The Minnesota Swarm have a plethora of rookies under contracts for the upcoming season, including number one overall pick Logan Schuss, number two overall pick Jason Noble and the fourth and seventh overall picks Cam Flint and Scott Jones. The Swarm also added many other rookies that include Zach Palmer, Dominique Alexander and Minnesota’s own Nick Jonas.
The Swarm are going to have to rely on the young talent quite a lot this season, especially on offense. With new forwards like Schuss, Palmer and Jones the offense that was stymied often in the early part of last season looks like it will be deadly more times than not. Schuss will definitely be the number one guy on the offense and the power play during the coming season. This is more because the Swarm traded away Ryan Benesch and Andrew Watt, both of whom were integral parts of the Swarm’s offense for the last number of years. Schuss also has the skill set to be not just the top rookie scorer this season but he has the potential to be one of the top scorers in the league this season.
On the other side of the ball the Swarm’s defense is getting a little shot of youthfulness with Jason Noble and Nick Jonas. Noble has been touted the last few years at Cornell as one of the best defenders to come out of the Ivy League powerhouse in the last few years. The big unknown is Nick Jonas. A University of Minnesota grad, Jonas was the only MCLA based player to be drafted this year. To make things a little more interesting he didn’t even start playing lacrosse until he was a sophomore in high school. The six foot four inch defender will not have a problem in the sized department come training camp, his biggest downfall could be his stick skills but with the Swarm organization already loving his toughness and his personality Jonas could be a huge part of the defense this year.
The Swarm’s already great transition game was made even better this year with the drafting of Cam Flint. Probably one of the fastest guys between the boxes in the field game, his speed will definitely transfer well to the box game. Unfortunately for Flint the Swarm already have, what is arguably the best transition group in the NLL. At the moment, prior to the start of camp, Flint falls in behind right handed transition players Andrew Suitor, Tyler Haas, and Kiel Matisz. For Flint camp may be a bit more difficult than other rookies will have.
The Minnesota Swarm have a lot of rookies this season that will be key to their winning ways this season. Thankfully for these rookies they will be buoyed by experienced veterans and a classy organization.
