Although it may not be as hyped or eventful as the trade deadline in some other sports, the NLL Trade Deadline is a good chance for teams to address a need they might have before they go on their playoff run. For the Bandits, who now sit at 5-5, it’s hard to exactly pinpoint what that need is.
Watching the Bandits towards the beginning of the season, it seemed very apparent that defense could be an issue down the road for Buffalo. The unit was featuring some young players that seemed to be struggling, particularly Glen Bryan, Mike McNamara, and Hayden Smith. However, since the team has started to change its schemes the defense has looked incredibly more sound. Before the wheels completely fell apart this weekend against the Mammoth the d-unit seemed to be doing a solid job keeping the Colorado forwards to the outside.
Now the offense, which seemed to be decent enough, put in a stinker too. Overall however, they are putting up a decent amount of goals per game. Besides maybe picking up a lefty guy for depth, there really isn’t a ton of need here either.
Although the Bandits don’t have the best record in the world, the odds they make any significant change is slim. The players that they have that have real trade value are the players they don’t want to part with, and the players they are willing to part with won’t bring much return. There were some rumors that teams were interested in Jay Thorimbert, but with his injury that could likely be ruled out.
The Bandits could move one of their forwards, a guy like Giles or Harasym, but it should be noted that with the match penalties at the end of the last game the Bandits could be without five players next week. They will need everyone they can get.
Buffalo just isn’t in the position to make any enormous moves right now. Even though some of their losses have been pretty gut wrenching, they are still right in the conversation in the East and have had some impressive road wins. Even though things might not look perfect it’s not time to jump ship just yet.
