In a lot of ways, it wasn’t the Rochester Knighthawks year in the 2023-24 season. Their captain missed half the season with long COVID, and their franchise goalie only played in parts of 6 games, not playing a full 60 minutes until the last weekend of the season. And yet, through all of that, they still found themselves exactly where they were in 2022-23, in the playoffs despite losing in round 1 to the top regular season team in the NLL.

This summer, Dan Carey’s team sought out to improve the team in ways that would lead to more 3 game win streaks, which they had two of, and less, if any, 4 and 6 game losing streaks, which were what forced them into their improbable two-win final weekend with help on the scoreboard.

After the previous offseason had a lot of focus on the offense, the Knighthawks did some work on the back end with sights towards lessening their goals allowed numbers, as 226 in the previous season were the most from a playoff team and tied for third most in the league with Colorado. The dispersal draft board fell nicely into their laps with the ability to add Josh Medieros from Panther City. While his scoring touch dropped in 2024 after a breakout 21 goals in 2023, his loose ball, caused turnover, and blocked shot numbers stayed consistent, so in a defense that already includes the likes of Matt Gilray and Ryland Rees who both exceeded 100 loose balls last season, it gives them another potential juggernaut in transition, and that’s before considering their other big addition of the summer in Chad Tutton. After 104 loose balls of his own last season for the Wings, Tutton has brought plenty of disruption into his game during his 8 year career and is another of the new lefty defenders with the Knighthawks. Aside from Tyler Biles, the team’s opening night roster will have all new lefty defenders, with Medieros and Tutton joining Brandon Slade, another transition piece, and veteran Ian Llord, who played in Rochester for Mike Hasen’s group from 2013-2019 and will play in his 18th season in the NLL. The lefties also include Mitch Ogilvie, who has steadily gotten better in each of his three career seasons, but he will start the season on the PUP list.

On the right side of the defense, the studs Rees, Gilray, Dan Coates, Ethan O’Connor, and Brad Gillies all return, with Taylor Jensen entering his second season in the league after a night and day finish to his rookie year after making last season’s team as an undrafted rookie. The biggest question mark for this group will be the faceoff dot, as Joe Post is unlikely to play this year with increased work commitments away from the floor. Jensen will be the faceoff taker to start the season. If Jensen can be strong on the clamp and the counter, the certainly have the wings to pick up their fair share of loose balls, but with the skill of many of the league’s top faceoff takers, as Post was, it may limit their possessions in some matchups.

Two separate questions remain for the offense in their depth. 32 year old Curtis Knight was out until late February last year after a lower body injury in the final preseason game last year, and after 7 points in the first two games of the season last year, 31 year old Turner Evans left the third game early and didn’t return until mid-March. A healthy season from each of them could go a long way too in working through any potential lulls. With a new more defined role in his first season in Rochester, Kyle Waters chipped in with 20 goals. His production in his Age 25 season is another place where they will be looking for n improvement. Back on the left side, the team will be adding Graydon Hogg making his debut after winning conference offensive player of the year at UAlbany last year. Dan Carey traded out of the 2024 first round to move up to get him in 2023, so this group has big expectations for him while also not putting too much pressure on him right away with the depth in front of him. The group also has Austin Hasen in the mix; he will start the season on the practice roster, as will field lacrosse standout Jake Piseno on the back end.

With all that said, the X Factor of this team will once again be the goaltending. Questions about Rylan Hartley’s durability will likely follow him the rest of his career, but still at only 26, there is still plenty of room for him to continue to improve on the glimpses of a star goaltender he has shown since taking over the starting reigns during the 2022 season. For Hartley, the key to continuing where he left off in April will be to eliminate some of the struggles that he has had early in games, which is how the previous season started for him last year with an early pull 16:11 into the game before the team rallied back to win with Riley Hutchcraft in net. Even for Hutchcraft, at only 27 coming off 792:25 in net last year, while he went through some struggles and was in between the pipes for each of the games during the six game losing streak, he put together some good games in his final handful of appearances before Hartley came back to feel like the improved defense in front of him and increased experience between the pipes if the Knighthawks face injury issues in net. Kevin Orleman returns from injury and will start the season on the practice roster as another insurance option in net for Rochester, which will likely be the best place for him to start the season, as he hasn’t seen game action since 7:58 in a single game in 2023 with the Riptide after 345:25 with Panther City in 2022 before Nick Damude took the starters net.

Outlook

As I mentioned in the league preview yesterday, it’s going to be as hard as ever this year to make any predictions without them likely being incinerated before the calendar even flips to 2025. We just don’t know after the league contracted. But with the state of the roster and where the team looked to improve, it’s hard to think that Mike Hasen’s crew won’t be in the mix again this year with the aspirations of bringing a home playoff game back to Rochester for the first time since the 2018 NLL Finals.

Season Opener: Tonight (November 30, 7:00 pm) vs Las Vegas Desert Dogs

Rochester will play the Desert Dogs twice this season, with the other matchup taking place in Henderson on March 7, meaning they will have two opportunities to get their first ever win against the newest NLL franchise. Las Vegas won the first matchup 12-7 on March 25, 2023, and won in Rochester 12-8 back on February 24.

Week 1’s Other Matchups

Aside from the Friday Night openers in Ottawa and Colorado and the Knighthawks making their season debut tonight, there are two more games on the opening week slate.

Tonight (November 30) at 7:00 pm: Saskatchewan Rush @ Albany FireWolves

Albany’s overtime win over the Rush on New Year’s Eve in their third game of last season was a very important part of their 6-0 start to the season last year, and on their quest to prove they weren’t one hit wonders, the will look to beat the Rush for the third time in the head-to-head all time between the two teams (since New England moved to Albany). In the only other matchup between the two teams, the FireWolves doubled up the Rush at home 10-5 on January 8, 2022. Finishing on the outside looking in on tiebreakers were enough to show Saskatchewan that every game matters from the moment the opening whistle is blown, and a statement win in week 1 would be a very important first building block for a team that has lofty aspirations after 3 straight 8-10 seasons out of the pandemic.

Philadelphia Wings @ San Diego Seals, Sunday December 1, 6:00 pm, ESPN2

A perfect segue into a particular local Sunday Night Football matchup, Brennan O’Neill will make his NLL debut on ESPN2 as his Wings travel to San Diego to take on the Seals on Trevor Baptiste bobblehead night. The Seals have won 3 of the 4 all time matchups against their expansion siblings, including a 9-8 first round win in the 2022 playoffs.

Next week, we will recap the first week of games and preview the 2-time defending champs’ season, which takes place on the road in familiar territory of our wonderful readerships at the Blue Cross Arena at The War Memorial.

(Photo Credit: Scott Codaro)