The 2013 Bandits season is likely one fans hope to forget soon. Marked with great turn-over in Steve Deitrich’s first year as GM, the team had much promise coming into the season. Names like Shawn Williams, Dhane Smith, Aaron Wilson, Mike Hominuck, Jamie Rooney, and Nick Cotter all joined an offensive unit that seriously lacked secondary scoring. The defense was a little more questionable, full of young players who would have to learn on the fly.
In the end, it seemed that the young defense wasn’t good enough to allow this team to be consistent, and the offense wasn’t good enough to save them from their defense. And thus, the Bandits missed the playoffs for the first time since 2002.
This year’s Bandits team was different that those of the past based solely on their openness to young players. A team that historically is hard to make as a rookie saw five different first year players get floor time. They were led by one of the biggest bright spots of the season, Dhane Smith. Smith finished the year third on the team in scoring, only behind Shawn Williams and Aaron Wilson, with 24 goals and 20 assists. He should be a centerpiece of the Buffalo offensive unit going forward.
Other players, especially some of the Bandit veterans, that had vital roles in the past seemed to fade away this season. Tracey Kelusky, who had struggled last year as well, was riddled with injuries that kept him out of more than half the team’s games. John Tavares had his fair share of injuries as well, and fans started to see glimpses that his age was finally catching up to him. Mark Steenhuis wasn’t able to see as much action on offense as he may of liked due to the fact that he was one of the better defenders on the roster.
No one was as disappointing this season as Luke Wiles, who experienced a huge fall from grace by going from leading the team in scoring to being placed on the practice roster only one season later. Wiles’ started off his year late after a short hold-out and just never seemed to be on the same page. For the most part he was a non-factor, scoring only 10 goals with many coming in bunches. Wiles went from future face of the franchise to a player that the team really doesn’t know what to do with. It must be noted that the Bandits decided to put a hobbling John Tavares, who could only play powerplay and could barely run, on the floor instead of Wiles in their final game against Rochester.
In most cases a team in the Bandits’ position could look on the bright side knowing that the future will likely be bright thanks to draft picks. However that is not the case, with both this year and next year’s first round picks going to Minnesota in the Anthony Cosmo trade. Cosmo has disappointed in Buffalo, never living up to the All-Star level that he had before coming to the Bandits. Now a free agent, it’s hard to say what will become of Anthony Cosmo.
The man who traded those picks away is former GM and current head coach Darris Kilgour. Whether Kilgour is on the hot seat is hard to tell, as the management could chalk this season up to growing pains with a newly put together and young roster. If they did have high expectations for this season, however, the Bandits enormous drop-off in the second half can’t reflect wonderfully on the coach with the most career wins in NLL history. Could it be time for a new voice in the locker room?
So the Bandits are in quite the pickle. Their cabinet is pretty bare, not exactly full of tradable assets. Their assets are already gone, and now they are at the bottom with little to look forward to. The Bandits must bank on it being a desired location for free agents to sign, because they have lost out on many of their other options. Besides Dhane Smith, their other rookies likely won’t amount to stars, but the team will hope that they can develop them further. That being said, it could very likely be the start to a mediocre era in the franchise’s history.
