The Buffalo Bandits off season talk for the past few years has been dominated by speculation of the future of John Tavares. The 46 year old veteran is an unrestricted free agent once again, and this year the Bandits did not franchise him. There was talk once again during the 2015 season that Tavares may not return, and when speaking to the Buffalo News this week, he added fuel to…
In one of the most surprising, and also quietest, moves of the NLL offseason, the Calgary Roughnecks have released star faceoff man Geoff Snider. The move occurred on August 3 and went relatively unnoticed until the NLL updated their transactions page early this week. Snider, who led the league in faceoff percentage in 2015, was benched twice in late March, as was highlighted in the Calgary Sun on March 27:…
This week we learned of the newest American indoor lacrosse league, Premier Series Lacrosse. ILWT caught up with league founders Larry Fila, Ginny Capicchioni, Patrick Crosby, and Julian Maliszewski to discuss the league. QUESTION: What exactly is the PSL? “Premier Series Lacrosse is an entity that is BY Americans FOR Americans TO HONOR of our American Armed Forces.” Mission Statement: To honor, support and bring awareness to the brave men…
It’s the NLL’s version of Hot Stove season (to use a baseball term), and that means general managers are as active as ever. Leading up to the draft in September, we will be discussing the off season with as many general managers as possible. First up is Buffalo bandits general manager Steve Dietrich. Question: How did the Veltman signing come to fruition? We wanted to add an impact left handed scorer coming in…
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…
After the Buffalo Bandits made an offer to restricted free agent Pat Saunders earlier in the week, but it appears he will not be going anywhere. After matching the Bandits offer, the New England Black Wolves will retain forward Pat Saunders on a two year deal. Saunders, who spent time with Philadelphia, broke out last season with New England. The former sixth round pick from Chicago scored 68 points which…
Earlier this week it was announced the Rochester Knighthawks and Toronto Rock each lost picks for free agent violations. Reports surfaced today from Inside Lacrosse that the penalized signings were Toronto signing goalie Steve Fryer and Rochester signing transition man Jake Crans. Fryer has bounced between the practice and regular roster with the Rock. The 25 year old goaltender was drafted by the Philadelphia Wings before joining Toronto. Crans had been…
Major League Lacrosse sent an email to the media this morning about a press conference, and it was only a matter of time before we learned it was expansion. According to reports this morning and to ILWT sources, the league will announce an expansion team in Atlanta on Friday. This week’s championship game between the New York Lizards and Rochester Rattlers will take place in Atlanta, just like last years…
The New England Black Wolves retained two of their restricted free agents this week when they re-signed Kevin Buchanan and Ryan Hotaling to one year contracts. The Black Wolves, who missed the playoffs in 2015, will start with a far different roster than they began with last year. With Andrew Suitor and Garrett Billings to build around, Hotaling and Buchanan are both important pieces as a part of that…
The Calgary Roughnecks and Georgia Swarm were active yesterday before the deadline to qualify restricted free agents. The Roughnecks qualified all of their potential RFAs, while the Swarm did for the majority. Other teams qualified sparingly. The Saskatchewan Rush qualified Zack Greer and the Vancouver Stealth did it for Rhys Duch, both projected to be top restricted free agents on the market. Calgary extended qualified offers for their RFAs, which…