Although the Rookie of the Year nominees won’t be revealed until tomorrow, we can still take an educated guess at to who the candidates will be. Third pick overall Miles Thompson had a great rookie season for the Minnesota Swarm with 27 goals and 62 points. Thompson was second on the Swarm in both categories and 28th overall in the NLL. His strong rookie campaign bodes well for his ability…
The Edmonton Rush won the Champion’s Cup this weekend, their first title in their 10-year history. And so ends the 2015 NLL season. So let’s now have a look back at the season that was, and some of the highlights along the way. The season got off to an unexpected start in the first two weeks of the schedule when the three-time defending champion Rochester Knighthawks lost two straight,…
The Edmonton Rush did not have the start to their season that they were hoping for when they dropped their season opener 9-8 to the Buffalo Bandits. This week they’ll try to redeem themselves when they host their home opener against the Minnesota Swarm. The Swarm also lost their season opener last weekend when the Colorado Mammoth poured in 11 fourth-quarter goals to take a convincing 20-13 win. For the…
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…
Over the summer the Minnesota Swarm traded Brock Sorensen to the Toronto Rock in exchange for transition Ethan O’Connor and a first round pick in 2017. For the past two seasons, Sorensen has literally been a big part of the Swarm’s transition unit. At 6’6″, 220 lbs, Sorensen was a major physical presence. He averaged 62 loose balls and 13 forced turnovers during his time with Minnesota. He could also…
With the 2014 NLL Draft now in the books we can start speculating about which of the rookies will stand out among the rest. Interestingly, only four times in the last decade has the Rookie of the Year also been the first pick overall: Logan Schuss this past season, Mark Matthews the previous year, Ryan Benesch in 2007 and Brodie Merrill in 2006. So getting picked first is no guarantee…
The Minnesota Swarm got the most well known young player in Monday night’s Entry Draft: Miles Thompson. The Swarm got a bit lucky in being able to draft Thompson after an early morning trade by the Rochester Knighthawks that sent Johnny Powless and Joel McCready for the Vancouver Stealth’s second overall pick for later that evening. This trade blew up almost everyone’s mock drafts, including my own. With this trade…
After a couple busy weeks of signings in the NLL. this past week was fairly quiet, with only a handful of free agent signings while the Toronto Rock and Minnesota Swarm swapped transition players. The Vancouver Stealth locked down Chris O’Dougherty, Tim Henderson and Brandan Smith, all with one-year contracts. O’Dougherty played in five games last season, picking up five assists and 33 loose balls along the way. Smith has…
The Minnesota Swarm now have a small goalie situation because the team trade Tyler Carlson, who was more or less the default starting goalie for the last two seasons, for Brodie MacDonald now formerly of the Edmonton Rush. This creates a bit of a dilemma for the coaches. Macdonald has shown in a few games to have the goods to produce as a number one in the NLL, but it…
Photo Credit: Dan Brodie The Minnesota Swarm traded for Mike Grimes who was under contract with the Vancouver Stealth. The Swarm gave up both Dane Stevens and Tyler Hass, while getting Grimes and a third round pick in the 2016 draft. Acquiring Grimes gives the Swarm a veteran leader on the back line. As an eight-year veteran of the NLL, Grimes has played in 115 games over those eight years….