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.
Are there any examples like this in Ice Hockey?
5 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
I don’t think so
Bobby Orr
Old school defense 😐
to
Hybrid defense forward 😎
Ofc with him inventing it
Doesn’t really happen much in hockey tbh, even finding W – C or vice versa would be a bit tricky, mostly correlation =/= causation
Really interesting question
But unfortunately limited