Here’s part II of my pre-season preview; part I was here. For each team (alphabetically from Ottawa through Vancouver), I’ll share where I think they will end up, and who might have a breakout year.

For where teams will end up, I’m not going to make specific predictions here. I’ll break things up into groups: Top 4, Middle 4 (i.e. #5-8), and Miss Playoffs (#9-14).

Ottawa Black Bears

The team has changed locations and names, has a new captain in Jeff Teat, and a new starting goalie in Zach Higgins. But otherwise, the changes aren’t huge. Ottawa native Nathan Grenon comes over from Albany, veteran defender Luc Magnan arrives from Halifax, and Damon Edwards, Stephen Keogh, and Mitch Wilde are gone. OK, now that I’ve summarized all of that, the changes are pretty significant. The Black Bears (as the Riptide) were fighting right down to the wire for a playoff spot last season and now with another year under their belts plus a bona fide starter in Higgins, they could be headed for a strong season.

Look out for

Nathan Grenon is from Ottawa (well, Stittsville, just outside of Ottawa) and is getting lots of publicity from the Black Bears because he’s a hometown guy. I don’t see an 80-point season from Grenon but with guys like Teat and Sundown on the floor, both his goal and assist totals could rise quite a bit.

Prediction

Middle 4.

Philadelphia Wings

The Wings probably benefited the most from the Panther City dispersal, picking up Nick Damude, Tony Malcom, and Connor Sellars in the draft itself, plus Phil Caputo and Liam Patten in the Zach Higgins trade. They’ve also added first overall draft pick Brennan O’Neill who has excelled everywhere he’s played. From the sounds of things, he’s fairly new to the box game but is very excited to play and there’s no reason to believe he won’t excel here too. Then just last week they signed Callum Crawford, who had 93 points last season and turned 40 just a few weeks ago. But he’ll be playing with Mitch Jones, Joe Resetarits, and O’Neill, so Crawford may be playing a different role this season. Regardless of his point totals though, he’s always fun to watch.

Look out for

The aforementioned O’Neill.

Prediction

I’m listing them under Miss playoffs. But given how close things were in the middle of the unified standings last season, the Wings could definitely win one extra game and make the Middle 4.

Rochester Knighthawks

Connor Fields had 120 points last year, Ryan Smith had 99, and Ryan Lanchbury had 86 in 17 games. Could they end up with three players with 100+ points, which has only been done twice before (2005 Rock, 2023 Seals)? Sure they could. With the return of Rylan Hartley, the Knighthawks have a strong offense, a strong defence that got better with the addition of Ian Llord, Brandon Slade, and Chad Tutton, and a strong goalie.

Look out for

Hartley played about 50 minutes total in Rochester’s first three games last year, then was out for over three months, but then came back strong, keeping the Wings to only three goals in their final game of the season to lock in a playoff spot. A full season of Hartley will be really fun to watch.

Prediction

This makes no sense, even to me. I just pointed out why the Knighthawks could be very good this year, and yet I’m filing them under Miss playoffs. My middle four teams are Colorado, Albany, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Rochester. I predict that one of those will have a good season and still miss the playoffs. It could easily be any of those five, or it might be Georgia that won’t have the bounce back season I think they will. I have no idea, and I arbitrarily picked Roch. Sorry Rochester fans.

San Diego Seals

Just like every other year, a bunch of changes for San Diego, including some very big names. Out are Curtis Dickson, Dane Dobbie, and Brodie Merrill, in are Rob Hellyer, Ryan Benesch, Zach Currier, and Ben McIntosh. Austin Staats scored fifty goals last season, but will likely miss the season and may be done in the NLL. Mac O’Keefe is on the restricted free agent list, Kyle Jackson is on the holdout list, and Cam Holding is on the IR. Any or all of those guys may be out for a long time, or might return in week 2. That’s huge turnover and yet, the ceiling is very high for the Seals. But the ceiling has been very high for the Seals every season – they’ve never finished lower than 2nd in the regular season, where they’re 22 games above .500 with a +96 goal differential. But in the playoffs, they’re 3-6 and -8. Is this the year they finally get over their playoff curse?

Look out for

Zach Currier dropped from 15 goals in 2023 to just 1 in 2024. I’m not sure cracking the single goal mark will qualify as a breakout season, but (hot take) look for more than one goal from Currier in 2025.

Prediction

Top 4.

Saskatchewan Rush

The Rush gained Patrick Dodds from the Panther City dispersal draft, but lost him to firefighter school – he’ll miss the entire season. But they also added Austin Shanks from Halifax and Matt Hossack from Panther City, and rookie Levi Anderson is very highly regarded. I watched a Rush/Rock preseason game a couple of weeks ago and I can tell you that Anderson is a big strong guy. He will be, as the Rush put it, a PROBLEM.

Look out for

Anderson.

Prediction

Another team that I’m listing under Miss playoffs but could easily jump to the middle 4.

Toronto Rock

Dan Lintner is out and rookie Brian Cameron is in but otherwise no changes to the offense. The very large and strong Elijah Gash joined from Panther City and looked good in the preseason, and Latrell Harris is back on the D though Sheldon Burns is not returning. TD Ierlan got injured in the preseason but should only miss about four games, and Brad Kri is also out but I don’t know for how long.

Look out for

The Rock says “he might be the fastest man alive”. Justin Martin scored ten goals and played every game last season as a rookie transition guy. His scoring numbers may not climb much higher but he’ll get some more notice.

Prediction

Top 4.

Vancouver Warriors

Everyone is bullish on the Warriors, and for good reason. They have one of the most respected men in lacrosse at the helm. After a terrible 2-8 start last year, they finished the season 6-2 and just missed the playoffs. They also averaged over 10,000 fans per game over their last six home games. Yes, I said Vancouver.

Kyle Killen is now in Vegas, Steph Charbonneau, Riley Loewen, and Brad McCulley are all injured to start the season, and Tyrell Hamer-Jackson, Aaron Bold, and Anthony Kalinich were let go. But they have a strong crop of rookies coming in and veteran Jeff Cornwall joining the defence, so expectations are high. Can they live up to it? In previous years, a lot of people would have said “Yeah, but it’s Vancouver” and predicted that they’d miss the playoffs, and they’d probably have been right. But this team just feels different.

Look out for

Reid Bowering’s scoring has decreased every year since picking up 25 points in his rookie year. He scored one extra goal but assists, points, shots, loose balls, caused turnovers, blocked shots, and even penalty minutes were all lower last year than 2023 with the same number of games played. Loose balls were lower by almost a hundred and his blocked shots went from 22 to 8. I don’t see those trends continuing.

Prediction

Middle 4.