Josh Gillam is projected to miss the NLL season with a knee injury sustained during the MSL playoffs. While the injury has not been disclosed, my training tells me that if he’s missing that much time, it’s more than just a sprain, strain, or dislocation. While there is an outside chance of a patellar fracture, it is sounding like ACL or MCL.
This leaves the Swarm with a hole only a left handed forward can fill. The Swarm took a look at that need by drafting Shane MacDonald and Haodias Maracle. They also took in the first round righty forward, Miles Thompson. Left handed rookie, Zach Palmer and right handed rookie, Marcus Holman are also trying to make the team.
Last season for the Swarm, Gillam appeared in 16 games. He tallied 13 goals and 15 assists for 28 points and had three power play goals. He hit the net 79 times. This put him, in team ranking, sixth for everything but assist where he cracked the top five. He was just outside of the top five in the other categories. The top five being various combinations of Callum Crawford, Logan Schuss, Jordan MacIntosh (via transition), Shayne Jackson and Kiel Matisz. He was the only player outside of those five to score on the power play. So, outside of the top five, he was more or less, the guy.
So now, there’s a hole to fill. Beyond a handful of spots, there’s no guarantees who’s going to make the team. There’s no reason to believe that Crawford, Schuss, MacIntosh, Jackson and Matisz won’t also be setting the standard again, so it’s up to Scott Jones, Corbyn Tao, Dean Hill, Nick Cotter and a group of rookies to fill in the rest.
