Defenceman
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- This article is about defenceman, the sports position.
In many team sports, the defenceman (sometimes colloquially called the d-man or simply d) is a player who is generally charged with preventing the other team's forwards from being able to bear down directly on their own team's goalie. Such positions exist in ice hockey and many other sports.
Defencemen typically do not have any special rules regarding their play. Generally they are expected to stay on their own half of the playing surface as much as possible.
In ice hockey, some defencemen are better known for their offensive prowess than for their close defensive play. Such players are known as offensive defencemen. Others are not known at all for their goal scoring; these are sometimes known as stay-at-home defencemen.