Broadcasts are going to talk about what’s different this season for the Rochester Knighthawks, primarily the shift to the Seneca Nation’s ownership of the team and how that will change the expectations both on and off the floor.

"It's a group that CARES about the Knighthawks as opposed to a group that had the Knighthawks"@RocKnighthawks head coach Mike Hasen on the team's new ownership.

Lotta reasons to be excited about this season including said ownership, 18 returners, & reigning MVP Conner Fields. pic.twitter.com/udfP0pOzz6

— Ian Mills (@IanMillsTV) December 9, 2025

Internally, there is no change in the aspirations; another first round exit meant that they still have not hosted a playoff game in the expansion era, and they want to change that immediately (now with more support and attention towards those aspirations).

The firepower of the team’s forward core returns for their third season together, coming off a 2024-25 campaign where they all reached new personal bests in goals, points, or both.

	2023-24 Goals	2023-24 Assists	2023-24 Points	2024-25 Goals	2024-25 Assists	2024-25 Points
Connor Fields	56	65	120	46	76	122
Ryan Lanchbury	20	66	86	27	89	116
Ryan Smith	46	53	99	49	35	84
Thomas McConvey	28	24	52	31	45	76

Kyle Kallay’s offense moved the ball at elite levels last season, finishing third in goals for, and has each of those four forwards in or entering their prime age seasons. The MVP accolades for Connor Fields got the attention, but Ryan Smith was tied for second in goals, trailing only Jeff Teat, while Ryan Lanchbury only trailed Dhane Smith and Josh Byrne in assists. Thomas McConvey’s steps forward in year 2 will only be further built upon in year 3.

While they did fall flat in their playoff game to a Vancouver defense that was playing at a championship level in the second half of the season, their offseason splash addressed that directly, as the Seneca Nation’s own Zed Williams joins the fold for his Age 30 season, with he and Fields being the oldest two members of this season’s offense. The size of the linebacker-built forward will give not only Lanchbury and Fields more space, but also Smith and McConvey when its their big bodies possessing the ball in the two man game. Williams also brings the ability to play both sides of the floor, most notably moving back to defense for the Haudenosaunee Nationals during both the field and box world championships in 2023 and 2024, which should benefit the team’s transition game.

Returning to help out the offense are Kyle Waters entering his fifth season and third with the Knighthawks and Graydon Hogg in his second. The lefty heavy group also adds Nathan Grenon to the fold. The 5’10” 26 year old and former first round pick in 2021 had 6 goals and 5 assists in 8 games with the Rock last season and plays with an edge similar to that of now former Knighthawk Turner Evans, who is currently a UFA. Grenon was released during training camp and scooped up by the Hawks. Brad McCulley will join the fold as well this season after not playing at all in 2025 due to work commitments and then injury. He will bring another big body to the roster and provide another option on the roster that enjoys dropping the mitts when duty calls. The 28 year old of course was a member of the 2023 champion Buffalo Bandits. 6th round pick Clifford Gaston, who played his college ball at RIT and played in the UCBLL too, is on the team’s practice roster.

Defensively, Mike Hasen and Pat O’Toole’s unit is getting a little older in the tooth, with captain Dan Coates now 38 and Ian Llord now 40, but the core is still on the same aging timeline as the offense, led by 30 year old Matt Gilray and 28 year old Ryland Rees on a right side that also features Taylor Jensen and Jake Piseno still working towards their primes at 27 and 24 respectively. On the left side, Chad Tutton and Brad Gillies are the veterans that will likely handle the toughest matchups throughout the season, as will transition defender Josh Medeiros. Tyler Biles is starting the season on injured reserve, but he will also be a regular on the left side when he returns.

New to the opening night roster are two lefty rookies filling in with the defensive injuries to Biles and Rees. Second round pick Adam Thistlethwaite has played for Mike Hasen with the Peterborough Lakers for parts of the last three seasons and will work to grow into the role left behind be Mitch Ogilvie, who retired after a string of lower body injuries over the last couple of years. Third round pick Mitchell Dunham’s size is the first thing that stands out for him, standing at 6’5″. He played his junior lacrosse in Burlington and was on the Utah Archers practice roster last season in the PLL, who of course feature Connor Fields. With Mike Sisselberger on the protected list, the Knighthawks will have another new faceoff man in 2025-26, this time in the form of Jeremy Thompson, the 38 year old who is entering his 14th NLL season. He has won 2,559 faceoffs so far in his career, and while he hasn’t topped 50% since 2023, he has shown the ability to hold his own when taking on the new core of dominant faceoff athletes. The only times he hasn’t topped 100 loose balls in his career were his rookie season and the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign. The next faceoff man in waiting in the wings is Nathan Kapp, the 24 year old UDFA who played his college ball at Jacksonville University.

The goaltending room remains the same this season, with Rylan Hartley and Riley Hutchcraft. Both had their ups and downs last season, but when the full season played out, only 5 teams gave up less goals than the Knighthawks (albeit with the caveat that they tied three other teams with 209). With Hutchcraft at 28 and Hartley at 27, they both also still have room to grow and will aim to do so to help ensure another improvement year over year for the team overall.

Schedule Quirks

The Knighthawks will play Philadelphia, Buffalo, Vancouver, Georgia, and Las Vegas twice

In year 3 of the unified standings, the Bandits will play the Saskatchewan Rush, Rochester Knighthawks, Halifax Thunderbirds, Vancouver Warriors, and Colorado Mammoth twice. Their home-only matchups will be Georgia tonight and then the Las Vegas Desert Dogs, Ottawa Black Bears and Philadelphia Wings, while the road-only matchups will be trips to Calgary, Oshawa, San Diego, and Toronto. Their home-only matchups will be against Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, and Saskatchewan, while their road-only matchups will be against San Diego, Colorado, Oshawa, and Halifax. It’s the first time that the Thunderbirds do not have a scheduled trip to their old home.

They will play two back-to-backs: First January 9th in Philadelphia and January 10th hosting Buffalo, and then a home-and-home on April 18 and 19 with the Georgia Swarm.

Outlook

It’s a harder outlook to muster up than with Buffalo’s season preview. They are part of a loaded tier of teams with the same championship aspirations as them, and when it comes down it it, the only way to figure that out is going to be to play out the season. It will be the offense that gets them where they need to be, but it’ll be their defense, goaltending, and durability that is going to determine just how much further they go from there.

(Photo Credit: National Lacrosse League)