Brodie MacDonald is the Swarm’s newest goalie. The 25-year-old Vernon, B.C. native was acquired by the Swarm in a trade with the Edmonton Rush, prior to the NLL Entry Draft. In the trade the Swarm sent Tyler Carlson and draft picks. With trading last year’s starting goalie for the young back-up from Edmonton, the Swarm have opened the door for MacDonald to start making a name for himself as a starter.
MacDonald played second fiddle to one of the league’s hottest goalies as of late, Aaron Bold. Bold has been towards the top of the league’s goalies stats, which gave MacDonald little chance of consistent starts.
While in Edmonton MacDonald garnered eight total starts gaining a record of 2-2, playing in roughly 210 minutes of game time. In that time MacDonald had a goals against average of 9.44 and a save percentage of .774. Although the save percentage and the goals against average seem low and average respectively, the numbers are over three years and have been increasingly better the last two years of play.
MacDonald has been playing for the Langley Thunder of the Western Lacrosse Association. Last summer he went 6-8 for the Thunder, giving up 119 goals and having a goals against average of 8.5. Unfortunately for MacDonald and the Thunder they were unable to make it to the WLA playoffs this summer.
MacDonald adds a great dimension to the Swarm, that has been lacking in the past few years: good and consistent goaltending. In the past two offseasons the Swarm have unloaded two goalies to other teams, Tyler Carlson this past summer and Evan Kirk the summer previous. They did this with only adding one goalie to the mix, Brodie MacDonald. Although the Swarm did have Zach Higgins as a back up to Carlson last winter Higgins was never really given a chance as a consistent starter. MacDonald has spent three seasons learning from Bold and should be the penciled in number one coming training camp in December.
MacDonald’s addition and subsequent signing to a two year contract means a starter that isn’t fighting year-to-year for a contract and can relax and just play for the Swarm.
