Price is Right: Should Canucks follow Leafs' lead and try a forward on defence?
I’m not going to say there’s no baseball fans here in BC because of course there are. But the died in the wool “I-love-hockey-and-only-hockey” fans probably haven’t waded too far into the idea of the shift in baseball. Or position-less basketball.
Many hockey fans probably felt secure that this sort of positional anarchy would never touch their beloved sport. Only… it might.
Maple Leafs experimenting with Mitch Marner as a defencemen. Would be situational but interesting nonetheless. Like having an offensive-minded right shot at the point.
— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) September 29, 2022
Sheldon Keefe of the Toronto Maple Leafs has shocked onlooking media by using prolific forward Mitch Marner as, gasp, a defenceman in practice! It will be “situational” says the Leafs coach, so don’t expect to see him on a regular pairing. But ultimately, it’s a departure from traditional hockey norms.
We’ve seen forwards pressed into duty on the blue line, more often though it’s been defencemen moved up to forward. Usually because of shorthandedness on the roster due to injuries or otherwise.
But from pure strategy? Can’t say that’s been a thing outside of Dustin Byfuglien’s and Brent Burns’ more permanent position changes.
And after all, why not? Not all skaters will have the skating and edge-work to make it possible, but certainly some forwards do. And while the old view of defencemen was that they needed to be big and bruising, that has become antiquated, and anybody with the right ability could theoretically be an asset on the blue line.
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The Canucks have NHL level depth at defence this season, but the big question there would be “is the depth good enough to make them a playoff team?”
Maybe, just maybe, the Canucks would be a more dynamic team by sending four forwards and one defenceman out, at even strength. And that might be the best way to describe it. It’s not so much a forward playing defence, as much as it could be three forwards, a defenceman, and a rover.
Soccer coaches change formation from game to game, turning players from one position to another. Soccer coaches change formation depending on whether they have the ball or don’t. Same could be true for hockey.
Could we see a day when Conor Garland is a defenceman under Bruce Boudreau? Well, I wouldn’t search for that kind of prop bet just yet. But depending on how things go in Toronto, those sorts of moves may not be far away.