW for his first two season in Hartford.

Both Legends of Hockey and NHL Pro Hockey seem like more reliable sources than what I've read though.

 

[BM67]

Mark played more LW in 79-80 than D, but still played a good chunk of the year on D. Still mostly thought of as a LW.

In 80-81 he did still play some LW, but not nearly as much, and was generally regarded as a D from this season on.

http://www.hockey-reference.com/players/h/howema02.html

Take a look at his +/- numbers. His TGF was the same in 81 as it was in 80, but he played 13 fewer games and had 15 fewer points. In fact he led the team in TGF despite only playing 63 games in 81. A pretty good indication of the amount of time spent as a D. Hartford actually scored fewer goals in 81 than in 80.

 

[overpass]

Howe scored 60 even strength points in 1979-80. Larry Robinson was next among defencemen with 41. The next season Howe only scored 38 points at even strength. While not conclusive, this suggests that he played more forward in 1979-80.

 

[Dark Shadows]

Howe scored 60 even strength points in 1979-80. Larry Robinson was next among defencemen with 41. The next season Howe only scored 38 points at even strength. While not conclusive, this suggests that he played more forward in 1979-80.

The next season was also the season he had a near career ending injury and he missed significant time.