The Edmonton Rush started training camp in Edmonton two weekends ago with 31 players signed after they matched the four year offer the Buffalo Bandits made to defender Ryan Dilks. They made three cuts after the weekend, releasing local products Simon Giourmetakis, Matt McKenzie and Ben Snider, bringing the roster down to 25 runners and 3 goalies. The team’s second and final weekend of camp starts out in Six Nations, Ontario this Thursday and includes an exhibition game against the Buffalo Bandits at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena on Saturday at 7pm EST.
The new National Lacrosse League Collective Bargaining Agreement is making NLL rosters for 2014 as tough to predict as they are to make. This year, NLL teams are only allowed to dress sixteen runners and two goalies each game with two spares on their active roster compared to eighteen runners and two goalies last season. Even though practice rosters increase from three to four, difficult decisions face all teams, with final rosters being due after this weekend on Monday, December 16 at noon EST.
Goaltending for the Rush is set with Aaron Bold and Brodie MacDonald.
On offence, Cory Conway, Jarrett Davis and Curtis Knight will be joined on the right side by 2014 first round draft pick, Robert Church. Church really caught the eye of Coach and General Manager Derek Keenan and new Offensive Coach Jeff McComb when he played against them in the 2011 and 2012 Minto Cups as a member of the Coquitlam Adanacs and as McComb pointed out, Church is familiar to a major piece of the Rush offence. “Mark Matthews played with him in 2010 when Mark was out in Coquitlam, so Mark gave us a good read on him too.” Talking about what he likes in Church’s game, McComb added, “The things I love about Robert is I think his lacrosse IQ’s off the charts. I think he is a smart, smart player; sees the floor extremely well. I think he’s a lacrosse rat. He lives for the game. From everything I’ve heard about him and everything I’ve seen so far and you couple that with his obvious skill level and I think here’s a kid who has a chance to be real good.”
On the left side, Corey Small’s knee injury during the Western Lacrosse Association’s playoffs leaves the Rush looking for a way to replace his 28 goals and 36 assists from the 2013 regular season. Look for Mark Matthews and Zack Greer to be complimented by Alex Turner, Dane Stevens and 2014 second rounder Riley Loewen. The possibility of the Rush settling on five lefties and four righties might mean that right hander Michael Burke may be the odd man out.
Defence and transition looks to be where the most difficult decisions have to be made. The fifteen players that the Rush will take to Six Nations in those positions has to be whittled down to nine or ten.
Nik Bilic was brought in from the Minnesota Swarm when the Rush traded the fourth overall pick for Bilic and the fifth overall pick that the Swarm had the rights to. Adrian Sorichetti (2nd round, 13th overall) and Reid Mydske (4th round, 30th overall) were selected after the Rush addressed their offensive needs with Church and Loewen. Sorichetti played Junior A for Keenan and McComb in Whitby, so that familiarity, combined with his athleticism and versatility, put him in a good position to make the team. The same goes with Bilic and the edge and aggressiveness the coaching staff likes in his game. Captain Chris Corbeil along with Assistant Captains Kyle Rubisch and Brett Mydske are locks along with the team’s leading draw man, Jeremy Thompson. From there, Jeff Cornwall, Ryan Dilks, John Lafontaine, John Lintz and Jarrett Toll are all guys who played every game for the team last season, which makes it extremely difficult to predict which of them may not have a spot on the final roster.
In the end, the ability to play effectively on both sides of the ball could be something that the coaching staff values more when deciding on the team they will open the season with on December 28th.
