I think you may have misunderstood Iceman's question, JL.

As I understand it, he's not asking if it's wise to have only two centers, he's asking if it's wise to have two centers from the same real-life team.

Kinda like having Shaq and Alonzo Mourning as your two centers on a fantasy basketball team.

If I'm correct in my interpretation of your question IM, I'd answer it this way:

In the other major sports, teams almost always have one player who gets most of the playing time at each position.

Like in football, the team's main running back will usually get maybe 90% of the carries during the course of the season and gain maybe 1000 yards.

But if the team has two RBs that they use a lot, like Denver for example, then each, although both very good players, may only gain 600 yards or so during the course of the season.

Hockey is a little different though in the way that the playing time is distributed.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, JL, but I think that most teams usually have four lines that they use regularly.

Their best line may get, say, 40% of the playing time, the second best maybe 30%, the third line about 20%, and the fourth around 10%.

This is all very roughly speaking. I'm not including their penalty killing unit, which may consist of a different combination of players, drawn from all of the other four lines.

That doesn't necessarily mean that the center on a team's second line is a bad thing to have, though.

If he's really good, his 18-20 minutes per game on the ice may be worth more than another team's best center who is getting 20-25 minutes a game of playing time.