Here it is! The article I write every year that usually generates the most discussion. It’s something that some NLL announcers don’t need at all, others use regularly, and still others desperately need but don’t know about. It’s also possible that some in that third group think they’re in the first group. Sigh.

Special thanks to Stephen Stamp (squarely in that first group) who looked over the list to make sure I had them all right.

Names are organized alphabetically within teams.

Buffalo

Kevin Brownell – brow-NELL. brow rhymes with “cow”. Not BROWN-ull.

Alex Buque – boo-KAY. However apparently when playing in junior, he pronounced it rhyming with “spook”.

Josh Byrne – BURN

Callum Crawford – CAL-um. Not CAY-lum.

Davide DiRuscio – DAY-vid dih-ROOSH-ee-o

Jordan Durston – DER-stun

Chase Fraser – FRAY-zer, not like Frasier

Vaughn Harris – VON

Zach Herreweyers – HAIR-wires (not HAY-wires as many say)

Steve Priolo – pree-O-lo

Pat Saunders – SAWN-ders. Not SAND-ers.

Ethan Schott – SHOT

Dhane Smith – DANE

Mark Steenhuis – STAIN-house

Nick Weiss – WEES

Calgary

Mike Carnegie – CAR-nuh-gee (hard g)

Holden Cattoni – ka-TONE-ee

Christian del Bianco – dell bee-AHN-ko

Dane Dobbie – DOUGH-bee. Not like Dobby.

Greg Harnett – har-NET

Anthony Kalinich – ka-LIN-itch

Riley Loewen – LOW-en. LOW is like the word “low”, not rhyming with “cow”. Interesting aside: the original German pronunciation would be like “LER-ven” but without pronouncing the R (there’s no really good equivalent in English). Loewen is an alternate spelling of Löwen, the German word for “lions”.

Ryan Martel – mar-TELL

Creighton Reid – CRAY-ton REED

Frank Scigliano – shill-ee-ANN-o

Colorado

Ryan Benesch – buh-NESH

Scott Carnegie – CAR-nuh-gee (hard g)

Joey Cupido – koo-PEE-do. Not KYOO-pid-o or KOO-pid-o.

Jordan Gilles – GILL-ess. Not the same as Brad Gillies on Rochester.

Stephen Keogh – KEY-o

Eli McLaughlin – E-lie muh-GLOCK-lin

Nick Ossello – aw-SELL-o

Jacob Ruest – roo-EH

Georgia

Frank Brown – I’ll have to look this one up and get back to you.

Alex Crepinsek – CREP-in-seck

Kiel Matisz – KYLE muh-TEES

Mike Poulin – POO-lin

Randy Staats – STOTS. Rhymes with “slots”. Not STATS.

Leo Stouros – STIR-us. According to Leo, it “rhymes with thermos”.

Jerome Thompson – Prefers to to be called Hiana, pronounced HY-nuh

Zed Williams – ZED. In the US, it’s pronounced ZEE.

New England

Kevin Crowley – KROW-lee. Not like the bird. KROW rhymes with “cow”.

Anthony Joaquim – JOKE-um. Looks like wa-KEEM but it’s not. No joke.

John LaFontaine – LA-fon-TANE

Stephan Leblanc – STEFF-in luh-BLONK. Not steh-FAWN and not luh-BLANK.

Matt Spanger – SPANG-er. Like hanger but with an SP instead

Jay Thorimbert – THOR-im-burt

Rochester

Eric Fannell – fuh-NELL

Brad Gillies – GILL-ees. Not the same as Jordan Gilles on Colorado.

Graeme Hossack – GRAY-um HOSS-ack

Luc Magnan – LUKE MAG-nun

Joe Resetarits – res-uh-TARE-its

Eric Shewell – SHOO-ull

Matt Vinc – like the name “Vince”. Not VINK.

Cory Vitarelli – vit-uh-REL-ee

Saskatchewan

Nik Bilic – BEE-leech according to Nik himself (via Stephen Stamp and Brian Shanahan). Definitely not BIL-ik and it sounds like BILL-itch is also wrong.

Chris Corbeil – cor-BEEL

Nick Finlay – FIN-lee

Mike Messenger – MESS-in-jer. I left him off the list last year because it should be obvious, but I’ve heard somebody say MESS-in-ger with a hard g. I get that the pronunciation of some of these names is difficult – that’s why this list exists. But when the name is also a valid (and not obscure) English word, it really shouldn’t need to be here.

Brett Mydske – MID-skee

Tor Reinholdt – RINE-holt

Kyle Rubisch – ROO-bish

Adrian Sorichetti – sore-i-KET-ee

Toronto

Phil Caputo – ka-POO-toe

Latrell Harris – la-TREL. If you’re the ACC announcer, stretch it out so that it takes you 15 seconds to say Latrell.

Billy Hostrawser – HO-straw-zer

Brad Kri – KREE

Dan Lintner – LINT-ner. There are two N’s in there, not LINT-er or LIT-ner.

Kieran McArdle – KEER-un muh-KAR-dl

Reid Reinholdt – REED RINE-holt

Challen Rogers – CHA-lin

Tom Schreiber – SHRY-ber

Vancouver

Tye Belanger – buh-LAHN-jay

Brandon Clelland – CLELL-and

Rhys Duch – REES DUTCH

Ryan Fournier – FOORN-yay

Thomas Hoggarth – HOE-garth

Joel McCready – muh-CREED-ee

Chris O’Dougherty – O DORT-ee. Or O DOUGH-erty if you say it slowly.

James Rahe – RAY

Logan Schuss – SHUSS (rhymes with BUS). Not SHUSH, SHOOSH, or SHOOS.

Cody Teichroeb – TYKE-robe

Coaches & Execs

Aime Caines – AMY CANES.  Former Swarm player and assistant coach.

Ed Comeau – ko-MO. Swarm head coach. I’ve had this as KO-mo for years but apparently that’s wrong.

Jamie Dawick – DOW-ick. DOW rhymes with “cow”. Owner & GM of the Rock.

Clem D’Orazio – duh-RAZZ-ee-o. Black Wolves assistant coach.

Steve Govett – GUV-it. President of the San Diego Seals

Mike Hasen – HAY-zen. Not HAN-sen. Knighthawks head coach.

Tracey Kelusky – kuh-LUSS-key. In the past I’ve included that kuh-LOOS-key is wrong, but apparently Tracey himself doesn’t care how you say it. Black Wolves assistant coach.

Darris Kilgour – DARE-iss KILL-gore. Not DARE-ee-us. Former Bandits coach/GM.

Dan Ladouceur – ladda-SIR. Assistant coach of the Swarm.

Curt Malawsky – muh-LAW-skee. Roughnecks head coach.

Nick Sakiewicz – sic-KEV-itch. NLL commish.

Kaleb Toth – KAY-leb TOE-th, not TAW-th. Former NLL player and coach. Hearing Toth’s name mispronounced on a broadcast (after a decade as a star in the league) was the inspiration for the very first pronunciation guide.

Other

Steve Bermel – BERM-ull. Rhymes with “thermal”. Bandits beat writer.

Brad Challoner – CHALL-ah-ner. Brad says it’s like “challenger” without the g. Stealth broadcaster.

Melissa Dafni – DAF-nee. One of my co-hosts on Addicted to Lacrosse.

Tyler Fitch – TY-ler FITCH. My other co-host on Addicted to Lacrosse.

John Fraser – FRAY-zer, not like Frasier. Rush play by play guy.

Tyson Geick – GUYK. Rhymes with TYKE. Like Geico without the o. NLL host and video guy.

Pat Gregoire – greg-WAHR. IL Indoor writer, NLL ReLax host, and NLL TV broadcaster.

Marisa Ingemi – muh-RISS-a in-JEM-ee. Journalist covering every sport in the world and breaker of NLL news.

Graeme Perrow – GRAY-um PAIR-o. Yours truly.

Craig Rybczynski – rib-CHIN-skee but apparently “rib-ZIN-skee” is acceptable. Knighthawks broadcaster.

Saskatchewan – I’ve always said it as sas-CATCH-oo-on but I’ve heard from Saskatchewanians (is that a word?) that it should be sas-CATCH-a-win or sas-CATCH-a-wen – the last syllable does not rhyme with “on”. The best description of this came from @SaskRushFans on Twitter: “There are definitely several variations that are acceptable, but pronouncing Saskatchewan as spelled is not one of them.” Many shorten it to “s-CATCH-a-win” just as Torontonians say “Tronna”.

Saskatoon – sas-ka-TOON. City in which the Rush play.

Evan Schemenauer – SHEM-en-our. Lacrosse blogger over at evanschemenauer.blogspot.ca (and now at laxallstars.com)

Stephen Stamp – STEE-ven. STAMP-er is also acceptable. IL Indoor writer and editor, podcaster, play-by-play guy.