I follow sports such as football(soccer) & rugby union. In these sports they have been various examples of players who were played out of position and then later had their positions switched, thereby excelling their careers.
As an example in football, the Welsh player Gareth Bale started his career in the academies and youth teams as a left back( would be equivalent to Left Defensemen in hockey). After his senior debut, he was later signed by the london club Tottenham Hotspur. In his debut season, Bale was part of a notorious streak where every game he played in, Tottenham lost. His then manager Harry Redknapp taking note of Bale's natural strength, speed, ball control and shooting moved him the field as a left winger/left forward(left wing in hockey) and his career exploded.
Examples of Bale's prowess as leftwing/forward
A negative example with be rugby player David Pocock who is a natural No 7 but was forced to as a No 8 for the Australian National team as they coaches wanted to place another great No 7 named Michael Hooper as the No 7 and have both men play on the field to Pocock's slight detriment.
Are there any examples like this in Ice Hockey?
by TheGreatPervSage_94
29 Comments
Claude Giroux, although an argument can be made that he was pretty good at both LW and C.
Dustin byfuglien switching to defense comes to mind
Bobby Orr
Old school defense 😐
to
Hybrid defense forward 😎
Ofc with him inventing it
Brett Burns started to excel when moved to defense from forward (wing I believe)
Who remembers Brent Burns playing forward.
Brent burns was drafted as a winger and switched to D
Patrik Laine started as a goalie but made the nhl as a forward.
Wendel Clark was drafted as a D and turned winger first year in the NHL
Ken Klee played wing and defense
Not really what you’re asking but Evgeni Malkin played goalie until age 12. That’s alot of progress he made in just 6 years to become an elite prospect at center.
Brent Burns is the only modern example of an elite player changing positions.
Wasn’t Red Kelly a player who played defense in hockey for years, then switched to center?
Sergei Federov played a lot of defense under Scott Bowman. He didn’t exactly enjoy it
Morgan Rielly after moving to LW in 2024/25 season.
Mathieu Dandenault for Detroit. Started as a winger but when moved to D he did much better. Fedorov did both but very well but he was obviously a goal scorer.
Johnny boychuk played a few games at F with the avs. Won the cup as a dman
Sam Bennett. Carter Verhaghe, Mason Marchment
Mark Howe went from Wing to defence in hockey (finished in top 5 in Norris voting for best d-man). Wendal Clark switched, from d, to wing, though he’d play the occasional shift upfront already. Fedorov played d for Wings, simply cause there was a need, and he was pretty dam good at it
Byfuglien was a beast at forward and was a menace when in Chicago being used as a forward. He preferred defense cause of more ice time and less skating lol. I remember an interview of him saying something like that.
Mark Howe – very good as a winger, probably even better as a defenceman.
The Rangers moved Kovalev to center for the first time in the playoffs in 1994. I remember they had him playing on the wing with Messier & Graves, but would shift him to center between Tikkanen & Larmer throughout the games. Glenn Anderson would play with Messier & Graves when Kovalev moved to center.
Andrei Markov from MTL was drafted as a forward if I remember correctly.
But as others stated, Brent Burns started in the NHL as a center for a couple of years, was average I would say, then switched to D and became an all-star at that position.
Saddened that the OP didn’t mention John O’Shea’s move to goalkeeper.
Tage Thompson is a much better center than he was a winger, and that change was like 2-3 years ago. Still waiting for team success, but it’s been a pretty obvious upgrade to many Sabres fans.
Reverse Card. Tom Glavine was drafted 4th round, pick 69 in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft. Ended up a HOF member in baseball.
Wendel clark was drafted 1st overall as a defenseman
David Ayres – switched from zamboni driver to defeating the leafs.
*whose
When the Russian Five were all on the ice at the same time they essentially played whatever position made sense given the flow of the game. Federov also played as a D from time to time and excelled.
Giroux changing from center to winger was a successful change