The National Lacrosse League held their 2014 draft at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre on Monday, Sept. 22. This year’s draft had 55 hopefuls get to hear their names called. With the first three overall picks in the draft, the Edmonton Rush selected Ben McIntosh from Drexel University, the Knighthawks selected Jeremy Noble from University of Denver and the Minnesota Swarm selected Miles Thompson from the University of Albany.
While the 2014 draft should have been memorable for the top three future NLL future stars in the draft, the draft will now be known for having the wildest frenzy of trade activity ever seen on draft day. Last night’s draft saw a total of nine different trade transactions occur with every team except for the Toronto Rock getting involved.
While some teams traded up to get that elusive missing piece that could help them win a championship (Edmonton’s trade with Minnesota to receive the first overall pick of Ben McIntosh), others used their transaction to address their current overall needs. At the current moment, the Buffalo Bandits were in need for some solid lefty forwards and they received one with their ninth overall selection of Brandon Goodwin from Adelphi University.
The biggest trade deal of the evening came from the defending NLL Champion Rochester Knighthawks and the Vancouver Stealth. The Knighthawks received the 2nd and 11th overall picks in 2014, as well as the 1st round picks in both 2015 and 2017 drafts from the Vancouver Stealth in exchange for Johnny Powless, Joel McCready, and the 9th and 23rd overall picks in 2014.
What this deal did for both teams is that they both will receive solid offensive firepower to boost their lagging offensive production. The Knighthawks selection of Jeremy Noble with the second overall selection will help fill the void left by Powless and McCready and set the Knighthawks up with two solid first round picks for the next couple of years.
The Stealth will receive instant offensive contributions from Powless and McCready and hopefully will help boost the offensive production from Stealth forwards Duch and Ratcliff.
The New England Black Wolves, the newest franchise added to the NLL, proved to the fans through this year’s draft that they are a major player in this league and used the draft to wheel and deal themselves into incredibly solid footing for many drafts to come. The Black Wolves draft moves gave the team the largest amount of draft pick’s in the 2014 draft with ten selections and five of them coming from the first and second rounds.
The Colorado Mammoth I believe did a wonderful job in making sure that they used their draft selections to select the best available players for their respected positions and upgrade on both sides of the ball. The Mammoth gave a decent boost to their offense with the selection of Eli McLaughlin and selected the best defensive player in the entire draft with the selection of Robert Hope. With the Mammoth giving goalie sensation Dillon Ward a huge extended contract, hopefully having Hope possibly leading the defense this upcoming season will give Ward the confidence he needs to send his career into the stratosphere.
The Calgary Roughnecks used the trade frenzy to wheel and deal with the Black Wolves and gambled more on future drafts then the draft at hand. The Roughnecks gave up their coveted sixth and eight first round picks and their 27th and 28th third round selections to New England for their 2015 first round pick and their 2016 third round selection. With this trade in motion, the Roughnecks are gambling on the fact that with the Black Wolves being a new franchise, they may end up with the worst record this season and will possibly put the Roughnecks in great standing of possibly picking up Lyle Thompson next year.
The Minnesota Swarm weren’t too busy in this year’s draft in the terms of trading for position. But, the Swarm used their earlier trade with Edmonton to move down and select the offensive player they hope will fill the void left by the trading of Ryan Benesch to Buffalo last season. Hopefully, their third overall selection Miles Thompson will help bring that offensive firepower back to Minnesota.
Just like Minnesota, The Toronto Rock were mainly handcuffed from trying to get in on the trade transactions due to the trading for Brodie Merrill from New England. So unfortunately for the Rock, they had to just deal with the fact of having the fewest draft picks in this year’s draft and make sure they truly counted. The Toronto Rock’s first selection was for Brandon Benn from Johns Hopkins. Hopefully, Benn will be able to utilize his field skills with Johns Hopkins and his indoor experience with Brampton to help bring a truly complete player to the Rock.
