Players Who Could Play Other Positions:

[Machinehead]

MIght as well make Dan Girardi a goalie. He thinks he's a goalie and sreens Lundqvist all the time.

 

[Appleyard]

I have a feeling Nicklas Grossmann may be a better goalie than D man!

He must make ~3 ridiculous goal-line saves a season.

Couturier could play D very well I am pretty sure.

 

[Little Psycho]

inb4:

1. "Karlsson at forward."

2. "I thought Karlsson was already a forward!!!!!11111"

3. "What? It's not his fault he's playing on a weak team with no defensive partner."

4. "Every time I see him, he's failing at defence."

5. "He plays close to 30 minutes a game! It's little wonder his mistakes add up."

6. "He's just not that good at playing defence. He should play forward."

7. "You should have seen him over (insert segment of time)."

8. "You can't just take a subset of games to prove your argument. Anyone can look good in a limited sample size."

9. "His skill-set is elite - the defence will come."

10. "I don't believe you."

Had this prepared in your documents right

 

[jdatb]

Alex Burrows has played defense before, I believe.

 

[a tribe cq]

Matt Gilroy played both during his NHL tenure, so has Stu Pickles.


I think John Moore could be a serviceable LW.

 

[KrisLetAngry]

Had this prepared in your documents right

Yea. Probably just copy and pasted hfboards posteds

 

[TrustyPatches*]

Connor McDavid can coach, play defense and play goalie. FACTS!

 

[Captain Bowie]

Alex Burrows is always the guy the Canucks broadcast talks about as a defenceman fill-in if we have a couple dmen go down in a game.

Kevin Bieksa played a few games at forward earlier in his career when we had a ton of injuries at forward. I always thought he'd make a great 3rd line power forward since he actually has some decent offensive skill and ability to drive to the net and play in the corners.

 

[Cult of Hynes]

Fedorov is one that comes to mind for past players. He was placed on defense a few times in his career and did very well and honestly looked like if he played the position permanently he could have won a Norris.

Now, obviously Burns and Byfuglien. They seem to be the only ones IMO that can play both positions well.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

Player who should be playing another position, Brian Campbell. He should be playing forward.

 

[LeighDx59]

I'm sure Datsyuk could be a really solid defensman. Brendan Smith as a foward was already mentioned too.

 

[Evergreen]

Mark Streit would be a solid winger. He's not very big, and he's got amazing offensive instincts. I'm pretty sure he's played wing before as well (in Montreal).

 

[Elvs]

Brandon McMillan can play defense. Not in the NHL, but in the AHL he could probably be ok. He can also play both center and wing.

 

[Synergy27]

Basically every single NHL defenseman could be a "serviceable" 4th line winger at a minimum, some better than that.

I'd think that the majority of forwards could take a few shifts on defense and not look too out of place either, but the mistakes would start to pile up and become obvious over the long run.

Goalie is a different story though. Really, if you are an NHL level skater (and I mean the skill of skating, not the positional distinction), you can play both forward and defense without looking completely lost, at least for a short time.

 

[leafsgirl12]

I've heard people say Gardiner would make a good center

Gardiner did play forward during high school

 

[Levie]

Byfuglien could play Goalie

 

[Vesa Awesaka]

Anyone remember a few years ago when Calgary made all their dmen play forward and forwards play defense? Who looked better lol

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

Markov was drafted as a center

 

[Stjonnypopo]

I think a defence has a better chance of being a good forward than vice-versa. Defensive responsibility is extremely hard and thankless. Even a scrub forward gets congratulated from time to time, but a defensive defenceman can play his whole career flying under the radar.

 

[MoreOrr]

Watching Krug, I'd say he could be a winger.

 

[nashpreds]

I think Palat could be a good offensive defensemen. He seems like he has the instincts an skillset for it

 

[Dellstrom]

Hamilton converted from F to D. He could be a good forward, but he's much more effective as a defenseman.

Krug played a few games at wing for us when a lot of our forwards were hurt. Didn't look awful, but he was also on the 4th line.

Bergeron could definitely be a defenseman. Has a great shot from the point and has one of the best defensive instincts in the game.

 

[CodyTheHuman]

I think Del Zotto could play forward fairly well.

 

[1989]

Phaneuf would probably do quite well as a second-line winger.

 

[OzzyFan]

As said, Streit/Buff/Burns/Gilroy have all played both F and D. Pattern? Gilroy aside, be a quality skater and/or huge and have hands for puckhandling/puck control and a high end offensive brain/abilities. So probably........Karlsson/Doughty/Letang/Subban/maybe Keith/Mike Green might still. Maybe Barrie, but he's too early to gauge. Shattenkirk might be on the border too. I really really really want to say Dougie Hamilton too, but he's so young still, but damn that talent/size/skating, I think he could easily be a top 6 forward 1 day, simililar to Burns.

F to D is harder to gauge.