A few weeks ago, I wrote about some changes made to National Lacrosse League teams thus far in the off-season. Since then, we’ve had two different drafts and free agency opened up, so there have been even more changes.

I love hearing about trades and free agent signings prior to the season. It’s fun to think about how these changes will affect the teams, which changes might work just as expected (or better), and which ones might not work so well. It’s also fun to think about how a team that might have been a lock to miss the playoffs a couple of years ago seems unlikely to miss them now, or the other way around.

Dispseral draft

After the dispersal draft results were announced, I mentioned on Twitter that “unsurprisingly, every team improved”. This was not intended to be brilliant insight but it was only later I realized that it wasn’t just “not brilliant” but meaningless. Of course every team improved because no team lost any players. If you had to release someone from your roster whenever you picked a player, then we could make a judgement on which teams improved and by how much. Once the final rosters are released before the season starts, then we will see who the real winners were.

Anyway, the FireWolves picked up Teat, Kearnan, John, and Brownell, adding arguably the best player in the world as well as three other better-than-solid players to their lineup. Then they traded Kearnan and Jaxon Fridge to the Rush for standout defender Holden Garlent. Oshawa somehow ran into offense trouble for parts of last season; as perplexing as that was then, it seems hard to fathom something similar happening after adding Jeff Teat. Update: Then they signed Rob Hellyer.

The Desert Dogs’ offense improved a lot last season (most goals of any team in the league!), but their defense and goaltending was still a little suspect. Through the dispersal draft, they’ve added goalie Nick Damude, defenders Mitch Armstrong, Ryan Wagner, and Chris Corbeil, and forwards Sam LeClair and Liam Aston. Corbeil is a UFA so he may not sign with the Dogs but even if he doesn’t, the Dogs have improved their back-end and look poised to grab their first-ever playoff spot.

The Bandits acquired two more picks in a trade with Vancouver (see below), and ended up with Zach Higgins, Dalton Young, Larson Sundown (pictured on right), Scott Dominey, Travis Longboat, and Justin Sykes. Higgins answers the question of who will succeed Matt Vinc between the Bandit pipes, Sundown and Longboat add more secondary scoring up front, and Young and Dominey strengthen an already-strong Bandits transition.

As I said, everyone improved (for now), but these three teams stood out to me as the big winners (for now).

Entry draft

The entry draft was broadcast on the NLL’s YouTube channel and didn’t take place in any one physical location. Broadcasters Teddy Jenner and Pat Gregoire as well as commissioner Brett Frood were each at home, which was fine during the COVID pandemic when a lot of things were done from home that wouldn’t normally be, but that’s no longer the case. Teddy and Pat were both in hi-def and sounded great but Frood was using a low-quality camera and sounded terrible. Either he needs a better-quality setup or he should have been in a studio somewhere. Frood also lost sound for the second overall pick and didn’t do the third at all, so Teddy announced those. The commish must have rebooted his laptop or something and returned for the fourth and subsequent picks. His sound was working but wasn’t any better quality-wise. There were some sound problems during interviews as well, though they could have been caused by the players’ devices.

Considering the professional-quality draft broadcasts we have seen from the NLL in previous years (before and after the pandemic), this seemed like a regression. Maybe the top-quality broadcasts cost a ton of money and the league decided there isn’t enough of an upside to warrant it. It’s pretty easy for me to spend someone else’s money but in my opinion, if you want to be the Next Major League, you need to look professional and this didn’t.

On the upside, there were a number of shots from draft watch parties where we saw players and their friends and families celebrating, and watching those celebrations – as a lacrosse player’s long-time dream comes true – is always the best part of the draft.

As for the actual picks, i.e. the real meat of the event, I don’t follow the summer leagues or US college lacrosse in any detail so I can’t really comment on that. Other than this: kudos to the Bandits for drafting Niky Lowe with the final pick of the draft. Nicky was a member of the Jr. Bandits and passed away a few weeks before the draft.

Trades

• Buffalo sends prospect Luca Antongiovanni and a first round pick in the 2026 entry draft to Vancouver for Payton Cormier and the 11th and 23rd overall picks in the dispersal draft. Antongiovanni is from Coquitlam BC and was a first-round pick in the 2024 draft but has never played in the NLL. Cormier is from Oakville, ON, so this move helps both play closer to home.
• Oshawa sends Connor Kearnan, Jaxon Fridge, and the 20th overall pick in the entry draft to the Rush for Holden Garlent. That’s a pretty steep price to pay for one guy, but Garlent is a veteran defender who spent years learning from guys like Corbeil, Rubisch, Dilks, Messenger, Hossack, and Cornwall (both of ’em). And he’s only 30 so he could have a bunch of years ahead of him.
• Saskatchewan traded Clark Walter to San Diego for a third round pick in the 2029 (!!) entry draft. That’s three years away.

Retirements

Ryan Benesch has been one of my favourite lacrosse players for his entire NLL career. He had some big shoes to fill before he’d ever played an NLL game, being traded essentially for Colin Doyle. He had an excellent rookie season with the Rock and won the 2007 Rookie of the Year, but was inexplicably benched for the last two games of the 2008 season before being traded to Edmonton. That began his journey of 11 teams over 19 seasons. He never won a Championship (though he lost one with the Bandits in 2016), but was one of the most well-respected players in the league during his career.

Jay Thorimbert was also a well-respected journeyman, having played with eight teams over 17 seasons. He also never won a Championship and oddly, he also lost with the Bandits in 2016. Thorimbert was known as a face-off guy and finished seven seasons over 55%, two of which were over 60%. He was also a solid but smart defender who played tough but kept the penalty minutes to a minimum, and he even scored at least one goal in every season but his last. Fun fact: Despite his initials, he was never known as “JT” while in Buffalo.

Free agent signings

I thought Oshawa was going to be the top team in this section, after they signed Rob Hellyer, Laine Hruska, and Jonathan Gagliardi. But Las Vegas has picked up where they left off last offseason, making a ton of moves. They signed defenders Robbie Turpin, Dylan Hutchison, and Ethan Ticehurst as well as forwards Austin Shanks and Jake Govett. They’re going to have a busy training camp and Coach Willy and new GM Cody Moll will have a lot of decisions to make.

The only other signings (that I made note of – I might have missed a few) were Reilly O’Connor heading to Saskatchewan and Steph Charbonneau going to the Mammoth.