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Donnellon: Should the Flyers try Shayne Gostisbehere at forward?

Shayne Gostisbehere assisted on all three Flyers goals in Sunday night's 3-2 victory over Vancouver, and his plus-minus didn't move an inch. He's still a team-leading minus-22, and if you saw the goal Vancouver scored on his watch, you saw one of the reasons.

He's not big, and he's not physical. He's listed at 5-11 and 180 pounds, and both might be generous estimates. This is not a criticism, just an observation. Currently fifth on the team in scoring, Ghost has skills that are more akin to that of a potent NHL sniper, and wouldn't you know it, the low-scoring Flyers could sure use one, or two, or three of those.

Which got me to thinking about next season and the season after that, when general manager Ron Hextall's hockey version of "The Process'' begins to practically harvest defensemen. Samuel Morin, 6-7, 230 pounds, is expected to join the team next season. Last month, Flyers assistant general manager Chris Pryor told ESPN he thought 22-year-old defenseman Robert Hagg, 6-2, 201 pounds, "was just about ready.''

Offensive-minded Travis Sanheim, 6-4 and only 20, might not be far behind. Other bigs are in the system too, names such as 6-5 junior prospect Philippe Myers, who has eight goals and 12 assists in 22 games after a 45-point effort at this level last season.

Would it be such a bad idea to try Ghost at forward when they arrive? Yes, I know, he has been a defenseman his whole life; it's how he views himself, and it could erode his confidence and backfire. But if he bought in, even on a trial basis, isn't it an opportunity at least to allocate assets in a more productive manner? Doesn't it free him up to use that shot, and those playmaking skills?

He could even be that rarest of hockey rarities, a swingman, running the point on the power play and taking his place on a secondary scoring line.

I know what you're thinking. But I didn't go with the team to Vancouver, so this is not a byproduct of visiting one of the many fine marijuana stores there. I just thought this might be a way of adding offense without adding to team salary in the coming years, and it might even work to expand Gostisbehere's career.

If he, or Hextall, was open to the idea.