The Buffalo Bandits have been one of the most active teams in this year’s NLL free agency period. They’ve retained their top free agent in goalie Anthony Cosmo, and they’ve retained other role players such as Dave Brock and Mitch Wilde.
The Bandits became the first team on Saturday to sign a major free agent from another team when they signed Daryl Veltman. Veltman, a left handed forward, was one of several marquee free agents from the Calgary Roughnecks. While Calgary qualified most of their restricted free agents, including Shawn Evans and Curtis Dickson, they were not able to keep Veltman.
The signing of Veltman came on the heels of Buffalo missing out on restricted free agent Pat Saunders. Saunders, who experienced a breakout season for the New England Black Wolves in 2015, was retained by the Wolves when they matched the Bandits offer for a two year deal.
Where is the correlation for the Bandits signing Veltman and losing on Saunders? Both are left handed shots, and that’s an area the Bandits are looking to improve on.
The Bandits were second in the league in goals in 2015, but still they are finding ways to improve their offense. In their division alone they are competing with the eastern champion Toronto Rock, who seem to find scoring at all angles after break out seasons from Rob Hellyer and Brett Hickey. They also have to worry about the Rochester Knighthawks and a Georgia Swarm team who is loaded with top draft picks.
Buffalo already had one of the strongest left handed shooters in the league in Ryan Benesch, who had his best season to date in 2015. Chad Culp and Jerome Thompson are also expected to return from that side. However, the question remains about the status of John Tavares. Tavares, who has missed more and more time from injuries in past seasons, is an unrestricted free agent and he was not franchised by the team. There is plenty of speculation of whether 2015 was the last season for Tavares, and it would explain the Bandits attempt at signing left handed shots.
Of the remaining free agents, Jamie Lincoln is one that the Bandits might have interest in as a depth player. While a lot of teams are waiting until next month’s draft before signing free agents, the Bandits have already set themselves on a direction as they plan for the 2016 season.
