Panthers with two defensemen on the 4th line

[CanadienShark]

Maybe it's something that will become a trend soon; the hybrid d-man/forward. Burns and Byfuglien are the first two highly successful players at both positions that come to mind. Fedorov is another. And Paul Bissonnette obviously the best example.

 

[57special]

Punch Imlach would ice 5 Dmen to start a game against the Canadiens back when they were the "Flying Frenchman".

 

[FrolikFan67]

Why don't teams play their d-men on the fourth line as forwards? Is this serious?

Answers might be:
-they are better as D-men

Not ours lol

 

[jonlin]

Jeesus... I`ve played some hockey in my life and defensemen transit well into forwards. Forwards dont transit into defensemen. Big Buff, Karlsson, Burns, Risto, Dahlin, Heiskanen... Theese guys could play forwards in any team

 

[BlueBaron]

Jeesus... I`ve played some hockey in my life and defensemen transit well into forwards. Forwards dont transit into defensemen. Big Buff, Karlsson, Burns, Risto, Dahlin, Heiskanen... Theese guys could play forwards in any team

One exception I can think of is Federov. Bowman liked him as a D because of his skating. I think he played D for a year and a half, 2 years? (drove me insane because he was my #1 C in a keeper league ) After he moved to Carolina that game was over.

 

[VoluntaryDom]

The only reason Witkowski was ever "successful" is because it's harder to be a liability as a forward than as a defenseman. He never really did anything else but fight.

hes also v fast to be fair, and a big hitter

 

[iam76]

4 defensemen on the ice at the same time. Has this ever been done before? Does anybody have a recollection?

do we really think having 4 dmen for the cats is the same as 2 good dmen on other teams noooooooope

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

do we really think having 4 dmen for the cats is the same as 2 good dmen on other teams noooooooope

Uhhh, I didn't mention any of that. But ok.

 

[Paul4587]

Why won't teams play D-men with good offensive skillset but lacking defensive ability as forwards. Yes i'm very serious.

Mark Pysyk has been a total gem this season and Matheson played his first game as a forward and scored three points.

It won’t necessarily translate as smoothly as you would think. There are lots of subtle differences that just raw skills don’t account for.

An example is cycling the puck in the offensive zone and protecting it along the boards. These are things that dmen rarely have to do but forwards have been doing every games. Some dmen naturally could pick up that skill but a lot wouldn’t.

 

[Paul4587]

How about the Leafs then?

Not sure if they’re the best example either. Team can’t defend to save themselves...

 

[Iapyi]

Dit Clapper.

Red Kelly.

 

[Chainshot]

Currently? Nic Deslauriers was an offensive defenseman up to and in the AHL.

Classically speaking, Wendal Clark was drafted after playing defense in the 'dub and the Leafs moved him to LW. Lindy Ruff started his career on D, was moved to LW. Mathieu Dandenault switched as well. There are others but the ol' brain box is not rubbing the two functioning grey cells together much right now.

As for defensemen on the ice, I do recall Bowman rolling out a Ruff-Steve Patrick-Van Boxmeer line with Schoenfeld and Korab on defense at the start of a game once.

 

[The Macho King]

I always thought Slater Koekkoek would be a good winger. He doesn't read or react to the play well *as a defenseman*, but he is a great skater with some good instincts in the offensive zone.

 

[The Macho King]

Dit Clapper.

Red Kelly.

Clapper is the only one I can think of that was a PS All-Star at both D and F.

 

[Kuznetsnow]

4 defensemen on the ice at the same time. Has this ever been done before? Does anybody have a recollection?

Brent or Darryl Sutter played 5D on a PP once

 

[Hyack57]

I doubt we’ll see another Mathieu Dandenault style defenceman again. The Redwings used him frequently as a 12th forward or 5/6 defenceman. He wasn’t overly remarkable but he did get 2-4 Stanley Cup rings.

 

[jetsforever]

Pretty strange

 

[Khrox]

4 defensemen on the ice at the same time. Has this ever been done before? Does anybody have a recollection?

Calgary did that, the coach was annoyed at the lack of effort from the forwards. He played 5 D on the powerplay for the full 2 minutes. And then he had 4 D and a C on the ice for like 4-5 minutes later in the period.

 

[TGWL]

I believe you're referring to offensively gifted D-men who lack the defense side of being on D? I'd imagine some wouldn't be great at forechecking, playing gritty, or cycling the play. Just not what they're used to. Smith plays 4th line for NYR, he's actually decent with forechecking and being gritty, but that's where it ends. 0 offense. I'd imagine some of the more offensively gifted players would struggle with the other areas.

Which BTW, if you want a full 4th line of D-men, we can give you Smith 50% retained.

 

[Rebels57]

I want the Flyers to try Ghost on the wing but they don't have the balls.

 

[greasysnapper]

4 dman on the ice is an anti-torpedo system. Though this is really just 2 D-man being converted to forward positions. Nothing's really going on with the system play. If it was, that would be really exciting.

It was used a bit in the 60's to counter the Torpedo system. Which was one of the last true examples of a coach playing around with the way people actually play the game, the other was the trap and the variations of that. I've had coaches who've employed the torpedo system and it worked really well (4 forwards and a D, though 2 of the forwards play more of a half-forward style) we were dominant because most teams couldn't handle the pressure.

Torpedo system - Wikipedia

I've often wondered why GM's and coaches don't look at different set ups on ice. There's nothing in the rule that says you have to have a 3-2 system. Rolling a 2-3, or 1-4, or 4-1 should be options, and I think it would make team identities and builds a lot more interesting. GM's should be exploiting the market, their pipeline, and scouting expertise and and building their teams accordingly. I'm sure the big issue is, most people don't want to experiment at that high of a level, people are too scared to be original when millions are on the line.

 

[EdJovanovski]

Rangers have played Brendan Smith at wing a lot

 

[nbwingsfan]

Why don't teams play their d-men on the fourth line as forwards? Is this serious?

Answers might be:
-they are trained D-men
-they are better as D-men
-they want to play the positions they have specialized in, in some cases most of their lives
-most teams don't carry enough extra D-men to bench their forwards
-NHL coaches are sane

It seemed to work pretty well for them that game?

You guys should play your forwards as Defenseman. Can’t be much worse than your current D situation.

 

[sxvnert]

Brilliant move. That way you don't need to carry an entire fourth line and you have an extra pairing for PK or to rest the other six on ES. Wouldn't be surprised if this becomes a trend in the future.
There are a ton of D out there who should be forwards (Barrie, Gardiner...)

 

[BlueBaron]

It seemed to work pretty well for them that game?

You guys should play your forwards as Defenseman. Can’t be much worse than your current D situation.

Thanks for the random attack on my team, hope you get lots of likes.