2023: Who’s in, who’s out

Here it is: a complete summary of all the roster changes for each team, all in one place.

Note that these are the changes as of the final roster from last season, so a player might be listed as “In” even if he played for that team during 2022. And a player who’s injured but still part of that team will be listed as “out”. Not all teams have announced who’s on their IR, PUP, or holdout lists so take “None” with a grain of salt. Also most teams don’t have (or didn’t announce) a “Protected” list, but a few did.

And since a number of you have asked, no I don’t know exactly what the different lists mean or the criteria to be on one. I think the PUP list means you got injured playing lacrosse while the IR list means you got injured doing something else. Or possibly it’s the other way around. I’m not sure why it would matter how someone got injured (Anthony Cosmo once made one of these lists because he injured himself shovelling snow), it really only matters that they can’t play. Continue reading

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NLL Schedule 2023

The 2023 NLL schedule has been announced. I’m sure there are fans of every team screaming about how unfair it is to their team in particular, because there always are. But honestly, it’s really pretty good for most teams. Only one team plays back-to-back games twice, and one of those is a weekend with two home games. Going for weeks without playing is always a problem but it’s fairly even – ten of the fifteen teams go at least 21 days without a game, but nobody goes more than 22 days.

There is one part of the schedule I’m not crazy about, so we’ll lead with that.

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2022 Off-season summary, Part II

A few days ago, I posted my summary of the off-season moves, beginning with the new commissioner and CBA, last year’s award winners, and the new Las Vegas team finally beginning to fill out their roster. Today we’re going to get into the player changes we’ll see on the floor this winter. Rather than evaluate each transaction separately, let’s look at each team and what changes they’ve made so far. This will be similar to the “Who’s in, who’s out” article I do every year summarizing each team’s roster changes, but is obviously incomplete and subject to change. Continue reading

2022 Off-season summary, Part I

Man, you take one little summer off from writing about lacrosse and what happens? THINGS. Things happen. Lots of things.

We have new winners for NLL awards, we have a new team that has players now, we have a new commissioner, we have a new CBA, we have trades, we have free agent signings, we have retirements, and we have coaching changes. And we still have over three months until the season actually begins!

There have been enough off-season changes that I’ve broken this article into two parts. Let’s get started.

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NLL Playoffs Week 7: Championship Game 3

Congratulations to the Colorado Mammoth, the 2022 NLL Champions. The three games of the finals were outstanding in their excitement and entertainment levels, and an upset in the Championships always adds to the drama. The only thing that sucks about the 2022 NLL Playoffs is that they’re over.

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NLL Playoffs Week 6: Championship Games 1 and 2

I was away on vacation last weekend, so there was no weekly report. I travelled to Quebec City for a long weekend with my wife and in-laws. Both the weather and the city were beautiful and we had a lot of fun. The only downside to the trip was that I had to watch Game 1 of the NLL Finals on my phone while sitting on a train between Montreal and Quebec City. It certainly wasn’t ideal, but the fact that I was able to watch it at all was pretty cool, and the fact that the 10-15 minutes where I lost the internet completely did not happen during the fourth quarter was also good. Continue reading

NLL Playoffs Week 4: Division Finals Game 3

The Finals are set: the Bandits will take on the Colorado Mammoth for the 2022 NLL title. This is a rematch of the 2006 Finals, the only other Championship appearance for the Mammoth, where they beat the Bandits 16-9. Nobody who played in that game is still an active player, but the lineups included both current head coaches (Pat Coyle and John Tavares), as well as Bandits GM Steve Dietrich, Knighthawks GM Dan Carey, and a few other head and assistant coaches from around the league: Dan Stroup, Chris Gill, and Billy Dee Smith.

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NLL Playoffs Week 3: Division Finals Game 2

There are at most four NLL games left in the season, and only three teams left. The Bandits now have a weekend off before facing either the Seals or Mammoth in the finals, and I’m sure that will be an awesome series. But what was awesome about last weekend? I’m glad you asked.

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Game report: Buffalo @ Toronto, Eastern Division finals, game 2

By now, I’m sure you all know how this game ended, not only the outcome but the dramatic fashion in which it happened. But whether or not you are happy with the result, you have to admit this was an amazing game with an amazing ending.

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NLL Playoffs Week 2: Division Finals Game 1

The division finals started this past weekend with two fantastic and entertaining close games. On Friday, the underdog Mammoth came from behind three times but the Seals tied it up in the fourth quarter before Zed Williams scored his fifth to give Colorado the lead they wouldn’t give up. Meanwhile, Sunday night in Buffalo featured another exciting back-and-forth game, similar to Friday’s but with higher numbers.

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