This summer, we will examine the top 50 players from the 2015 NLL season. Now, that doesn’t mean the best players, period, it just means who played the best this past season. The top 50 were voted on and decided by members of our NLL staff. Any questions, tweet to @LacrosseWeTrust.
Jay Thorimbert
2015 Team: Buffalo Bandits
Position: Transition
Status: UFA
Draft Year: 2008
2015 Stats: 13 points, 246 loose balls, 338-513 faceoffs
Thorimbert was drafted by the Bandits before stops with Minnesota and Boston. He landed with the Bandits again in 2011 where he has become a mainstay as their faceoff man. 2015 was his biggest season thus far with the Bandits.
He put up a career high 246 loose balls, by far the most in his career. His previous career high had been 191 the season before, so he was leaps and bounds better in his 2015 season.
In 2015, Thorimbert scored three points in a game just once. That game was on April 11th, a 12-9 win over the Minnesota Swarm. He had two goals and an assist. It was one of two games where he had two goals. The other game was January 31st against the Rochester Knighthawks,
Thorimbert also had two games where he picked up 21 loose balls, tied for the most he had in a single game all season. Those games were January 17th, a win over Vancouver, and on March 14th, a loss to Toronto.
Being a faceoff man, and not as high profile as Geoff Snider or some others, Thorimbert is often overlooked. He broke out for sure in 2015, having the best season of his career. He had the second best faceoff percentage in the league of all qualifying faceoff men. He also led the league in loose balls, his 246 far more than second place Joel White, who had 182.
