Alex Urquhart
The Minnesota Swarm had the most picks in the NLL Entry Draft for the second straight year in a row. With the most picks this year they had the most picks in the first round ever, with four picks.
To no real surprise the Swarm took top rated Logan Schuss as the first overall pick and then with the second overall pick Minnesota took Jason Noble. Both Schuss and Noble made the NCAA D1 National Tournament in the spring and then had extremely impressive summers in the MLL.
The Swarm then traded the fifth pick and defenseman Nik Bilic to the Edmonton Rush for the fourth pick where they took Cam Flint who had a great year at the University of Denver and then an even more impressive summer with the Boston Cannons.
With their fourth first round pick and the seventh overall pick the Swarm took Scott Jones, the big righty forward from UMBC and the Burnaby Lakers. The Swarm then didn’t draft again tell the third round where they picked up defenseman Reid Acton and forward Zach Palmer.
In the fifth round the Swarm were able to draft Dominique Alexander, Schuss’ former Ohio St. teammate. Alexander, along with Acton, is the “biggest” non first rounder to be drafted by the Swarm. Both Acton and Alexander are fast and do not shy away from the physicality. Alexander and Acton will become very big fixtures in Minnesota for years to come.
After picking up Jordan Houtby and JJ Laforet, both defenseman, the Swarm went for a hometown boy in Nick Jones. A Minnesota grad, Jones is a big defender and has some amazing footwork. Jones is well known in the Twin Cities lacrosse community and could set a standard for the Swarm and the NLL in general to look at kids in Minnesota and some of the hinterlands of lacrosse to find talent.
The Minnesota Swarm were given a draft grade of an A by the InLacrosseWeTrust staff, earlier this week. The Swarm addressed almost all their needs in the draft and will definitely be up in the talks for favorites to make the finals this year.
