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.
As I did last year, I’m not going to make specific standings predictions. I’ll break things up into groups: Top 4, Middle 4 (i.e. #5-8), and Miss Playoffs (#9-14).
Here’s a quick look at each team, where I think each team will end up, and who might have a breakout year. I’ll go alphabetically and cover Buffalo through Oshawa in this article, and then Ottawa through Vancouver in Part II.
As I did last year, I’m not going to make specific standings predictions. I’ll break things up into groups: Top 4, Middle 4 (i.e. #5-8), and Miss Playoffs (#9-14).
I’ve done this for a number of years: I make up a team consisting of players who are not part of any team, whether on an active roster, IR, PUP, holdout list, practice roster, or anything else and who hadn’t retired. Sometimes this team is pretty decent, and there have been years where the team is better than decent – with the right coach and a bit of luck, they could possibly make the playoffs against the existing NLL teams. This year’s team is not bad goaltending-wise but is pretty good defensively and solid up front as well. Not sure they’re making the playoffs against the 2026 NLL teams but they wouldn’t suck.
Here it is: a complete summary of all the roster changes for each team, all in one place. I will update this article as things change, up until the beginning of the season.
Just to be clear, “In” means that the player is part of the announced roster for the 2026 season and was not on the active roster during the team’s last game of the season in 2025. “Out” means just the opposite: they were on the roster for the last game last year, but are not on the active roster as of now. So a player who was injured at the time of the last game last year but is back now is “In”, while a player who is currently injured might be “Out”.
Not all teams have announced who’s on their IR, PUP, or holdout lists so take an empty list with a grain of salt. Also most teams don’t have (or didn’t announce) a Protected or Draft list, but a few did.
My goodness, the second half of the off-season was crazy busy. We had the new CBA finally agreed upon and signed, and then an absolute frenzy of free agent signings. Many free agents returned to their previous team but an awful lot of them signed somewhere else. If only half of those signings result in a compensatory first round draft pick in 2026, the first round of that draft could have 25 picks in it.
Anyway, he’s a summary of what’s happened since I last rapped at ya back in September.
It’s been a busy off-season so far, and there’s lots more to come. Because we don’t have a CBA for next season, teams aren’t allowed to sign free agents yet though they’re allowed to talk to them. I’m sure many handshake agreements have been made and once we have a new CBA and free agency opens up, all of these deals will be announced. Then we’ll see how much the NLL landscape has really changed.
Until then though, let’s take a look at some of the significant moves made so far.
Many NLL fans these days have heard the story that the Buffalo Bandits had a long winning streak back in the early 90’s that lasted an entire season. It’s true, but there’s more to it than just that. Let’s have a look the facts of this amazing streak.
Recently I wrote about non-players who deserve consideration for induction to the NLL Hall of Fame once their careers are over. In that article, I covered owners as well as broadcasters and today I’m going to cover GMs, coaches and officials.
The National Lacrosse League Hall of Fame is a very important place. It contains players, coaches, GMs, journalists, and officials that have had a significant effect on the league during their careers. However, it’s also not a place at all, in the sense that there is no specific location associated with it. You can’t go and visit the NLL Hall of Fame like you can the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame (in St. Catharine’s, Ontario), the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame (in New Westminster, BC), or the National [American] Lacrosse Hall of Fame in Sparks, MD.
It also seems to have fallen off the radar of the league itself, since only one group of people has been inducted into the Hall in the last ten years.
The 2025 NLL season is over. Congratulations to the Buffalo Bandits, who became the second team in NLL history to win three straight Championships with an impressive 15–6 victory over the Saskatchewan Rush.
My prediction for game three of the finals was not entirely wrong, but mostly; I said last week that I’d expect it to be “a low-scoring, close, exciting game that’s down to the wire”. Well, it was exciting, anyway.
NLL Chatter 