Utility players are a rarity in hockey.
The capable-at-all-positions players are better known in baseball, where fielding principles from second base to left field are similar.
Hockey generally doesn’t lend itself to position-hopping, partly because players are taught to station themselves on the ice for offensive attacking and defensive coverage based on their assigned position.
But don’t tell MSU junior forward Troy Ferguson there’s no place for a jack-of-all-trades in hockey. The 5-foot-9, 165-pound sparkplug has played left wing, right wing and center for the Spartans - all in the past month. Consider he also plays on the team’s power-play and penalty-kill units, and Ferguson finds himself in almost every situation.
“It’s just kind of the role I’ve developed into this year,” said Ferguson, a 21-year-old center by trade. “I’ve just been able to fit in. When the coaches are looking to make a lineup, I think they feel they can put me at any position to make the lineup as strong as possible.”
That’s exactly why MSU head coach Ron Mason likes having Ferguson at his disposal. Although he scratched a healthy Ferguson from the dress list before MSU’s 3-1 victory over Michigan on Feb. 16, Mason said every team needs a player like Ferguson.
“He’s our most versatile player,” Mason said. “I can use him on the power play or killing penalties. He hasn’t become one of our top-three centers, but I can put him in anywhere and it seems likes it’s OK.”
Ferguson’s father is Sheldon Ferguson, the director of player personnel for the Carolina Hurricanes. Sheldon Ferguson drafted his son in the last round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, but the younger Ferguson faces an uphill climb into professional hockey because of his size.
If the NHL doesn’t work out, Ferguson, a Kitchener, Ontario, native, wants to be an athletic trainer. He has a 3.59 grade-point average in kinesiology and received “special mention” when the CCHA announced its All-Academic team last week.
This season, Ferguson has played predominantly on MSU’s fourth line, although he moved up to the second line while freshman center Lee Falardeau and junior right wing Steve Jackson were hurt in January.
When Falardeau and Jackson returned, the resulting lineup shuffle had right-handed Ferguson playing left wing for a game. He said it was an interesting experience to play on his “off-wing.”
“It was a little bit of a different perspective, but something that I enjoyed,” Ferguson said. “I don’t know if it’s something that will happen in the future, but the coaches know they can put me there if they need to.
“When people ask me my position, I say ‘forward,’ because I can play all three positions. I think coaches like that and see that as something positive in me.”
Now, after junior left wing Brian Maloney’s season-ending injury, Ferguson is one of only four MSU forwards with significant penalty-killing experience, which only increases his value to the Spartans.
But Ferguson’s tour of the lineup might be hampering his offensive production. He only has one goal and five assists this year - which brings his three-year career total to 10 goals and 22 assists in 119 games.
“Offense will come as the game gives it to you,” Ferguson said. “If it’s something that you try to control, then you’re just going to get frustrated. I just try to focus on whatever role they use me at.
“Sometimes if you get clicking with a bunch of guys, you’d kinda like to stay with them. But that really hasn’t happened for me much this year, the way I’ve been tossed around.”
