This week we unveiled two early mock drafts- one from Mike Mackley and one from Chris Vale. Both are top lacrosse talent evaluators and have a pulse on what might happen in the draft. However, their drafts vary. My job is to interpret their drafts. At least, the first three rounds of them.
There are going to be 1,000 mock drafts we do this summer. If you hate mock drafts, sorry. But really, who doesn’t make mock drafts? I love mock drafts, which is why I make all the writers constantly make them.
This could be the best NLL draft ever. Not even exaggerating. Wes Berg and Lyle Thompson ALONE make it a super draft. However, what makes it so strong is its depth. There are guys going in round two and three who would have been first rounders last year.
Though, everyone said last year’s draft was weak and it turned out alright. Jeremy Noble, Miles Thompson, and Ben McIntosh are already stars. Other rookies like Robert Hope, Alexis Buque, Quinn Powless (though he was injured), Mark Cockerton, Eli McLaughlin, Tyler Melnyk, Matthew Bennett, Brandon Benn, and Pat Miles proved they can stay on an NLL roster.
Without further ado, lets start comparing these mocks.
Chris Vale First Round
1. Georgia Swarm – (O) Lyle Thompson
2. Rochester Knighthawks – (O) Randy Staats
3. Georgia Swarm – (O) Jesse King
4. Calgary Roughnecks – (O) Wesley Berg
5. Georgia Swarm – (D) Graeme Hossack
6. Georgia Swarm – (T) Chad Tutton
7. Calgary Roughnecks – (O) Reilly O’Connor
8. New England Black Wolves – (O)Turner Evens
9. Edmonton Rush – (D) Justin Goodwin
Mike Mackley First Round
1. Georgia Swarm – (O) Lyle Thompson
2. Rochester Knighthawks – (O) Jesse King
3. Georgia Swarm – (D) Graeme Hossack
4. Calgary Roughnecks – (O) Wesley Berg
5. Georgia Swarm – (O) Reilly O’Connor
6. Georgia Swarm – (O) Randy Staats
7. Calgary Roughnecks – (O) Turner Evans
8. New England Black Wolves – (O) Shayne Adams
9. Edmonton Rush – (T) Chad Tutton
These are similar because the first rounders kind of are what they are. A lot of the NLL draft has less to do with talent than it does viability. Noble was an obvious choice for second overall but he forced his way to be traded to Colorado. I doube Rochester gets risky like that again.
We all agree on the first pick, which is good cause it is super obvious. Lyle Thompson will play with Miles in Georgia, and they might even sign Ty. Perfect.
We already disagree on pick #2. Mike has Jesse King going to Rochester and Chris has Staats. Staats seems like a Rochester type of player and there is no way he drops to the second round, where Rochester picks 16th, so it wouldn’t be surprising. If they don’t take him there it wouldn’t be shocking if they traded into the first round to take Staats as well.
One thing they have right is King’s stock is high right now, and if he went third overall or second it would make sense. It is really hard to evaluate Georgia picks because who knows who will actually play in Georgia. There are no NLLers from Georgia. When there was an Orlando team, there were some Florida connections with Casey Powell, but honestly how will we know who will be drafted and be like, “Oh, I am super excited to play indoor lacrosse in Gwinnett and where in the world is Gwinnett” That makes it hard to judge so we will just pretend everyone wants to play there.
I think we can all agree Wes Berg belongs on the west coast, and unless the Colorado Mammoth trade the world to get the fourth pick or higher, the Calgary Roughnecks will likely select the Pioneers star.
Everyone has Graeme Hossock ending up in Georgia and they likely will take the defender. They should probably lose veteran defenseman Mitch Belisle, maybe to New England since he plays for the Cannons as well, so they need defense.
With the fifth pick, Georgia picks again because they decided to be fair and only have four of the first six picks. I don’t think Randy Staats falls that far, but if he does, great fit with Georgia. If not, Chad Tutton makes sense too since he played in North Carolina and that’s in the south.
Georgia will get all the players and that’s about it.
The seventh pick is Calgary with their second round pick as they attempt to stop the monopoly of Gerogia swarming the draft (puns!). If Reilly O’Connor is there, he makes sense. If not, Turner Evans would be good and I think both Chris and Mike agree because they have Evans around the same area.
Chris has Evans falling to New England (second Ohio State guy in the draft, and Kevin Buchanan went to Ohio State so I guess that is a connection) but I love Mike’s idea of Shayne Adams to the Black Wolves.
The last pick is Edmonton/Saskatoon/The Twilight Zone team and Mike has Tutton falling there and Chris has Justin Goodwin. Mike has the Rush eventually taking Goodwin in the second round so I’d call that an agreement.
I won’t pick which draft I like better because I don’t pick favorites with my staff, but we have mock drafts in June so everything is swell.
Stay tuned for more mock drafts and prospect analysis all summer until the draft in September.
