Going into the 2014 NLL Draft, the Calgary Roughnecks had three picks in the first two rounds and appeared to be positioned to add more blue-chip youth to their roster. Instead, they traded their two first-round picks as well as their two third-round picks to the New England Black Wolves in exchange for a first-round pick next year and a third rounder in 2016. “We entered the draft without a…
In his rookie season, Riley Loewen made an immediate impact on the Edmonton Rush’s offense. He contributed 17 goals and 19 assists to a team that needed help after the loss of Corey Small to a knee injury in the offseason. Small had been third on the team in scoring in 2013 with 64 points so there were question marks about whether Edmonton’s offense could remain competitive in 2014 without…
The Vancouver Stealth finished the 2014 NLL season tied for the worst record in the league, a disappointing 4-14. They were second-worst in goals for (181) and second-worst in goals against (223). Quite the fall for a team that came a goal shy of winning the Champion’s Cup just a year earlier. Over the summer the Stealth suffered another blow when head coach Chris Hall stepped down due to health…
This week we will be focusing on NLL breakout players for the 2015 season. We begin with Calgary transition player Karsen Leung. Leading up to the 2013 NLL Draft, the Calgary Roughnecks traded forward Joe Resetarits and the 15th pick overall for the 10th pick and a second round pick in 2015. With that 10th pick, the Roughnecks grabbed transition Karsen Leung. The decision to let go of a talented…
The Edmonton Rush set an NLL record for consecutive wins in 2014 en route to winning the West Division in the regular season. Unfortunately, their storybook season came to an abrupt end in the playoffs when the Calgary Roughnecks took them out in the Division Finals. So how do they improve on so much success and get back to the Champion’s Cup? Even before they’ve started the draft, the second-best…
The Calgary Roughnecks came within five minutes of winning their third Champion’s Cup in franchise history in the 2014 playoffs but ultimately fell just shy. Although that means the Calgary head office has gone back to the drawing board trying to find ways to improve to get over that final hump, is there realistically much more help they can find in the upcoming draft? Actually, it is a possibility. The…
The Toronto Rock struggled for consistency through much of the 2014 season before finally going on a 4-0 run to wrap up the schedule. And then, after such a strong finish, they were upset by the Buffalo Bandits in the first round of the playoffs. Toronto management identified defense as an issue, feeling the Bandits were able to push them around and impose their will in the postseason. They’ve already…
A few more free agents were locked down in the past week as NLL teams continue to re-sign their players, but the biggest newsmaker was a trade between the Toronto Rock and the unnamed Connecticut franchise that saw transition Brodie Merrill moved to the Rock for two players and three draft picks. After remaining quiet on the transaction front for almost the entire first month of the free agent period,…
After a couple busy weeks of signings in the NLL. this past week was fairly quiet, with only a handful of free agent signings while the Toronto Rock and Minnesota Swarm swapped transition players. The Vancouver Stealth locked down Chris O’Dougherty, Tim Henderson and Brandan Smith, all with one-year contracts. O’Dougherty played in five games last season, picking up five assists and 33 loose balls along the way. Smith has…
The NLL free agency period is well underway now, with teams steadily locking down their outstanding players. The Colorado Mammoth have been very busy, signing Eric Law, John Gallant, Nick Carlson, Ian Hawksbee, Jake Crans, Dan Ball and Michael Simon all to one year contracts and Colin Boucher to a two-year deal. They have also acquired restricted free agent Alex Turner from the Minnesota Swarm after the Swarm declined to…