We saw a few significant trades this past week, notably two huge ones involving the Toronto Rock as well as another significant one involving the Wings and Desert Dogs. Then on Saturday, the Seals and FireWolves made a deal. The Toronto trades look like they’ve given up on the season and have begun the rebuild, but it may not be as bad as that. The Wings have massively improved their defense, the Seals and Rock get picks for the future, and the Desert Dogs and FireWolves both get some more firepower up front.

Rose to Calgary

The Rock sent goalie Nick Rose, defender Tyler Hendryks, and a 2025 fourth round draft pick to the Roughnecks for goalie Gowah Abrams, defender Robert Hudson, and a 2026 first round pick. Calgary has the firepower up front and a solid defense, but has the very young and inexperienced Cam MacLeod in goal. MacLeod has been pretty good this season but this gives them a veteran, who’s also the reigning Goalie of the Year, between the pipes to help with their playoff push. The Rock get a first round pick in 2026 as well as a big defender and a replacement goalie for Rose.

It’s a clear short-term victory for the Roughnecks, but the Rock do get a first-round pick out of it. The Rock are unlikely to make the playoffs at this point anyway, so what happens the rest of this season isn’t really relevant. But the interesting point here is that Rose is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and is old enough to reject the franchise tag if Calgary wanted to give it to him. This means that he could re-sign with the Rock in the off-season and be back between the pipes in Toronto Mississauga Hamilton next season.

If Calgary contends for the Championship this season thanks to Rose, I’m sure they would be happy to give up a first rounder. Rose was unlikely to see playoff action in Toronto this year so he’d be happy to get to the playoffs. If they win it all, he’d obviously be happy to finally get that ring. And if he returns to Toronto next year, the Rock would be happy too.

I have to say, if you had told me a few weeks ago that Calgary would make a trade involving two goalies and Christian Del Bianco would not be one of them, I might not have believed you. This might be the first time in NLL history that the reigning Goaltender of the Year and the one before that are on the same roster.

Corbeil and de Snoo to Philadelphia

The Rock sent star defenders Chris Corbeil and Mitch de Snoo to Philadelphia for a 2025 first round pick. The Wings led the league in shots faced in 2022, 2023, and 2024, and Nick Damude is currently tops in the league in shots faced so an upgrade to their defense was long overdue. Corbeil and de Snoo will certainly help the Wings D and once again, the Rock will be happy with a first rounder.

Both of these guys are also UFAs after this season, and both can reject the franchise tag, so it’s possible that the two of them also return to the Rock next year. If all three return, that would mean that the Rock received Hudson, Abrams and two first round picks for the Wings and Roughnecks to borrow these guys for less than half a season.

The next two draft classes are rumoured to be two of the best ever. So if one of those three players returns to the Rock next year, getting two first round picks is a good deal. If two or three of them return, it’s brilliant. But if none of them return, Dawick got a pretty decent return but it does mean that the Rock are in rebuilding mode. Was a rebuild necessary? Arguably not – the Rock could have just said “OK, this isn’t our year” and made some tweaks to the roster in the off-season. But Dawick is no fool who is blowing up his roster because of a single sub-par season, which makes me think that he already knows that at least a couple of those players are intending to return next year.

Cattoni for Simpson

Philly sent forward Holden Cattoni to Las Vegas for transition star Shane Simpson. Numbers-wise, Simpson is not having the season that Vegas was expecting. He’s currently sitting at five points and has missed four games. But he’s been a goal-per-game guy for the last two seasons and was in the twenties in points, so perhaps the change of scenery to Vegas was not helpful for him and this one might be.

The Dogs are fourth-last in goals scored so the addition of a 70–80 point guy will certainly help there. Cattoni did score a couple of goals last night, but the Desert Dogs could still only come up with five. They will be looking for some more offensive help, whether before the trade deadline or in the off-season.

Kyle Jackson to Albany

The timing of this one is a bit weird. Albany is likely out of the playoffs this year so you’d think they’d be sellers, if anything. San Diego is still in the playoff hunt this year, so the draft picks won’t help them in that regard. However according to Adam Levi, Jackson lives in Connecticut so it may have been more of a move to help Jackson personally. It will help both teams, just not this season (or in the case of Albany, likely not enough this season).