No burying the lede this week. On Monday, the National Lacrosse League announced that the start of the free agent calendar will be delayed from its traditional start date of August 1 to August 29.

While there was no additional clarification of the reasoning from the league directly, there have been numerous signs that have been picked up on by the lacrosse community as to why this may have happened, and there were hints towards something of the sorts as last season came to a close.

Last year was the final year of Panther City Lacrosse Club’s lease in the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. Bill Cameron’s ownership group also announced back in April that their Dallas Wings were relocating to downtown Dallas, so that was the first hint towards a potential lack of future stability of the current Panther City framework.

Since then, some additional digging has shown that Panther City has been removed from the events tab on the arena’s website (it had been there previously), and on the Panther City team website, there is no update to the season ticket inquiry page, still showing references to the 2023-24 season as opposed to the rest of the league which does have updated pages, etc.

So that’s the first sign that things are up in the air for the 3 year franchise. Additional sources have alluded to the team officially being for sale, and with the delay now official, that would make sense. At bare minimum, with Dickies Arena very likely having moved on after an average attendance mark of 2,704.

Jake Elliott on his Lacrosse Classified Podcast this week confirmed “there are things going down in Panther City that aren’t particularly great,” moving onto say that both relocation and folding are still in the air as options and that the league and Board of Governors agreed that they needed more time to figure out what was potentially going to play out. In his interview on the podcast, John Lintz added that it sounded to him like a new arena plan fell through and led the ownership group to looking for a sale, as the Edmonton native and current Panther City player also gave his pitch for a team to return to the city for the first time since 2015. He also alluded to a potential showcase game taking place in Edmonton in a future season.

The delay feels like the correct decision since after all, unrestricted free agents wouldn’t be too inclined to sign with a team without knowing where they will be flying to 10-12 times in the upcoming winter.

Multiple markets have been rumored, including staying in Texas in places such as Frisco or Allen, but with the time ticking really quickly, every day that passes makes it a little more likely that the franchise is forced to suspend operations for the 2024-25 season and maybe even beyond. This would be the first time the league becomes forced to contract since 2011, when the Boston Blazers suspended their own operations and then never returned. After that dispersal draft, the league carried 9 teams until the most recent expansion era began with San Diego and Philadelphia in the summer of 2018.

With the delay in the start of free agency will come a roster freeze, where teams will not be able to contact UFAs or RFAs that they haven’t presented a qualifying offer during the month of July. This is going to squeeze UFA, the entry draft, and a potential dispersal draft into what could be less than a month, with a lot of the league heading to Utica in mid-to-late September for the Box Lacrosse World Championships, so it’s pretty easy to suggest that player movement could remain in a place of chaos in the closing days of the summer.

Also before continuing since this is the end of this section, a second shout out to the Lacrosse Classified Podcast because it is without a doubt the best place for year-round box lacrosse content.

What Preceded

In the lead up to this roster freeze, the Rochester Knighthawks had two player acquisitions up their sleeves to help continue to add to their defense, trading their 2026 second round pick to Albany for Anthony Joaquim and their third round pick in 2024 to Toronto for Brandon Slade. Joaquim is more of the traditional stay at home defenseman while Slade finds his work in the transition role, having played some O shifts for the Rock during his time there as well. Of note, Joaquim has appeared in the last three NLL Finals, two with Colorado and last season with Albany.

They have also shore-d up their roster with each of their RFAs and UFAs having agreed to new contracts. The lone pending UFA is Doug Buchan, who is likely not to return as a break glass guy, with the team extending Kevin Orleman as part of their three-man goalie unit with Rylan Hartley and Riley Hutchcraft. The full roster is found on their offseason player tracker.

Over in Buffalo, the Bandits had more unrestricted free agents to make deals with, but over the course of this week, Nick Weiss, Paul Dawson, and Matt Spanger announced 1 year deals to return for next season, while captain Steve Priolo re-signed for 3, taking him to what would be his 18th season with the Bandits at the conclusion of the 2026-27 season.

Adam Bomberry, Kyle Buchanan, and Bryce Sweeting will remain unrestricted free agents during the roster freeze and Brandon Robinson and Frank Brown RFAs. Despite not having new deals, qualifying offers were sent to Chris Cloutier, Chase Fraser, and Justin Robinson, meaning that they can still negotiate during the freeze without being privy to a potential offer sheet.

Otherwise, the biggest story the past couple of weeks since the last NLL check-in was Christian Del Bianco announcing that he will not be returning to the Calgary Roughnecks. With the team since placing the franchise tag on him, it means he will either be moved with a sign-and-trade for the tag’s salary or be holding out. Vancouver is the rumored most likely destination for the 2023 MVP, who became UFA eligible at only 26 due to his early entry into regular playing time in the NLL.

What’s Next

During the freeze, the summer playoffs will continue on in heated fashion.

• Major Series Lacrosse: The Six Nations Chiefs will face the Coburg Kodiaks, and the Peterborough Lakers are up 1-0 on Brooklin LC in the MSL semifinals.
• Ontario Junior Lacrosse League: The Orangeville Northmen and Mimico Mountaineers will be battling in a grueling best-of-seven in the league final to aim to head West for the Minto Cup.
• BC Junior Lacrosse League: The Port Coquitlam Saints and Coquitlam Adanacs will play a best-of-five for the BC title. With the Adanacs hosting the Minto, both teams have qualified regardless, so this is more of a formality of a series with both teams looking forward to the chance at being the Canadian Junior A champion
• Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League: The Calgary Raiders and Edmonton Miners start their series Friday to be the Alberta representative in the Minto
• Western Lacrosse Association: Finally, in the WLA, there are two more regular season games to be played this week before the start of the playoffs, with the Langley Thunder looking to assure a playoff berth over the Burnaby Lakers, and the Victoria Shamrocks hoping to finish an 18-0 season against the New Westminster Salmonbellies. Their top 4 teams will battle in best-of-7 series to determine who will go East for the Mann Cup to one of Six Nations, Brooklin (Whitby), or Peterborough.

So there will still be time to take in lacrosse in the month of August without an active hot stove. A lot of these games are available on streaming platforms, and the MSL games sometimes find themselves on cable in local Rogers markets.

(Photo Credit: Colleen Shaw)