December 16th was the day that everyone affiliated with the Buffalo Bandits, much like everyone else in the NLL, had circled on their calendar. Today was the final day that every team in the NLL had to make their final active roster submissions for the 2014 National Lacrosse League season.
Monday, Buffalo Bandits General Manager Steve Dietrich announced the 20-man active roster for their 2014 National Lacrosse Season. The Bandits retained 16 players from their 2013 roster including their top five scorers Shawn Williams, Aaron Wilson, Dhane Smith, John Tavares and Mark Steenhuis. Rounding out the roster and playing their first season with the Bandits this upcoming 2014 season are off season acquisitions Joe Resetarits from the Calgary Roughnecks (8G + 16A), Rory Smith from the Colorado Mammoth (37LB), and Andrew Watt (6G + 3A) and Ryan Benesch (34G + 50A) from the Minnesota Swarm.
This year has been incredibly difficult for everyone involved due to the fact of the tremendous amount of quality active players in the league and their shrinking active roster allotments due to the newly signed CBA. “We released players who are good enough to play in this league,” Buffalo Bandits General Manager Steve Dietrich said. “With the amount of roster spots that we are given, we had to make some tough decisions.”
The Bandits announced the release of defenseman Michael McNamara, forward Derek Hopcroft and goaltender Steven Fryer today. Macnamara played 13 games with the Bandits over two seasons and Hopcroft (acquired from Colorado last year) recorded 11 points (4G + 7A) in four games last season.
2014 Buffalo Bandits Final Roster:
3 Billy Dee Smith – D
5 Joe Resetarits – F
7 Derek Suddons – D
8 Kevin Brownell – T
9 Mark Steenhuis – F
10 Aaron Wilson – F
11 John Tavares – F
13 David Brock – T
17 Ryan Benesch – F
19 Chad Culp – F
22 Andrew Watt – T
23 Steve Priolo – D
27 Glen Bryan – D
42 Rory Smith – D
51 Shawn Williams – F
75 Jay Thorimbert – T
90 Jamie Rooney – F
92 Dhane Smith – T
38 Kurtis Wagar – G
44 Anthony Cosmo – G
Practice Squad
55 Mitch Wilde – T
74 Colin Boucher – D
91 Jordan Critch – T
97 Hayden Smith – D
