I don't see this working out, since the major knock on Hodgson has traditionally been how poor he is defensively. Of course, that's now being overshadowed by that fact that he's poor *offensively* as well.
That's the thing of it "traditionally". It's become a tagline the kid can't shake an inch, despite that he's actually been far more defensively sound this last stretch.
Here's the thing - Hodgson was scouted not merely for his offense (playmaking/shot/vision/IQ), but also for his two-way play. Obviously a junior scouting report isn't a guarantee of a kid's NHL future, but it does mean there's potential to develop. In Hodgson's case, whatever potential he had (has?) to develop a two-way NHL game was skewed by how his rookie and sophomore years went down.
He sustained an injury as a pre-rookie that was originally misdiagnosed by the team's med staff and got called out in the media by the coach for making it up. Eventually though, they got another opinion which proved the coach had foot in mouth syndrome, and with the team's permission Hodgson worked his butt off (paraphrasing Gary Roberts here, from his smack down of Canucks' management after the trade fiasco) to come back from the injury.
And that's how he started his 1st year; playing your standard limited minutes in a "sheltered" rookie 3C role behind Sedin and Kesler. But Kesler was floundering with an undisclosed injury himself and the team as a whole was desperate for offense, so media started up with the constant hammering of why Hodgson wasn't getting more ice time, speculating a "rift" between player and coach over the misdiagnosed injury (media's rhetoric here would end up leading to teammate jokes and eventually fans deciding Hodgson himself demanded icetime or a trade, blah, blah, blah).
All the while, Hodgson himself was plugging along, head down, mouth shut, just another rookie starting to apply his trade at the NHL level. January he's rookie of the mouth, February he's traded for the unproven Kassian. Asked about the surprising and unpopular trade, Canucks GM explained it's a good deal all around - he wanted the Canucks to get bigger (Kassian) and the Sabres needed a top six center (Hodgson).
But the trade became increasingly unpopular as Kassian was benched, scratched, etc. and ultimately the Canucks flopped out of the playoffs due a wholesale lack of offense. To deflect the continued media scrutiny of the trade when people felt the team really could have used a 3C Hodgson over a scratched Kassian, the Canucks GM spoke two sentences which inferred Hodgson was an "issue". For his own part, Hodgson, who just continued to keep his head down and mouth shut, he was drop shipped into the 1C role on the Sabres.
You'll know the rest of the story. Net result is that he went from being a raw rookie who needed work to translate his two-way scouting report into anything that would be serviceable at the NHL level, straight into a pure offense role heaped with the expectation to produce points.
And he did alright, even pretty good considering the team's composition and constant changes (coaches, roster, expectations, his own role, etc.). But this year? Take away his skilled linemates and his ice-time, and you've got what we see now - a young man who is dealing with more public humiliations by keeping his head down, mouth shut, working thru the mess, and turning in far more physical and defensively sound games than earlier on his career.
So, despite your jab at his offense and his "traditionally" dismal defensive game, he has proven he can produce at the NHL level and he *had* the two-way potential at one point - can it be developed?
There's nothing to say that he cannot essentially "go back" and develop/improve his two-way game, and I'm increasingly of the opinion that's precisely what shown capable of doing. Fact is, he's not nearly as much the liability has he used to be, even just measuring from the start of this season.
Ergo my theory that if he can continue this defensive improvement and continue the work ethic he puts into his off-season training re: skating, strength, etc., then you can slot him back with skilled linemates and have a guy with proven offense who can also play at least an average defensive game.
It's possible Hodgson may owe Nolan a Christmas basket and thank you card one day.