I am trying something new here. Every week during the season, I list all the awesome and not-so-awesome things that happened that week, whether it’s a game, a team, a player, a specific play, a trade, or anything else relating to the NLL. This year, as a season-end wrap-up, I’m going to find at least one thing that was awesome and at least one thing that was not awesome about each team. That will get long, so I’ll break it into two alphabetically. Part I will include Buffalo through Oshawa, and Part II will include Ottawa through Vancouver.

But wait, there’s more! There were a bunch of awesome things and not awesome things about the league in general, so that will be in Part III. So we invite you, wherever you are, whether you’re at home or whatever, to kick your shoes off and put your feet up, and lean back and get yourself a cup of coffee or something, and just relax and join us in this 2026 NLL season in review.*

* – Props to you if you know where the majority of that sentence comes from. And if you don’t, well then you need to listen to more obscure Porcupine Tree songs.

The Bandits of Buffalo

Awesome

• The season didn’t start out great at all for the Bandits. After a 3–1 start, they lost four straight and were 4–6 after ten games. It’s one thing to admit that your dynasty might be over, but there were people on social media talking like they’d lost every game by 15 goals. They said the team was done, that Matt Vinc was washed up and they should have dumped him before the season, and I even heard talk like “What can we get for Dhane Smith?”. The Awesome here is that the team found their stride and went 7–1 to finish the season.

  If I had a nickel for every social media posting around mid-season saying “The Bandits are BACK”, lemme tell ya, I would have several nickels. Several.

Not Awesome

• Didn’t win the Championship, and didn’t make the Finals for the first time since the 1970’s or something.
• Not a strong start, as mentioned above, as though they couldn’t figure out how to score without Chase Fraser and Chris Cloutier. They did eventually figure it out.

Calgary Necks that are Rough

Awesome

• Not a great season for the Roughnecks, but fans have lots to look forward to. We saw the emergence of Tyler Pace and Tanner Cook as offensive stars, and Brayden Mayea had a great season as well. Colby Bowman is still very early in his career but has looked excellent.
• They had a strong end to the season, going 4–3 in their last seven but the three losses were very close – they lost to the Mammoth by two and to the Desert Dogs and FireWolves by one. They also beat the #2 overall Mammoth in their last game of the year.
• An average of 11,650 in attendance per home game, second-best in the league. This for a 6–12 team that was out of the playoffs pretty early.

Tanner Cook

Not Awesome

• Obviously starting 2–9 wasn’t awesome. We had glimpses here and there of how good Aden Walsh could be but mostly in the second half of the season. They only won back-to-back games twice.

The Mammoth of Colorado

Awesome

• Before the season, I predicted that the loss of Tyson Gibson, Connor Kelly, Connor Robinson, and Zed Williams would outweigh the addition of Andrew Kew, and the Mammoth would miss the playoffs. How wrong I was. I didn’t anticipate the addition of Jack Hannah, and obviously didn’t anticipate seven points per game from Kew. Even without Ryan Lee for most of the season and Eli McLaughlin for all of it, only one team scored more goals than Colorado.
• The defense stepped up and Dillon Ward had an excellent year as well. Nathan Whittom was even better, posting an 8.13 GAA and 83.8% save percentage over almost 120 minutes.
• The Rock and Swarm got all the accolades for their rookies in 2026, but don’t overlook Colorado’s rookie crop of Braedon Saris, Matthew Paolatto, Ari Stevens, Connor Nock, and Dylan Hess.

Not Awesome

• They lost Ryan Lee for the season after only four games. They were hoping to get Eli McLaughlin back from firefighter probation at some point, but never did.

The Swarm of Georgia

Awesome

• Brett Dobson had the best goaltending season in the history of the league. He had the lowest GAA ever. He had the highest save percentage ever. He gave up fewer than ten goals in fifteen out of eighteen games, including eleven straight. In one of those eleven games he only played 45 minutes, but had only given up four goals at that point. His save percentage was under 80% in only three games, and under 75% once.
• Thanks to Dobson and the Swarm defense, they gave up the fewest goals of any team. Only one other team was within 20 goals of them. They also had the lowest goals against per game average in league history, and the fewest goals allowed of any team that played 18 games in a season.
• Rookies Michael Grace and Nolan Byrne were two of the three Rookie of the Year finalists. Other rookies like Ben Trumble, Kean Moon, and Liam McGrath also had great seasons. Defender Jacob Hickey had an excellent sophomore season, and Jordan MacIntosh played like Jordan MacIntosh from ten years ago.

Not Awesome

• They had twelve wins but with Dobson’s numbers, they should have won at least a few more. He had four losses with a GAA of 9.00 or less and a save percentage of 83% or more. He had two games where he gave up only six goals and lost.
• Lyle Thompson had only 77 points, the lowest total of his career since his rookie season. Yet only one player on the team had more points.

Halifax Birds of Thunder

Awesome

• Making the Finals was pretty awesome, especially for the #8 seed.
• Warren Hill was outstanding down the stretch and throughout the playoffs
• In a game in March, the Thunderbirds were down 14–4 to the best defensive team in the league. But then they scored ten goals in the fourth quarter to tie it, the biggest comeback in league history, only to have Jordan MacIntosh score with 18 seconds left in regulation to give Georgia the win. A very exciting and impressive comeback, even if they did lose the game.
• In the playoffs they did it again, with smaller numbers but better results. In the quarter-finals, down 7–1 against the #1 seed Warriors at halftime, the T-Birds scored nine in the second half and kept the Warriors scoreless to punch their ticket to the semi-finals.
• Jason Knox was very good in the regular season and outstanding in the playoffs. It will be interesting to see the impact of the increased confidence – both his team’s confidence in him and Knox’s confidence in himself – in his game next season.

Not Awesome

• Their first half of the season wasn’t so great. They started off 3–7 and it looked like making the playoffs was going to be a long shot, let alone getting to the Championship series.

Las Vegas Dogs of the Desert

Awesome

• Offense! Las Vegas scored thirteen more goals than any other team – that’s an extra game’s worth of offense. Donville and Jones were each over 100 points, Cloutier was over 80, and Poitras hit 59, while Killen, Webster, and Kirst were solid secondary scoring. Chase Fraser was on pace to break 60 as well and Kevin Crowley was a great pickup halfway through the season. Think of what their offensive numbers would have been had Fraser and Crowley been there all season.
• Picking up Tyson Bell was a great move, bringing in another veteran defender to go along with LaFontaine, Belgrave, Goodwin, and Malcom.
• The Dogs were this close to their first playoff appearance. 2026 was easily the team’s best season since entering the league.

From left: Mitch Jones, Tyrell Hamer-Jackson, Connor Kirst (#34), Nick Preston (#52)

Not Awesome

• Losing Fraser really hurt. They were still great offensively, but he’s such a spark plug and can get his team fired up not only with his impressive goal scoring but just the effort he gives on every shift.
• Goaltending was hot and cold. Both Buque and Kells had some games where they were really excellent, and others where they were really not. You don’t need an elite goalie like a Del Bianco or Dobson in net, but a bit more consistency would have gotten them into the playoffs.

Oshawa Wolves of Fire

Awesome

• Simmons and Kurtz had great offensive seasons, with Simmons breaking the 100-point barrier for the first time.
• The FireWolves ended the season strong. They were 4–2 in their last six though three of the wins (and both losses) were against non-playoff teams. But they finished the season with a win over the Bandits – and the Bandits were playing for home floor advantage in the first round of the playoffs. They didn’t get it, and playing the quarter-finals on the road contributed to the end of their dynasty, so that was a huge win for the Wolves.

Not Awesome

• The rest of the offense wasn’t great overall. Only one team scored fewer runs.
• They scored a total of 21 goals in their first four games, though the defense wasn’t bad. Then they started scoring in double digits but gave up 12–16 goals in six straight games. They just couldn’t get the offense and defense both working in the same game.