After being buyers at last season’s trade deadline, the Philadelphia Wings were the biggest sellers with three trades on the afternoon involving three of their top 8 scorers, including the biggest splash of the day.

The Philadelphia Wings trade Joe Resetarits to the Buffalo Bandits in exchange for Lukas Nielsen and a 2026 Second Round Pick

With eyes on the offense during Buffalo’s losing streak, relief is on its way for the Bandits, as Hamburg native Joe Resetarits will have his second stint with the Bandits on their quest for a four-peat. His numbers, as well as those of most of the Philadelphia offense, have been down this year in his age 36 season, but his 45 points in 12 games are now the third most this season for Bandits forward (of course behind 79 points for Dhane Smith and 68 for Josh Byrne). In moving Lukas Nielsen, the move does not affect their L/R balance at forward and puts less pressure for Kyle Buchanan to be a ball carrier when the offense is lefty heavy or Smith is on the bench.

Still only 21, Nielsen will get the opportunity for more touches to finish out his second season in the league after the Bandits took him 7th overall in the 2024 draft. He’s had 2 goals and 5 assists in 6 career games.

After being the 6th overall pick in the 2012 draft, Resetarits was traded to Buffalo a year after during the 2013 draft in a swap of the 10th and 15th overall picks. He’d pick up 32 goals and 31 assists in 27 games across two seasons with the Bandits before the Rochester Knighthawks traded for him in exchange for two second round picks and defender Jamie Batson. While Batson would only play 4 games for the Bandits and another 6 in his career, the second round picks in 2016 and 2017 were used to take Justin Martin and Chase Fraser. After Rochester, where he became the first American with a 100 point season in 2018, Resetarits was traded to the New England Black Wolves, where he followed the team to Albany before signing with the Wings as a UFA in free agency in 2023.

Joe’s older brother Frank was also played for the Bandits. The 5th overall pick in 2007 played his first two seasons with the San Jose Stealth before 20 games across 3 seasons in Buffalo, scoring 15 goals and adding 16 assists.

The 2026 second round pick originally belonged to Calgary, who traded the pick to San Diego in the Zach Currier trade in July 2024. The Bandits acquired that pick when they traded Marquez White to the Seals.

The Bandits released Ryan Benesch to make room for Resetarits. The 41 year old lefty only registered 8 goals and 10 assists in 8 games for Buffalo this season after signing to make one final potential run for a ring before retiring. Instead, Benesch will head to Oshawa, who signed him a day after his release, and look to pass the 300 games played mark (297) and potentially chase down 600 goals (588) and 800 assists (794).

The Philadelphia Wings trade Blaze Riorden to the Rochester Knighthawks in exchange for Rochester’s 2027 Second Round Pick

Blaze Riorden will join a Knighthawks offense in need of a spark after their disappointing performance this past weekend, and perhaps a change of scenery is also what Riorden needed too, as he was only picked up 7 goals and 11 assists in 11 games this year, primarily in an off-ball role with Brennan O’Neill manning most of the attention on the left side in Philadelphia and Kyle Jackson also coming in and taking many of the touches. The move could signal a shift to a lefty-heavy group as opposed to the righty-heavy look Kyle Kallay’s offense has featured for most of the season.

The pride of the 14450 zip code and well decorated field lacrosse goalie started his box career in Buffalo with 19 points in 9 games for the 2017 Bandits before becoming an important piece of the Wings offense since their expansion season in 2018-19. His career-high season came with 34 goals and 39 assists in 2023.

While we mentioned three trades from the Wings, we’ll divert quickly to Buffalo’s other trade on the day, sending their 2026 Sixth Round Pick to the Calgary Roughnecks in exchange for Tyler Hendrycks.

Primarily playing out the back door for most of his 18 career games, the 24 year old Hendrycks only appeared in 4 games for the Roughnecks this season after being sent to Calgary as a piece in the Nick Rose trade last season. The 35th overall pick in 2022 by Toronto returns East and will provide another transition lefty for the Bandits to move around the lineup. The Bandits removed the practice tag he had with Calgary, signaling their intention to use him as a roster regular.

Calgary did not end up moving either of Eli Salama or Tyler Pace, both of whose names were on the trade radar. Salama has since signed a 3 year contract extension to remain the captain of the Roughnecks.

Okay back to the Wings.

The Philadelphia Wings trade Phil Caputo to the Ottawa Black Bears in exchange for Travis Longboat and a 2026 Third Round Pick

The final of the trio of forwards to be moved from the Wings is Phil Caputo, the 32 year old who has only mustered 7 goals and 10 assists in 10 games after scoring 25 goals in 2025 after 3 20 goal seasons with Panther City. The move provides the Black Bears more flexibility on their right side, as Caputo has also played a good amount of defensive shifts in his career. In return, the Wings get younger on their right side in the form of the 27 year old Longboat, who has only appeared in 3 games this season for Ottawa. His career highs came in 2024, when he had 25 goals and 32 assists for an Albany squad that made the NLL Finals.

It’s the second time that third round pick has been moved this season, originally arriving in Ottawa via their trade of Jacob Dunbar to Calgary last month.

The other trades on the afternoon involved a lot of movement for the Las Vegas Desert Dogs in both directions.

The Las Vegas Desert Dogs trade Casey Wilson to the Halfiax Thunderbirds in exchange for Tyson Bell, a 2026 First Round Pick, and a conditional 2027 Second Round Pick

In a bit of both buying and selling, Tyson Bell heads to Henderson to become an important piece for Vegas as they make their final full court press for his year’s playoffs while also adding draft capital. Bell has picked up 66 loose balls and caused 18 turnovers in 12 games this season and added on 3 goals and 4 assists.

The righty forward Casey Wilson was the fourth overall pick in this past year’s draft following a standout career at the University of Denver and junior lacrosse in Victoria. He has not played this season, as he is recovering from a torn ACL at the end of his final year of collegiate lacrosse. Casey is the brother of Thunderbirds defender Max Wilson, and their family currently resides in Nova Scotia, giving Curt Styres a good return for the price paid while also recovering an asset for Bell, as father time continues to get closer and closer to the older members of their offense.

With Halifax having three first round picks, the Desert Dogs will receive the best of the three. In addition to their own pick, the Thunderbirds have Toronto’s pick via the Chris Boushy trade and Panther City’s (RIP) pick that they received from the FireWolves in the Eric Fannell trade. Then-Albany received that pick from Panther City in September 2022 in the Tony Malcom trade, which is why the selection is slotted 15th between the regular selections and the compensatory selections. If the pending UFA Bell re-signs in Las Vegas, the 2027 pick falls to the third round.

The Las Vegas Desert Dogs trade Josh Jackson to the Toronto Rock in exchange for Toronto’s 2027 Third Round Pick

The 7-5 Rock added to their back end following the off-ball injury to Robert Hudson that will place him out for the season. In comes the former UDFA Jackson, the 6’3″ 26 year old who has played 37 games for the Desert Dogs across three seasons, picking up 112 loose balls and causing 22 turnovers.

The Oshawa FireWolves trade Zachary Young to the Las Vegas Desert Dogs in exchange for Oshawa’s 2026 Second Round Pick

Young will replace Jackson on the Desert Dogs depth chart after three seasons with the FireWolves. Also 26 and 6’3″, albeit a righty, the primarily stay at home defender Young has 105 career loose balls, 15 caused turnovers, and 8 blocked shots across 43 games in three seasons since being drafted 17th overall in 2023.

It was the lone move of the day for the FireWolves, who did not end up moving pending-UFA Kyle Rubisch. Speculation has suggested that the teams that inquired about the future Hall of Famer were unwilling to match an unwavering high price.

The Las Vegas Desert Dogs trade the rights to Marshal King to the Vancouver Warriors in exchange for a conditional 2027 Fourth Round Pick

Perhaps the Warriors were in discussions for Tyler Pace, but after he did not move, the Warriors decided to add Jesse King’s brother Marshal to the fold as another depth piece on their right side behind Keegan Bal, Curtis Dickson, and Ryan Sheridan. The RFA, hence the rights specification, played 4 games for the Desert Dogs last season, chipping in with 2 goals and 3 assists.

The Las Vegas Desert Dogs trade Justin Sykes to the Ottawa Black Bears in exchange for a 2026 Fourth Round Pick and a conditional 2028 Fourth Round Pick

Yes that’s correct, Oshawa got their pick back, one they originally traded to San Diego during last season’s trade deadline for Kyle Jackson. San Diego traded that pick to Vegas as part of the James Barclay trade, which is also how Justin Sykes got to Vegas.

Sykes has not appeared with the Desert Dogs this season and only played 2 total between the Seals and Desert Dogs in 2025, but the lefty forward will be added to the fold in Ottawa, likely on their practice roster this season.

That concludes this year’s trade deadline recap. Here is how the beginning of the 2026 draft looks following the movement and the unofficial announcement of this year’s comp picks. Of note, Buffalo has 2 after losing Chris Cloutier and Chase Fraser in unrestricted free agency. The pick slots are still alphabetical and do not reflect the current standings (although you can put 2 and 2 together).

Now onto the 7 games across the league in Week 16.

Week 16 Preview

Friday March 13

Colorado Mammoth (9-4) @ Buffalo Bandits (6-6) – 7:30 pm

The 20-9 loss at Ball Arena on January 31 may have been Buffalo’s rock bottom moment of the season. For their back-to-back sweep two weeks ago to be the start of the turning point, the Bandits will have to avenge that loss ahead of road games in San Diego and Sasktachewan before a rematch with Vancouver across their next 4 games.

Toronto Rock (7-5) @ Halifax Thunderbirds (5-7) – 6:30 pm

Rivals Toronto and Halifax will face off for the first and only time this season with the Thunderbirds looking to keep their own season turned around after their win last weekend marked 2 in a row. The road team won both matchups last season.

Philadelphia Wings (3-10) @ Oshawa FireWolves (3-10) – 7:00 pm

The Wings will have a different looking offense this weekend in the second game of their home-and-home with the FireWolves

Saturday March 14

Vancouver Warriors (9-4) @ Georgia Swarm (8-4) – 7:30 pm

The game of the week will take place in Duluth as the Swarm look to pass the Warriors in the standings with the tiebreaker in what will be their lone matchup of the season. The Warriors won last season’s matchup 15-13 in Vancouver, although they have never won in Duluth in 4 all-time trips.

Ottawa Black Bears (8-5) @ Calgary Roughnecks (3-9) – 9:00 pm

The Black Bears will look to extend their win streak to five as they travel to Calgary looking for a season sweep of the Roughnecks. It’s Ottawa’s first trip to Calgary, as the team’s last game at the Saddledome took place when the Riptide played there on February 2, 2024. The Ottawa Rebel played two games at the Saddledome on February 9, 2002 and March 30, 2003, the latter of which was a 26-16 win for the Roughnecks.

San Diego Seals (6-6) @ Saskatchewan Rush (10-3) – 9:00 pm

A win for the Rush would complete a season sweep and mark a fourth win in a row over the Seals dating back to 2024. Along with the Rock, Thunderbirds, and Desert Dogs, the Seals are the team whose results mean the most to right now for both the Bandits and Knighthawks in playoff berth and seeding implications.

Sunday March 15: Rochester Knighthawks (5-6) @ Las Vegas Desert Dogs (4-7) – 6:00 pm

There are only so many more times that these teams can say “This isn’t a must win, but…” as this home-and-home between the Knighthawks and Desert Dogs is probably a necessary sweep for both teams to keep their playoff hopes alive. Losses last weekend for each team likely only made it more clear that the playoffs have already started for them, if they hadn’t received the message the moment the calendar turned to March. Rochester won both matchups last season, including a 21-13 beatdown of the Desert Dogs on March 7, 2025. A sweep of the home-and-home would put them at 7-6 ahead of games in Oshawa, Halifax, and Buffalo before finishing their season with two games against the Swarm the final weekend of the season.

(Photo Credit: Knighthawks Flickr)