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.