2014 preview: Philadelphia Wings

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WingsThe Philadelphia Wings have seen plenty of both ends of the success spectrum1. From 1989 to 2001 (13 years), they made it to the finals nine times, winning six of them. In the 90’s, there was no doubt that they were the powerhouse team in the league. And then it all went south. In 2002, the Wings were eliminated from the playoffs by the Washington Power. After that, they only played in one playoff game in the next nine seasons. Now we’re heading into the 2014 season, and the Wings last playoff win was still the 2001 Championship. Blaine Manning played over 200 NLL games and scored almost 900 points over 12 seasons and the Wings never won a single playoff game during his entire career. What the hell happened? A fine question, to be sure, but not one I can answer here.

1 – Did you get the Philadelphia joke there? Spectrum!

But things seem to be turning around for the Wings. They’ve made the playoffs two years in a row, though they lost to the eventual Champion Knighthawks both years. Kevin Crowley had almost identical seasons in his first two years in the league, scoring 71 and 72 points. Not John Grant numbers, but definitely respectable – and remember Shawn Evans didn’t have John Grant numbers either until last year. In fact, Evans had Kevin Crowley numbers for most of his career.

Now they have another new head coach, with Johnny Mouradian stepping down in favour of Blane Harrison. Harrison will be the sixth Wings head coach since their last playoff win.

2013 season summary

Record 7-9 (3rd in East)
Home 4-4
Away 3-5
Goals for 170
Goals against 207
Top scorer Kevin Crowley (72)
Playoffs Division semi-finals: Lost to Rochester 10-8

Roster changes

Holy crap.

I had a paragraph here that I wrote back in November, all about how the addition of Evan Kirk from Minnesota gives the Wings the same goaltender tandem as the Six Nations Chiefs of MSL, who also happen to be this year’s Mann Cup winners. I even said “they might be in their best shape goaltending-wise since a certain Mr. Eliuk was traded west“. And then the rosters were released, and Brandon Miller’s name wasn’t there. Without Miller, the Wings have Evan Kirk and rookie Don Alton. Kirk was exceptional in 2012, with a 9.81 GAA, but that ballooned to 14.47 last season, and he played less than half of the Swarm’s goaltending minutes over the last two years. Now rather than having a veteran with whom he’s familiar as a backup, he’s got Don Alton, with zero minutes of NLL experience and so Kirk will likely be expected to carry the vast majority of the goaltending burden. The Wings aren’t necessarily in deep trouble goaltending-wise, but unless they get a contract worked out with Miller pretty soon, they’re certainly not as strong as I originally thought.

Big righty Drew Westervelt was traded to the Colorado Mammoth for Ryan Hotaling and draft picks. This seemed like an odd trade for the Wings to make, since Hotaling is a transition and face-off guy. No disrespect to him, but the Wings already had Jeff Reynolds, one of the best face-off men in the league, and did they really need another transition guy? Well, it turns out not to matter since neither Hotaling nor Reynolds made the team. And again, the announcement of the rosters screwed up stuff I’d already written. I had “With Paul Rabil, Brodie Merrill, Ned Crotty, Kyle Hartzell, Jordan Hall, and Joel White, the Wings have more trannies than a pride parade.” But of those players, only Merrill, Hall, and White made the team. And Hall isn’t considered transition this year. Thanks a lot for ruining my joke, Mr. Mouradian.

One change I didn’t even notice when the rosters were released was that Kevin Buchanan wasn’t on it but Kyle Buchanan was. This means that the whole “Three Kevins” thing is done. In case you’re wondering, there were only two goals last season featuring all three Kevins, one on February 24 and the other March 1. Both goals were scored by Ross from Crowley and Buchanan, and both were on the power play.

The Wings transition and defense got an overhaul this year – gone are the aforementioned Reynolds, Hartzell, Crotty, and Rabil, as well as Pat Heim, Steve Holmes, Ethan Farrell, and Mike McLellan. In are a bunch of rookies: Garrett Thul, Pat Saunders, John Ranagan, Brian Megill, and Mike Poppleton. Apparently these guys are American field players who are new to box lacrosse, so we’ll see if these guys do any better for the Wings than the last crop of American field players who were new to box lacrosse.

With the Wings signing unrestricted free agent Ryan Ward, the loss of Westervelt is more than mitigated. Ward has averaged over 65 points per season for eight years, so his return to where his career began back in ’04 will be welcome to Wings fans. Another UFA, Tracey Kelusky, is likely near the end of his distinguished career and is coming off the three lowest-scoring (in terms of points per game) seasons of his career. But if he can rebound a little and remain healthy, he could chip in 30-40 points. So with Ward, Kelusky, (Kyle) Buchanan, Jordan Hall, and the two remaining Kevins, the Wings offense might be able to deal with the loss of Westervelt and climb from their league-worst offense in 2013.

Nine of the players on the Wings’ 20-man roster were not on the team last year. Many of the players they are replacing are Americans who are taking the season off to get ready for the 2014 World (Field) Lacrosse Championships this summer. I have to wonder if guys like Crotty and Siebald and even Rabil will be welcomed back next season after bailing on their team (even for something as “noble” as playing for their country), or are they all done in the NLL?

Burning question

  1. Can the Wings make up for the loss of half of their roster?
  2. Can Evan Kirk handle the job of full-time starting goaltender? (See similar question for Tyler Carlson)

Look out for

Kevin Crowley. Despite the acquisition of Ryan Ward, Crowley is still the de facto offensive leader on the team. I can see his numbers going up as he sets out to prove that.

Prediction

Fifth in the East.

Haiku

Lots of turnover
Many will take the year off
Who are these new guys?

2014 Preview: Buffalo Bandits

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Bandits

The 2012 season (not last season, the one before) was disappointing for the Bandits. They had their head coach call them stupid and publicly question their heart and commitment during the season, and they finished last in the East. Then in the division semi-finals they allowed just 7 goals and lost. As it turned out though, that wasn’t rock bottom for the Bandits; they actually got worse in 2013. They dropped from 7-9 to 6-10, from 4-4 to 2-6 at home, scored fewer goals, and allowed more. They finished last in the East again but this time did not make the playoffs, the first time the NLL playoffs had started without the Bandits since 2002. If Bandits management were disappointed with 2012, 2013 was the last straw.

GM Steve Dietrich made two major changes and a number of smaller ones. First, Darris Kilgour was let go, and reigning NLL Coach of the Year Troy Cordingley was brought in. Secondly, Dietrich mortgaged the Bandits future (even more than it was already mortgaged) by trading two first round draft picks to Minnesota for Ryan Benesch and Andrew Watt. The Bandits now have no first round draft picks until 2017 (2013 and 2014 to Minnesota for Cosmo, 2015 and 2016 for Benesch / Watt), but for the first time ever they have an heir apparent to the ageless John Tavares.*

* – I believe that as a lacrosse blogger, I am required by law to use the term “the ageless John Tavares” at least once per season until he retires. I first called him “ageless” in 2008. But don’t read the last paragraph of that article, where I talk about Athan Iannucci’s potential to become “one of the best in league history”.

2013 season summary

Record 6-10 (4th in East)
Home 2-6
Away 4-4
Goals for 171
Goals against 211
Top scorer Shawn Williams (65)
Playoffs Missed

Roster changes

Ryan Benesch now anchors the Bandits offense along with veterans Tavares, Shawn Williams, Aaron Wilson, Chad Culp, Jamie Rooney, and Mark Steenhuis. Steenhuis is listed on the Bandits roster as a forward rather than the transition guy he’s been for a few years. He  only scored 38 points last year as a transition guy, but don’t forget he scored 101 in 2009. I don’t think I’d expect that, but if he’s used purely on offense, 70 points for Steenhuis is not out of the question.

Andrew Watt is more than a throw-in as part of the Benesch deal; in fact, the acquisition of this tranny may be the reason Troy Cordingley can use Steenhuis on offense.

Luke Wiles had a terrible 2013. His point total dropped from 70 to only 21 in 12 games, and fans began publicly calling for his head. In September, they got their wish as Wiles was sent to Philadelphia , where he began his career in 2006, for two draft picks. As someone on the NLL Message Board astutely pointed out, Dietrich got more for Wiles after his lousy season (two second rounders) than he gave up for him after a 60-point season (a second and a third). To add insult to injury for the Wings, Wiles did not make the roster.

In another deal, Dietrich sent Carter Bender to Colorado for Rory Smith. Bender only played in three games so it’s hard to say the Bandits will miss him terribly (and he was then released by the Mammoth), but Rory Smith will be a welcome addition. Smith has turned from a pure fighter a few years ago to a solid defenseman who will drop the mitts if necessary, and regardless of what problems your roster might have, you can’t have too many of those.

Tracey Kelusky may still have some gas left in the tank, but after a dismal couple of years the Bandits weren’t willing to take that chance. Kelusky ended up with a decent 54 points in his first year in Buffalo, but in 2012 he fell to 28 points in 12 games – his worst points/game ratio (2.33) of his career by a full point. But after only 10 points in 7 games in 2013 (1.43 – almost another full point lower than 2012), the Bandits gave up and opted not to resign the former Roughnecks captain. Kelusky ended up signing with the Wings and unlike Wiles, he did make the cut.

Burning question

Cosmo. Dude, WTF? Sometimes he’s the old Goaltender-of-the-Year-winning Cosmo, other times he’s just… not.

Look out for

Ryan Benesch. A bit obvious to pick Benny, but arguably no player who changed teams this off-season will have as much of an impact on his new team as Benesch (with the possible exception of Ryan Ward). Not saying it’ll happen, but no Bandit has won the scoring title since John Tavares tied Gary Gait in 2004.

Prediction

Third in the East.

Haiku

JT will return
Benny adds his scoring touch
Troy turns it around?

2014 preview: Toronto Rock

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Rock

The Rock had a successful season in 2013 by all accounts, finishing first in the East division and winning a Les Bartley award for head coach Troy Cordingley. But an early exit from the playoffs (and in such a – what’s the opposite of dominating? – fashion, a 20-11 drubbing at the hands of the Minnesota Swarm) must have had a significant impact on Terry Sanderson and Jamie Dawick, and Cordingley was let go. When offensive coach John Lovell was named head coach, there was some talk on the NLL message boards about the last time the Rock had a rookie head coach – that being Glenn Clark. Obviously that experiment failed miserably, but Lovell is not Glenn Clark. He’s never been a head coach at the NLL level, but has been coaching lacrosse for many years and is very well respected.

Behind Lovell will be two more rookie coaches, neither of whom have coached at the NLL level at all – former Rock players Dan Ladouceur and the recently retired Blaine Manning.

2013 season summary

Record 10-6 (1st in East)
Home 5-3
Away 5-3
Goals for 194
Goals against 176
Top scorer Garrett Billings (100)
Playoffs Division semi-finals: Lost to Minnesota 20-11

Roster changes

Other than the retirement of Blaine Manning and Cam Woods, there wasn’t much in the way of changes to the Rock roster over the off-season. They made no trades and signed no free agents. Manning’s presence will still be felt as the offensive coach, but he and Woods will both be missed on the floor. Phil Sanderson didn’t play last year at all, but he confirmed with me on Twitter that he will not be playing in 2014, and is unlikely to play in the NLL again. Scott Evans, Roger Vyse, and veteran defender Mike Hobbins were also released in the pre-season.

They only have two this year, but the Rock have been pretty successful with rookies recently. Guys like Kyle Belton, Jesse Gamble, Garrett Billings, and Stephen Leblanc were all drafted by the Rock within the last five years, and Lovell is hoping this year’s crop continues that trend. Top 2013 draft pick Ethan O’Connor will be joining the team as well as defender Craig England. Those two are the only members of the Rock roster who didn’t play for the Rock last season.

The Rock broke with tradition this year, and actually named transition players. O’Connor, Jesse Gamble, and Kyle Belton are all listed on transition. Not sure why Marshall wasn’t. Last year, I believe Gamble was listed as transition but that was it. Everyone else was either F or D (or G) and prior to last year, I don’t think they named any transition players at all.

Burning question

There are only six forwards on the roster, which means that each one will get a lot more playing time per game than in previous years. Three of the six forwards are 33 or older. Billings, Leblanc, and Hellyer will be fine, but will playing the increased minutes for 18 games instead of 16 wipe out the vets? Will Doyle, Sanderson, and Beirnes still be 100% come playoff time?

Look out for

Kyle Belton. Played mostly as a defender in his rookie year, but has been a forward in the past. He, Gamble, and O’Connor looked really good on transition in the pre-season games against Rochester and Colorado.

Prediction

Second in the East.

Haiku

Rock stick to their guns
Not many roster changes
But a new head coach

2014 preview: Minnesota Swarm

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Swarm

The Swarm were the youngest team in the NLL in 2012. How young were they? Jeff Gilbert was the oldest player on the team at the age of 29. The season didn’t start off strongly, and by early March the Swarm were sitting at 3-7 and tied for last in the West. But suddenly everything just seemed to fall together, and they won three straight by 7, 9, and 14 goals. It looked like the Swarm would finish strong but then they lost two of their last three and did finish last in the west. Thanks to the lousy Bandits season, the Swarm were able to cross over to the East where they crushed the Rock 20-11 before the Knighthawks ended the up-and-down Swarm season in the division finals.

The Swarm are now back in the East division, where they were from 2005-2008. Unfortunately for them, this means that they’ll have to face former star Ryan Benesch more often than they would have if they’d stayed in the West.

2013 season summary

Record 7-9 (tied for 4th in West, seeded 5th)
Home 5-3
Away 2-6
Goals for 219
Goals against 202
Top scorer Callum Crawford (95)
Playoffs Division semi-finals: Beat Toronto 20-11
Division finals: Lost to Rochester 12-10

Roster changes

Obviously the biggest loss is Ryan Benesch, right? On the offensive side of the floor, sure, but it could be argued that trading Evan Kirk and going with Tyler Carlson as the full-time starting goaltender is even more significant. Carlson played 505 minutes last year, about the same as his rookie year. But compare that with Mike Poulin, Matt Vinc, and Nick Rose, all of whom were over 900 minutes. And given that there are two extra regular season games, Carlson is being asked to basically double his playing time from last year.

The loss of Benesch will definitely hurt the Swarm offense – he’s been one of the most dynamic scorers in the league for years and led the Swarm in goals last year. But 2013 was Callum Crawford’s best season ever, Shayne Jackson and “transition players” Kiel Matisz and Jordan MacIntosh are only going to get better, they’ll get a full season of Josh Gillam (19 points in 6 games), and there’s a couple of new kids in town: Logan Schuss and Scott Jones. Given all of that, the Swarm just might be able to get by without a huge drop in offense.

Three young defense/transition players from last year – Jay Card, Corbyn Tao, and Dan Ball – will not be returning this year, but former Rock defender Mike Hobbins joins the team and Swarm fans are anxious to see Jason Noble in action. But the return of Andrew Suitor is likely the most welcome change to the team, after the captain missed eleven games to injury last year.

Burning question

Can Tyler Carlson handle the job of full-time starting goaltender? (See similar question for Evan Kirk)

Look out for

Kiel Matisz. He’s listed under “transition”, but don’t you believe it: he’s a forward. After a 63-point rookie season and runner-up for Rookie of the Year, I can see the man they call Moose challenging Crawford for the team scoring lead.

Prediction

Fourth in the East.

Haiku

The captain is back
Schuss, Noble, and Jones debut
But no more Benesch

2014 preview: Edmonton Rush

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Rush

The 2012 Rush had a sub-.500 regular season but caught fire in the playoffs, making it to their first-ever Championship game. Their 2013 regular season was better – only their second .500 or better season in their eight seasons – but they couldn’t quite match the playoff success from the previous year. But the Rush have shown themselves to be a strong team that nobody takes for granted anymore… except maybe Calgary. During the regular season, anyway. With another strong draft, there’s no reason to think the Rush can’t contend in 2014.

2013 season summary

Record 9-7, tied for 1st in West (seeded 3rd)
Home 2-6
Away 7-1
Goals for 203
Goals against 170
Top scorer Ryan Ward (75)
Playoffs Division semi-finals: Lost to Washington 12-11

Roster changes

In October, captain Jimmy Quinlan announced his retirement. This is a big loss for the Rush. Obviously Quinlan has been a strong player, on offense for a few years (including two 50+ point seasons) and more defensive for the last four, but he’ll be missed for much more than his on-field contributions. Hometown boy Quinlan was one of the first players acquired by the Rush as a new franchise, and he’s been the heart and soul of the Rush for the entire history of the franchise – he is to the Rush what Kaleb Toth was to the Roughnecks. Quinlan only missed one game over his eight seasons in Edmonton. But the former captain will remain with the team in a different capacity. Former defensive coach Devan Wray has retired due to family commitments, and so Quinlan will take over the role of defensive coach.

Only two teams scored more goals last year than the Rush. But this off-season, they lost a fair number of those. Ryan Ward was an unrestricted free agent and chose to sign with the Philadelphia Wings, so his 75 points are gone. Corey Small tore his ACL during the WLA playoffs, so his 64 points are gone. Between them, Ward and Small scored 49 of the Rush’s 203 goals, or 24%. Mark Matthews was one of the most successful rookies in recent years, and he scored about 20% of the Rush’s goals in his rookie season. So counting on rookies not named Matthews to make up that 24% seems a bit optimistic. The addition of righty forward Robert Church should help (and might help quite a bit – I’ve already seen tweets predicting that he’ll be the Rookie of the Year), but that’s a lot of ground to make up.

Also missing from last year’s Rush are Alex Turner and Jarrett Toll.

Burning question

A few years ago, I thought the Roughnecks were in deep offensive trouble because they lost both Josh Sanderson and Tracey Kelusky. What happened? The likes of Scott Ranger, Jeff Shattler, Dane Dobbie, and some kid named Curtis Dickson all stepped up and produced one of the top offenses in the league (and then they got Shawn Evans). Expecting that level of success from the Rush after the loss of Ward and Small is really optimistic, but can Matthews and Church save the Rush offense?

Look out for

Curtis Knight. After a better-than-decent 46 points in his rookie season, he’s not going to be eclipsing Mark Matthews but could he be the second top scorer on the Rush this year? Sure he could.

Prediction

Third in the west.

Haiku

Ward off to Philly
Jim Quinlan behind the bench
Church and Matthews score

2014 preview: Colorado Mammoth

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Mammoth

After an 11-5 2012 season, the Mammoth looked like 2013 was going to be their tank year (a la the 2012 Stealth) when they started the season 2-7. They decided that goaltending was the problem, and promptly got rid of the old guard (Matt Roik and Chris Levis) and went with the kids (Tye Belanger and Dan Lewis, whose combined age was lower than Roik’s GAA). This proved to be a good idea, as they finished the season 5-2, while Belanger finished 5th among starters in GAA and 4th in save percentage. Acquiring veteran and legend Casey Powell from Rochester in March didn’t hurt either; by season’s end, John Grant was the only Mammoth with a higher points-per-game average than Powell.

2013 season summary

Record 7-9 (Tied for 4th in West, seeded 4th)
Home 3-5
Away 4-4
Goals for 185
Goals against 202
Top scorer John Grant (91)
Playoffs Division semi-finals: Lost to Calgary 15-10

Roster changes

The Mammoth offense got one boost and a couple of big hits in the off-season. They acquired Drew Westervelt, who’s been a 50+ point-per-season guy in Philadelphia for five years. Hopefully he can give a boost to the Mammoth offense, which was the lowest-scoring in the West. But instead of complementing Grant, Powell, and Prout, he’s basically replacing two of them. Just before the rosters were due to come out, Casey Powell announced that he would not be able to play with the Mammoth for some unspecified period of time, and for unspecified personal reasons. Whether he’s out for a few games or the entire season is anyone’s guess. And then when the rosters were announced, Gavin Prout’s name did not appear. The former captain was released, and so the Mammoth are down one Powell and one Prout and up one Westervelt.

Also missing from the roster, Ilija Gajic and Ryan Hotaling, who were both traded away this off-season. Gajic took 275 face-offs and Hotaling took 122. The rest of the roster combined for all of 38 face-off attempts and only 4 wins. For a second I thought this was a big oversight until I remembered who they got in the Gajic trade – Bob Snider. Snider’s only competition for the honour of Best Face-off Man in the NLL over the last three seasons has been his brother Geoff, so I imagine the Mammoth will be just fine in that category.

The Mammoth also traded Rory Smith to the Bandits for Carter Bender. Bender was released during training camp, but Smith had toned down his reputation as a pure fighter and turned himself into a tough defender. In addition, Richard Morgan retired, leaving the Mammoth without a single player over 6’5″. Only two teams allowed more goals than the Mammoth last year, and losing Smith and Morgan won’t help their defense to turn that around.

Interesting stat: four Mammoth players had more than 30 penalty minutes last year: Rory Smith, Ilija Gajic, Richard Morgan, and Chet Koneczny. Koneczny is the only one left on the team.

The Mammoth used four different goalies last season, and only one of them is still with the team. Tye Belanger gets the nod as everyday goaltender, while Dan Lewis was released in favour of draft pick Dillon Ward.

Burning question

Gotta couple.

  1. Tye Belanger looked pretty good in his 1/2 season stint as the starting goaltender. Can he pull that off for an entire season?
  2. Will Casey Powell return this season? Will he return to the NLL at all?

Look out for

Sean Pollock. Pollock has been a 3+ point-per-game guy for six of the last seven years. Pollock is a righty, so with Powell and Prout (both rightys) gone, Pollock may see a lot more floor time this season.

Prediction

Fourth in the west.

Haiku

Gavin Prout is gone
No Powell or Rory Smith
Westy takes over

2014 preview: Calgary Roughnecks

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RoughnecksThe success the Calgary Roughnecks has seen over the life of the franchise is surprising, in a couple of ways. In their twelve seasons, they have only missed the playoffs once, and that was in their first year. They’ve only had two seasons under .500. They’ve finished with more goals scored than allowed every season but their first. They’ve finished first in their division five times (2013, 2012, 2011, 2009, 2005). And yet with all that regular season success, they’ve only made it to the Championship game twice, winning both of them.

2013 season summary

Record 9-7 (Tied for 1st in West, seeded 1st)
Home 3-5
Away 6-2
Goals for 222
Goals against 211
Top scorer Shawn Evans (112 points)
Playoffs Division semi-finals: Beat Colorado 15-10
Division Finals: Lost to Washington 14-13

Roster changes

Only the Knighthawks made fewer off-season moves than the Roughnecks. In fact, if it weren’t for injuries, there might only have been one – and that one wasn’t even made by the team: defender Nolan Heavenor announced his retirement. Heavenor was one of those fly-under-the-radar kind of defensemen – no glory (not that defenders ever get much glory) but lots of respect from teammates and opponents alike.

Notable names missing from the announced roster include Travis Cornwall, Scott Ranger, and Pete McFetridge, all of whom are on the PUP list, and Scott Carnegie, assigned to the practice squad. Also missing from last year are Joe Resetarits who was traded to Buffalo, and Aaron Pascas who was released. Additions to the roster include Tor Reinholdt and Karsen Leung, both Mann Cup finalists with the Langley Thunder, and a third goaltender – Peter Dubenski, who will play behind Mike Poulin and Frankie Scigliano.

Ranger is a big part of the Roughnecks offense whose absence will be very much noticed, so I find it odd that they didn’t go with another forward on the roster instead of a third goaltender. Their forwards include the likes of Dobbie, Dickson, Shattler, Veltman, and Shawn Evans, so perhaps they’ve decided that they’re fine on offense, but the only other forward on their roster is Matthew Dinsdale, who only got 7 points in 13 games last year. They can’t be sending out 5 of these 6 guys on every offensive shift, so presumably some of the transition guys (Leung, Reinholdt, and Geoff Snider) will be pulled forward for some shifts until Ranger returns.

Burning question

Which Mike Poulin will the Roughnecks see – the 2012 version (Goaltender of the Year, 10.27 GAA, 78.9 Save%), or the 2013 version (12.82 GAA, 74.2 Save%)?

Look out for

Curtis Dickson. Widely regarded as one of the best offensive players anyway, I can see this 50-60 point guy climbing into the 80-90 range. And not just because there are two more games.

Prediction

First in the west.

Haiku

Roughnecks score a lot
Evans was the MVP
But there’s no Ranger

2014 preview: Vancouver Stealth

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Stealth

The Stealth continue their west coast tour. They did six years in San Jose and four in Washington before moving north of the border, and now we’ll see if Vancouver is really the lacrosse town everyone thinks it is. Even if it is and every game is a sellout, the Stealth will still have the lowest attendance in the league, since the Langley Events Centre only holds 5,500 people. The lowest per-game average in the league last year, other than the Stealth, was Edmonton with 6,714. But Stealth ownership knew that when they made this decision, so presumably the lower arena costs and lower travel costs and who knows what else are sufficient reasons for the move even if they guarantee themselves the lowest attendance. Then again, said lowest attendance of 5,500 a game would still be over 30% higher than they had last year.

After a crappy 2012 which saw the Stealth finish dead last and miss the playoffs, they rebounded in a big way in 2013, not only finishing tied for first in the division but heading to their third Championship game in four years. They got about as close as you can get to “worst-to-first” in a year, but lost a one-goal final to the Rochester Knighthawks.

With appearances in three Championship games in four years, the Stealth have become an elite team. If they had won just one more of those games (or not finished last in the one other season), the word “dynasty” might even be floating around. Can they continue this high level of on-field success?

2013 season summary

Record 9-7 (Tied for 1st in West, seeded 2nd)
Home 5-3
Away 4-4
Goals for 193
Goals against 192
Top scorer Rhys Dych (97)
Playoffs Division semi-finals: Beat Edmonton 12-11
Division Finals: Beat Calgary 14-13
Finals: Lost to Rochester 11-10

Roster changes

When the rosters were announced on December 16th, the Stealth’s list was the first I saw, and was my first “holy crap” of the day. Athan Iannucci and Dean Hill, Washington’s #3 and #6 scorers last season, were both released while three rookies made the team. Hill is a veteran of eight seasons, while Iannucci is a former MVP and 100-point player. That said, it’s not like the Stealth released Gary Gait; Nooch only scored 100 points once and his second-highest total was 61. But he averaged 46 points over the last two seasons while Hill averaged 38, so the Stealth must have a lot of confidence in the likes of Cody Bremner, Tyler Digby, and Sean Lundstrom.

Also hoping to add to the Stealth goal totals will be Alex Gajic. Gajic is returning from injury, having missed all of 2013 and most of 2012, but he scored 48 points in each of the previous two seasons with the Mammoth. Alex joins his brother Ilija as the second and third Gajic transplants from Colorado, as Nenad did the same thing two years ago. Nenad only lasted three games with the Stealth in 2012, so here’s hoping Alex and Ilija have better luck.

The Steath will have a new face-off man this year, as Bob Snider was traded. Snider took 96% of the Stealth’s faceoffs last year, winning 61% of them, so whoever takes his place has big shoes to fill.

Also missing will be Tim Henderson. 2nd Lieutenant Henderson graduated from West Point in May and found out in June that he was being deployed to Afghanistan, and so will be unavailable to the Stealth at least until he returns. I don’t know how long his deployment is, but my buddy Google tells me that nine months would likely be the absolute minimum. So he’ll be out until at least March, and that assumes both the shortest possible deployment and that he’s ready to play the instant he returns. Probably safe to assume he won’t be playing in 2014 at all.

Burning questions

I have a couple of questions for this team, one on-floor and one off:

  1. Was releasing Iannucci addition by subtraction? Or will the Stealth be looking for more offense?
  2. Can the lower mainland sustain an NLL team if the ownership is completely on-board (which the Ravens’ ownership was not)? Can an NLL team survive on only 5,500 attendance (best case) per game?

Look out for

Lewis Ratcliff. After two 90+ point seasons, Ratcliff’s production dropped to 76 points in 2012 and 67 in 2013. IL Indoor ranked him 45th on their top 50 players, which means they think there are 44 players in the league – an average of five players per team – better than Ratcliff. That would have been unbelievable only two or three years ago. Is Ratcliff on the downside of his career at the ripe old age of 32? Or did he just have two substandard years? Almost everyone on the Stealth had a substandard year in 2012 – did it simply take Ratcliff an extra year to get back to form? He tweeted recently that he needs glasses – could a 20:20 Ratcliff get back to 90 points?

Prediction

Second in the west.

Haiku

Moved to Vancouver
No Snider but two Gajic’s
Iannucci’s gone

NLL 2014 rosters: Who’s in, who’s out

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Here is a complete list of the changes in rosters for each team compared to last season. The “In” lists contain players that are on the 20-man roster that were not on the final roster from last season, and may include players that were on the practice roster or IR last year. The “Out” lists contain players that were on the final roster last year but are not on the 20-man roster now, and does not include players that are now on one of the other lists (eg. PUP, IR). Players on the Holdout, Physically Unable to Perform (PUP), or Injured Reserve (IR) lists may be moved to the active roster before the season begins.

Names for each list are in alphabetical order.

Buffalo Bandits

In: Ryan Benesch, Kevin Brownell, Troy Cordingley (head coach), Dave Pym (assistant coach), Joe Resetarits, Rory Smith, Andrew Watt
Out: Carter Bender, Nick Cotter, Jon Harasym, Mike Hominuck, Derek Hopcroft, Tracey Kelusky, Darris Kilgour (head coach), Mike McNamara, Luke Wiles
IR: Eric Penney
PUP:
Holdout:
Practice Squad: Colin Boucher, Jordan Critch, Hayden Smith, Mitch Wilde

 

Minnesota Swarm

In: East Division, Cameron Flint, Mike Hobbins, Jordan Houtby, Scott Jones, Jason Noble, Logan Schuss
Out: Dan Ball, Mitch Belisle, Ryan Benesch, Nic Bilic, Jay Card, Evan Kirk, Pat Smith, Corbyn Tao, Andrew Watt, West Division
IR:
PUP: Matt Gibson
Holdout:
Practice Squad:

 

Philadelphia Wings

In: Don Alton, Kyle Buchanan, Blane Harrison (head coach), Tracey Kelusky, Evan Kirk, Brian Megill, Michael Poppleton, John Ranagan, Pat Saunders, Garrett Thul, Ryan Ward
Out: Kevin Buchanan, Ned Crotty, Angus Dinley, Ethan Farrell, Jim Forsythe, Brandon Francis, Kyle Hartzell, Pat Heim, Steve Holmes, John McFadyen, Mike McLellan, Brandon Miller, Johnny Mouradian (head coach), Paul Rabil, Jeff Reynolds, Brian Teuber, Drew Westervelt
IR:
PUP: Rob Campbell, Brendan Mundorf, Max Siebald, Kyle Wailes
Holdout:
Practice Squad: Michael Diehl, Eric Hoffman, Bill McGlone

 

Rochester Knighthawks

In: Mac Allen, Mike Thompson
Out: Mike Accursi, Rory Glaves, Matt Hummel, Kyle Laverty, Jimmy Purves, Jon Sullivan
IR: Jamie Batson
PUP: Angus Goodleaf, Zac Reid
Holdout:
Practice Squad: Wenster Green, Mark White

 

Toronto Rock

In: Craig England, Dan Ladouceur (assistant coach), John Lovell (head coach), Blaine Manning (assistant coach), Ethan O’Connor
Out: Troy Cordingley (head coach), Scott Evans, Mike Hobbins, Blaine Manning, Brendan Thenhaus, Roger Vyse, Cam Woods
IR:
PUP:
Holdout:
Practice Squad: Dustin Dunn, Eric Law, Jeff Swift, Mike Lum-Walker

 

Calgary Roughnecks

In: Peter Dubenski, Cody Hawkins, Karsen Leung, Garrett McIntosh, Tor Reinholdt
Out: Jackson Decker, Nolan Heavenor, Aaron Pascas, Joe Resetarits
IR:
PUP: Travis Cornwall, Pete McFetridge, Scott Ranger
Holdout:
Practice Squad: Brett Baron, Scott Carnegie, Jake Hayes, Barclay Hickey

 

Colorado Mammoth

In: Cameron Mann, Bob Snider, Dillon Ward, Drew Westervelt
Out: Mac Allen, Joel Delgarno, Ilija Gajic, Jaeden Gastaldo, Ian Hawksbee, Ryan Hotaling, Dan Lewis, Richard Morgan, Jarrett Park, Gavin Prout, Rory Smith
IR:
PUP:
Holdout: Casey Powell
Practice Squad:

 

Edmonton Rush

In: Nic Bilic, Robert Church, Riley Loewen, Jimmy Quinlan (defensive coach), Adrian Sorichetti, Dane Stevens
Out: Mike Burke, Mike Cudmore, Jimmy Quinlan (player), Ryan Ward, Devan Wray (defensive coach)
IR:
PUP: Corey Small
Holdout:
Practice Squad: Mitch Bannister, Jarrett Toll, Alex Turner

 

Vancouver Stealth

In: Cody Bremner, Tyler Digby, Alex Gajic, Ilija Gajic, Brett Hickey, Sean Lundstrom
Out: Kyle Buchanan, Tim Henderson, Dean Hill, Athan Iannucci, Mitch Jones, Justin Pychel, Bob Snider
IR: Brett Bucktooth, Mitch McMichael
PUP:
Holdout:
Practice Squad: Josh Hawkins, Neil Tyacke, Chris Wardle, Nick Weiss

Presenting your 2014 Boston Blazers

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Blazers

As I have done the previous two years, here’s what could be the tenth NLL team, made up entirely of players not currently on an NLL team. These are players who were released, are on practice rosters, or are otherwise unaccounted for on the final rosters released today. It does not include those on the IR, PUP, or holdout lists, or those who have retired. As the NLL teams had to do, I came up with 20 players, and because there were some pretty decent players cut from this list, I added a practice squad as well.

This is, quite honestly, a pretty damned good team. Sure, there are lots of veterans and players that might have lost a step, and they may not match up against the 2007 Knighthawks or 2005 Rock, but when you have teams barely over .500 winning the Championship, a team like this could do very well. In a ten team league, I doubt I’d be picking the Blazers to finish last and they could easily make the playoffs. It’s hard to believe that every player here is unemployed.

Forwards

Mike Accursi
Joel Delgarno
Scott Evans
Dean Hill
Derek Hopcroft
Athan Iannucci
Gavin Prout
Roger Vyse
Luke Wiles

Transition

Kyle Hartzell
Jarrett Park
Paul Rabil
Jarrett Toll

Defenders

Scott Carnegie
Rory Glaves
Ian Hawksbee
Mike McNamara
Jeff Reynolds

Goaltenders

Dan Lewis
Brandon Miller (technically still a franchise player in Philly, but he meets all the criteria above)

Practice Squad

Ryan Hotaling
Brendan Thenhaus (has appeared on both of the previous lists)
Aaron Pascas
Neil Tyacke