Put a massive athlete on skates

[10Ducky10]

Buff

 

[Mbraunm]

It’s pretty rare that a huge human being can have endurance, adequate one step acceleration and sufficient coordination to make the NHL. In addition to Chara, Byfuglien is listed on nhl.com as 6’5” and 260 lbs. Is 260-280 the upper end range?

 

[wej20]

He used to be quite fast, that's correct, I actually forgot how fast he was. I'm just biased from having watched so many games of him in the KHL being a slow and useless goon. There's a huge difference in agility.

Watch Perron turn with the puck on his stick, he can turn on a dime. Artyukhin needs as much space to turn as a fully loaded 18 wheeler.

For sure, there is that famous coast to coast goal from Artyukhin, you can see how bad his puck skills are as he almost loses it at one point even though he's not under any pressure.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

For sure, there is that famous coast to coast goal from Artyukhin, you can see how bad his puck skills are as he almost loses it at one point even though he's not under any pressure.

Artyukhin is the type of player you custom create on NHL 18 just to demolish people with big hits

 

[ImpartialNHLfan]

Put Teen Wolf in skates.

 

[HaNotsri]

Zlatan Ibrahimovic - great athlete, split vision and ball control. His talent could compete with the best hockey players if he started at a young age.

Other than that... Maybe some 100m runners? Should be able to become good skaters.

 

[IamNotADancer]

Bob Sapp would be a fantastic shot blocker since he'd be on the ice all the time anyway.

 

[LMFAO]

It’s pretty rare that a huge human being can have endurance, adequate one step acceleration and sufficient coordination to make the NHL. In addition to Chara, Byfuglien is listed on nhl.com as 6’5” and 260 lbs. Is 260-280 the upper end range?

Byfuglien weighted 305lbs when he got arested for his boat DUI.

 

[NoName]

Shaq playing hockey in his prime would have been insane. Even better, just imagine him if he was in the 70s or 80s.

He would have been a god.

 

[CuriousGeorge]

First of all I just want to say that this thread is kinda dumb. But maybe it will be fun too.

I want to speculate- could you put an absolutely massive athlete in the NHL, and would it be effective, and how would it work?

I don't watch other sports so I'm bad at examples, but let's say Shaq at 7'1" 325. Or some big football player, I dunno.

Have him train his ass off at skating for a couple years and keep feeding him a truckload every day so he doesn't lose weight.

A couple discussion points:
- What position would he be best utilized at? A goalie could block a ton of the net but probably wouldn't be agile enough. A defender would be a rock, you wouldn't have any Holmstroms being effective, but you could probably skate around him (unless he gets good with a long ass stick a la Chara). A winger could just go around crushing people and keeping everyone scared to put their head down (but could also be easy to dodge). Or do you just park him in front of the net all day (but then you have to have an accurate shot to get it around him)?
- What actual hockey player (NHL or otherwise) is closest to this?
- How would you play against him?

And I guess just be creative and talk about whatever you want. I just found it amusing imagining this big sumo tank guy on the ice and wondering if it could work.

EDIT:
Just some numbers

Shaq: 7'1 325
Suh: 6'4 305 (I don't know anything about football but I've heard of that guy so I'm using him)
Byfuglien: 6'5 260
J J Watt: 6'5 290 (never heard of him but sure)
Chara: 6'9 250
John Krahn: 7'0 440 (googled "biggest football player", got a high school guy lol)
Domi: 5'8 213 pretty good example too considering he's a foot shorter than these other guys.
Hakuho: 6'4 344 (googled "best sumo wrestler- that one would be interesting to see!)

So yea. Chara isn't really what I was thinking because he's lighter relative to his height. Byfuglien is surprisingly close to the other big dudes listed. So I guess he is the thread. Also, it's interesting given my position discussion that he has played both forward and defense at the pro level.

Uh, have you heard a player named Zdeno Chara by any chance?

 

[iamjs]

Didn't Manute Bol lace them up in the IHL, or some indy league? Only for a shift, I think, or maybe even just warmups.

walked out for warmups. I'm not even sure if he was wearing skates.

 

[Vankiller Whale]

I'd say the only player close in size to Shaq who was still skilled enough to play hockey professionally was Dustin Rose. Oh, what could have been.

 

[North Cole]

Shaq would be best utilized as a goalie, but he would have to go 80's style or his knees would be done within 2 years. Not that his knees weren't punished by BBall anyways... I don't think it's really feasible for a guy over 320 pounds to skate for an NHL career. It's like basketball, where big feet can support your weight, turning in skates puts all the pressure on his ankles. Any high ankle injury like Eichel is a career ender.

Like, maybe Larry Allen could skate, because he was a freak of a nature. It works for Chara because he is physically special. A 7ft centre in the NBA is not anywhere near the shape of Chara, so I just couldn't see it working.

Larry Allen is the huge dude that makes the tackle:

 

[me2]

I’ve seen people mention “oh but a sumo wrestler in goal”...

Well, someone else thought they’d have a look too;

Worked for Anaheim in 2007.

 

[TheOtherOne]

It’s pretty rare that a huge human being can have endurance, adequate one step acceleration and sufficient coordination to make the NHL. In addition to Chara, Byfuglien is listed on nhl.com as 6’5” and 260 lbs. Is 260-280 the upper end range?

I kinda doubt we've seen anywhere near the limit. Consider that hockey is a pretty niche support. Not many kids grow up with it because of cost and environment. On top of that, most of the biggest freak athletes will tend toward football, basketball, or even fighting. So I've doubt we've seen the equivalent of Shaq on ice yet.

 

[Chip39]

James Harrison would be terrifying on skates.


JJ in college used to say he could play in the NHL if he wanted too. We always blew it off.... he probably could have

 

[FinRuutu]

Hafthor "The Mountain" Björnsson is 6 ft 9 in and weighs in at 441 lb and has a decent cardio for someone so massive. I'd bring back enforcers just to have him sit on a bench giving opposing team mean looks.

 

[westc2]

At a certain weight they would just start destroying the ice and make in unplayable and dangerous for everyone else with all the deep grooves and divots.

 

[lilmaxo]

Brock lesnar

 

[SotasicA]

Could possibly make a good enforcer.