Every now and again, I see a stat or an old NLL boxscore that surprises me, because it shows a player playing for a team that I’d forgotten he ever played for. What, Jimmy Quinlan wasn’t always with the Rush? Mark Steenhuis wasn’t a Bandit his whole career? Callum Crawford has played in lots of places but… Calgary?

Then recently, someone on an NLL podcast (I think it was Pat Gregoire but if it wasn’t, my apologies to whoever it was) said something about this very thing. He even called me out by name, suggesting that I write about it. All right then. Challenge accepted.

Here are a bunch of players who had long stints for one or two teams (or many, if you’re Callum Crawford or Ryan Benesch), and potentially forgotten shorter stints for other teams. We’ll start with active players and while there are dozens of inactive players I could list, I’ll only list the inactive ones that surprised me the most.

Active players

Ryan Benesch:  Played 14 games with the Edmonton Rush in 2009 after being traded there by Toronto. He also played for Buffalo, Minnesota, and Colorado, but I forgot he was a Rochester Knighthawk for 8 games in 2019.

Aaron Bold: Bold began his career with the Portland LumberJax for 7 games back in 2006.

David Brock: Brock played five years in Buffalo but started his career, like a few others on this list, in Boston for a couple of games.

Kyle Buchanan: Played 9 games with the Washington Stealth in 2013.

Tyler Burton: Burton played with the original Rochester Knighthawks from 2011-2014, but then in 2020 he played 1 game with the new Knighthawks.

Chris Corbeil: I had forgotten that Corbeil was not one of the Rush defenders who came from Boston. Corbeil spent 2 seasons in Buffalo before being traded to Edmonton.

Jeff Cornwall: Also did not come from Boston, but played 5 games with the Bandits before joining Corbeil in Edmonton.

Callum Crawford: has played for ten different teams in his career, but is mostly remembered for his time in Minnesota, Colorado, New England, and most recently Panther City. But he began his career with five games in Calgary, then 13 in San Jose, 12 in Chicago, and 13 in Edmonton before going to the Swarm. He also played 9 games with the Bandits, and managed to sneak 18 games with the Riptide in there as well.

Kevin Crowley: Was a Philadelphia Wing, kind of, for almost a decade – three years with the original Wings, almost four with the New England Black Wolves (where the Wings went when they moved), and then three more with the new Wings, before he headed west. But in the middle there, he was a member of the Toronto Rock. That was notable because he played more playoff games (5) than regular season games (4) with the Rock.

Ryan Dilks: Dilks was one of the Rush defenders who came from Boston, having played 12 games there in his rookie season.

Greg Downing: The veteran defender played for Boston, Minnesota, Colorado, New England, and Albany but I had almost forgotten that he finished his career with the Toronto Rock for four games.

Damon Edwards: Another Boston Blazer, Edwards played 10 games there before moving to Toronto.

Brett Hickey: (pictured at right) He scored 50 goals with the Rock, but before that he played 6 games with Washington Stealth and 3 with the Vancouver Stealth.

Billy Hostrawser: Another Rock player that first played on the west coast, Hostrawser played 9 games with the Washington Stealth and then 6 with the Vancouver Stealth.

Mitch Jones: Played 3 games with the Washington Stealth before heading to Buffalo. After five seasons there, he was traded to Vancouver. Trivia: do you remember who Buffalo received in that trade? Corey Small.

Brad Kri: What is it with guys who played for Vancouver and then moved to Toronto? Kri did the same, playing 17 games with the Vancouver Stealth in 2014 and 2015.

Luc Magnan: Magnan played with the Knighthawks for three years, and then moved with them to Halifax where he’s played for four years. But he played 11 games with the Rock in 2016.

Nick Rose: Has been one of the faces of the Toronto Rock for more than a decade and some of you might remember that he also started his career with the Boston Blazers. But Calgary picked him up in the Blazers dispersal draft and he played 5 games there (totalling 32 minutes) before being traded to Toronto.

Kyle Rubisch: Guess where Rubisch started his career? Yup, Boston. He played a full 16 game season with the Blazers before heading to Edmonton.

Jeremy Thompson: Another player who began his career with the Bandits. Thompson played 14 games in Buffalo in 2012 before being traded to the Rush for Aaron Wilson, then played eight seasons with the Rush organization.

Chris Wardle: I thought Wardle’s first game in San Diego was his first in a jersey other than the Mammoth, but he played 4 games with Vancouver Stealth in 2014.

Inactive players

Scott Campbell: Campbell played five years with the Rock and eight with the Rochester Knighthawks before retiring as a member of the Thunderbirds a couple of years ago. But he also played 7 games with the Minnesota Swarm as a rookie in 2005, 4 games with the Blazers in 2011, and 8 games with the Saskatchewan Rush in 2019.

Mike Carnegie: Mike and his brother Scott played together in Calgary for more than a decade. Scott left in 2018 and played in Colorado for four years before retiring, but Mike continued in Calgary for two more years. But Mike did continue his career after Calgary, playing five games in San Diego in 2020 until the pandemic hit.

Dan Dawson: Dawson played in a lot of places over his 21 seasons, but none of the first six teams he played with are still around. He went from Columbus to Arizona to Portland to Boston to Philadelphia to Rochester before finally being able to lift the Champion’s Cup with the Knighthawks in 2013. But before his single season with the Seals, I had forgotten that he played 5 games with the Saskatchewan Rush.

Stephan Leblanc: After 8½ seasons with the Rock, Leblanc played 2½ with the Black Wolves and then finished his career with the Thunderbirds, but he also played 6 games with the Georgia Swarm.

Jimmy Quinlan: The current co-head coach of the Rush was the face of the Edmonton Rush for eight seasons, but he played eight games and won a championship with the Rock in 2005 before heading west.

Jeff Shattler: Played a million games with the Calgary Roughnecks and half a million more with the Rush, but he began his career in… Buffalo?! He played a single game as a Bandit in 2006, picking up an assist (on a Dan Teat PP goal) and three loose balls, before moving on to Calgary in 2007 where he played every game of every season (except one game in 2011) for the next eleven years.

Mark Steenhuis: When you think of Bandits history, you likely think of guys like John Tavares, Richie Kilgour, and others, but Mark Steenhuis is likely in the top five. Steenhuis played 254 games over sixteen seasons with the Bandits, picking up almost a thousand points in black and orange. But he wasn’t always a Bandit. Steenhuis picked up 30 points in 12 games with the Columbus Landsharks in 2002. He finished his career as a distinguished member of the 1000-point club, but without those 30 Landshark points, he wouldn’t have.

Steve Toll: When I think of Steve Toll, I think of him with the Rock and Knighthawks, but he also played with the San Jose Stealth for 12 games, the Mammoth for the 2011 season, and he finished his career with the Edmonton Rush for seven games in 2012. I kind of remembered the Mammoth bit but I honestly have no memory of him with the Rush.