This NLL offseason, we will be examining some of the trades that shaped the 2015 season.
The Toronto Rock and Minnesota Swarm had vastly different paths in 2015. Minnesota, despite several first round picks, missed the playoffs once again and then they moved to Georgia. Toronto fought through adversity and injury to become the top seeded team in the NLL playoffs and become the eastern representative in the finals.
In August of 2014, these teams swapped young talent. The Rock shipped their 2013 first round selection Ethan O’Connor to Minnesota for former second overall pick Brock Sorensen.
Obviously, it’s easy to say the Rock won the trade since they went to the finals and Minnesota literally no longer exists. However, purely from this player for player standpoint, it might be closer than it appears.
O’Connor is a defensive transition player, and his numbers were similar in his second full NLL season. In his first year with Toronto he played in 17 games with nine points, and this past year he played all 18 games with 10 points. He fell off with penalty minutes, picking up just eight. He also saw a drop off on loose balls, picking up just 98 after 133 his first year.
With Minnesota, O’Connor took fewer faceoffs, but he also caused two more turnovers than he did in his first season.
As for Sorensen, he flourished in his third year in the league. His 11 points matched his career high from his rookie season and he had a career high 39 penalty minutes. His 73 loose balls were tied for how many he had in his second season with Minnesota. Overall, he didn’t improve leaps and bounds, but he stayed a consistently solid player.
Toronto advanced further with Sorensen than Minnesota did with O’Connor. Both players kept pretty much the same role they did with the other team. O’Connor saw a slight drop off, but a lot of that had to do with the fact that Minnesota was a bad team, and he’s only played two seasons so his sample size is small.
