Forcing Players Into Different Positions

[Gilmour1996]

Do players have protection in their contracts or CBA which prevent teams from forcing them to play positions other than their first choices? ie. forcing a player who has played C all his career to now play W...telling a LW that he is now playing RW, telling a winger that he is filling in on D because of a shortage of D due to injury, telling a winger that he is now playing the point on the PP, etc. Obviously, goalies would be excluded.

Not interested in "why would any team want to do this" answers and given that this would obviously would work best with the players' co-operation, but....simply does the team legally have the right to unilaterally make these changes if they think it's best for the team?

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[STL fan in MN]

I’ve never heard of players having any sort of protection like that in their contracts.

I’ve heard of UFAs signing with one team over another because one said they could play their preferred position but there’s still no actual guarantee in writing that I’m aware of.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

You're asking two questions, both are 'No'. Teams don't 'force' players into positions and players don't have guarantees on their position or role in contracts

Some of your hypotheticals are so unrealistic to point of not being worthy to debate (Winger being asked to play D) teams have minor league clubs with reinforcements or would sign/trade for pros who play the position if came to that.

 

[Golden_Jet]

No, players have zero choice, they can give a preference, but still up to coach .

 

[57special]

Am i the only one who read the title of this thread and started thinking about something completely different?

 

[Figgy44]

Do players have protection in their contracts or CBA which prevent teams from forcing them to play positions other than their first choices? ie. forcing a player who has played C all his career to now play W...telling a LW that he is now playing RW, telling a winger that he is filling in on D because of a shortage of D due to injury, telling a winger that he is now playing the point on the PP, etc. Obviously, goalies would be excluded.

Not interested in "why would any team want to do this" answers and given that this would obviously would work best with the players' co-operation, but....simply does the team legally have the right to unilaterally make these changes if they think it's best for the team?

IIRC, when Iginla went to Pittsburgh, they decided he'd play LW instead of RW for some odd reason. I think winger/C, and swapping sides for wing or D is more common albeit relatively infrequent. I think Sutter did something similar with Huberdeau when he arrived (LW to RW) which contributed to his struggles. Feaster did this with Cervenka IIRC (play C instead of wing), but somehow Feaster claims this was a pure translation mix up and they didn't know he was a natural wing vs a centre (come on. It's called video.).

No, players don't have that written protection in AFAIK. Teams aren't doing it intentionally IMO, just based occasionally on team needs. Acquiring a guy and then forcing a situation like that because you didn't appropriately take into account positional need is just dumb asset management.

 

[HolyGhost]

Do players have protection in their contracts or CBA which prevent teams from forcing them to playbein positions other than their first choices? ie. forcing a player who has played C all his career to now play W...telling a LW that he is now playing RW, telling a winger that he is filling in on D because of a shortage of D due to injury, telling a winger that he is now playing the point on the PP, etc. Obviously, goalies would be excluded.

Not interested in "why would any team want to do this" answers and given that this would obviously would work best with the players' co-operation, but....simply does the team legally have the right to unilaterally make these changes if they think it's best for the team?

Have you played much hockey at a high level? While I never. several people who I went to uni with did and being able to play all three fwd position? is considered to be a good tool to have in your tool box. Also, watch any game where there is a lot flow and you see players playing out of position depending on where the puck is.

Unless you are talking about putting Crosby in net or something

 

[ESH]

IIRC, when Iginla went to Pittsburgh, they decided he'd play LW instead of RW for some odd reason. I think winger/C, and swapping sides for wing or D is more common albeit relatively infrequent. I think Sutter did something similar with Huberdeau when he arrived (LW to RW) which contributed to his struggles. Feaster did this with Cervenka IIRC (play C instead of wing), but somehow Feaster claims this was a pure translation mix up and they didn't know he was a natural wing vs a centre (come on. It's called video.).

No, players don't have that written protection in AFAIK. Teams aren't doing it intentionally IMO, just based occasionally on team needs. Acquiring a guy and then forcing a situation like that because you didn't appropriately take into account positional need is just dumb asset management.

Feaster was not a coach and I sincerely doubt he had any say in whether someone was at center or on the wing.

 

[Figgy44]

Feaster was not a coach and I sincerely doubt he had any say in whether someone was at center or on the wing.

Feaster was GM, but yeah it was one of his "best players not in the NHL" moments IIRC. I don't think it was fully a Cervenka issue. But I do truly recall it took them a while to finally figure out what was going on.

Imagine bringing over a Kuzmenko and playing him at C for a year, seeing him struggle before figuring out after most of the season was done that he'd never played C at that level before.

Although, Weisbrod scouted him so I bet he was the one who screwed it up. I don't think it was intentional of the coach to play him at C vs wrong when he'd never played that position, but it's bizarre that a translation error or video could go that long before realizing he was playing a position he'd never played before. Cervenka had blood clot issues before he came too.

IMO cervenka did really well for the flames for the messed up situation he was thrown into.

 

[Breakers]

Imagine telling somebody like torts that he won’t kill penalties as it is in his contract

He’d strangle the guy.

 

[njdevils1982]

kind of related i guess...

a few years ago the devils did an alumni game for fans on the side practice rink and brodeur started in net. later on (cant remember at what time in the game) he took off the pads and played forward... he even scored on shot from the slot still wearing his goalie skates.

it was so fun to see and a 'what if'

 

[Irishguy42]

I don't have any real dog in this race, but I don't think a player changing from one forward position (LW/C/RW) to another and a defenseman switching to the opposite side (LD/RD) is as impactful as most people think it is.

From all reports over the decades from multiple teams/players, the majority of players don't really feel a difference. In a grand scale of things, with teammate impact and whatnot, it all evens out to not meaning for shit.

So at the end of the day, we put to much meaning on the position of the player and their handedness. If anything, we think of the short-term, whereas in the long-term it proves to be meaningless.

As for the OP's original question...it's all old school. Nothing in the CBA or NHL rules stipulate 3 forwards, 2 defenseman, 1 goalie.

 

[kingsholygrail]

I now remember Peter Harrold playing every position except goalie.

 

[ricky0034]

now I want someone to sign McDavid to a max contract and then force him to be a Goalie

 

[Gilmour1996]

I read this article recently, which got me thinking:

How the NHL’s New Era of Hockey is Proving to be Harder to Defend - Strength | Recovery | Performance

Positional hockey is becoming a thing of the past, as teams now rely more on fluidity between forwards and defensemen in order to confuse and create mismatches on the ice.

rsfperformance.ca

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Gotta be the hottest thread title I've seen in quite some time.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

I suppose if a player does not like how they're deployed, their agent might tweet a picture of them being stabbed?

 

[Realgud]

I dunno but you can now try that yourself in franchise mode in nhl 25 lol. You can have that discussion with the players.

 

[EdmFlyersfan]

Federov comes to mind, Flyers played Sami Kapanen (winger) on the blueline for a bit also when they were plagued with injures on defense from what I recall.

 

[snag]

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Am i the only one who read the title of this thread and started thinking about something completely different?

I honestly thought "Oh god, what did Hockey Canada do now?"

 

[2014nyr]

why would that ever exist? hockey is hockey...these are nhl'ers...they can play different positions. they aren't turning wingers into goalies. it's not something a player would ever consider demanding anyway, they don't think like that. no hockey player would deliberately reduce their ability to play in the nhl. if a player is moved it's almost always because they have better options in their preferred position but the coach wants to keep them in the lineup. it's really not that complicated. sure there are players who strongly prefer one position and changing that is a bigger deal than for the majority, but it's just mental.

besides...they are never forced into a different position. they can refuse and watch games in street clothes or play where they want in the minors or maybe another org.