The Rochester Rattlers protected 23 man roster was announced two weeks ago.
A week prior to the rosters being announced, the Rattlers made a trade with the Charlotte Hounds. Billy Bitter, Kevin Randall and the Hounds 11th pick in the 2013 MLL Collegiate Draft were sent to Rochester.
In turn, Charlotte received midfielder Kevin Drew along with Rochester’s 4th and 28th overall selections in the Draft.
What I was shocked to see was the Rattlers next move to alter their roster. About 8 days after the Rattlers protected Roy Lang, who had a stellar rookie campaign, he was traded to Ohio for midfielder Dan Groot.
With Lang, went the Rattlers 11th overall pick in the Collegiate Draft. The Machine gave up their 17th, 20th and 38th picks.
Rochester’s transition game will be held up by John Lade, who will have to remain healthy and return from the NLL early to give the Rats an early season hope for glory. Brad Ross and Steve DeNapoli will be big impacts for the Rats in transition as well, including newly acquired Dan Groot.
Head Coach Soudan and the Rochester staff only protected one goalie, John Galloway. Would not be a surprise to see them draft or trade for a backup goaltender. Everyone knows Chesapeake’s got a stable of them.
The attack unit added another weapon with Billy Bitter coming to town. It will give them a good option when they invert Ned Crotty to the midfield position.
Not to mention, the Leveille brothers are both protected. If Kevin shows up to play like he did towards the end of 2012, and adding Mike into the mix, it will make the attack that much more of a threat. Though they could possibly move Mike to midfield.
Rochester has a lot of picks coming up for the 2013 MLL Collegiate Draft. It will be very interesting to see how they use them and what other surprises the Rattlers have in store for us as the off season continues.
Protected roster after the Lang trade:
| Bitter | Billy | Attack |
| Boyle | Steven | Attack |
| Card | Jay | Attack |
| Crotty | Ned | Attack |
| Dattilo | Bobby | Midfield/FO |
| DeNapoli | Steve | Defense |
| Galloway | John | Goalkeeper |
| Koshansky | Will | Defense |
| Lade | John | Defense |
| Groot | Dan | Midfield |
| Lazore | Michael | Midfield |
| Leveille | Mike | Attack |
| Leveille | Kevin | Attack |
| MacIntosh | Jordan | Midfield |
| Manley | Mike | Defense |
| Montelli | Tom | Midfield |
| Ortolani | John | Midfield/FO |
| Randall | Kevin | Defense |
| Ross | Brad | Midfield |
| Rotanz | Robert | Midfield |
| Sellers | Andrew | Defense |
| Striebel | Matt | Midfield |
| White | Joel | Defense |
Not protected players from 2012:
Carter            Bender           Midfield
Bunker          Craig  Midfield
Colburn         Jeff     Midfield
Fallon            Tim     Midfield/FO
Fortunato      Rob    Goalie
Guadagnolo   Tom    Defense
Hardy            Dan    Attack
Lashomb       Jason  Goalie
