Deal

No burying the lede here. Since we last spoke, the Rochester Knighthawks went out and and acquired the Seneca Nation’s own Zed Williams from the Colorado Mammoth in exchange for the 10th overall pick in the draft, with Dan Carey and Brad Self also swapped their second round picks, meaning Rochester will pick 24th and Colorado 28th.

While the Seneca Nation’s acquisition of the Knighthawks at the beginning of the month made it feel inevitable that some of the Seneca Nation-born players could become targets for the team, the path to Zed wasn’t a clear one right away.

One game after a final possession game-winner of these same Knighthawks back in January, Zed’s season came to an end after an achilles injury. Interestingly across the league, the last couple players to suffer achilles injuries in the league have come back quicker than what you see in other sports, such as his former teammate Joey Cupido. The year to get back to true form is still typically the case, but the 30 year old still has plenty of juice and the athletic frame to still be worth the 10th overall pick in a trade.

Having that return despite being a pending-UFA is because of the way that the franchise tag works in the NLL. More on that to come in the next section, but if the two sides decided to part ways, the Mammoth could still tag Zed for the next 5 years to control his rights. And if they found a better offer, a different team could do the same thing. And that logic sounds like it was the thought across the league as well.

Zed will join a right side of the offense with Ryan Lanchbury, Ryan Smith, and Kyle Waters. Curtis Knight is a pending UFA. In instances where the team might prefer to go lefty heavy up front, Williams could potentially go to the back door in some instances, as he has begun to do in field lacrosse and international box events with the Haudenosaunee National Team.

Tags

The next UFA start date after two delays was August 29th. That day came and went, and there was not a third delay.

While that does not mean a new CBA is agreed upon, that means that an understanding has been agreed upon to allow for the conversations between teams and free agents, both restricted and unrestricted.

Part of this caveat comes because the current CBA’s expiration will be in October. While, as the broken record has repeated multiple times this summer, there aren’t any new public hints towards the negotiations, the early movement seen on Friday does suggest one of the major points of interest for the NLLPA is not changing immediately.

Currently, players can be awarded with unrestricted free agency after accruing 8 seasons or turning 30 years old. After Christian Del Bianco’s holdout last season, his first while tag-eligible, there was speculation that the PA would want to shrink the number of accrued seasons before a player (a) gains UFA status and (b) is able to reject the tag (which would have been 5 years for Del Bianco). While a potential CBA could still implement new conditions for future seasons, teams are going forward with the existing tag. Which, for players and teams who are comfortable with running it back this season, just becomes a formality.

For example, Robert Church accepted and signed the Saskatchewan Rush’s franchise tag back on July 31, as did Zach Currier with the San Diego Seals.

Considering the relationship we outlined above, it was also a formality for the Rochester Knighthawks to tag Zed Williams.

On the 29th, it was announced that Mitch de Snoo was offered the tag from the Philadelphia Wings. Tyler Pace was tagged by the Calgary Roughnecks, and Christian Del Bianco by the Vancouver Warriors. While it may seem ironic for Del Bianco, both sides have been vocal that they intend a relationship for the rest of the goaltender’s career, perhaps waiting for the long-term next CBA before signing a long-term extension.

On the restricted free agency side, Qualifying offers and Qualifying offers + were handed out around the league. The + is the layer where the player’s rights stay exclusively with their team, while regular QOs are the layer of players that could be offer sheeted (As further clarified by Scott Loffler on Friday).

For the Bandits, the Qualifying Offer + was provided to Tehoka Nanticoke.

A much younger Knighthawks team had this offer provided to way more players: Ryan Smith, Tyler Biles, Rylan Hartley, Riley Hutchcraft, Josh Medeiros, Kyle Waters, and Mitch Ogilvie.

2025 NLL Unrestricted Free Agents By Team (As of August 29th)
* – (can reject franchise tag)
Note: This does not include players who have been given a qualifying offer

Albany FireWolves

– Callum Crawford*
– Ethan O'Connor*

Buffalo Bandits

– Matt Vinc*
– Kyle…

— Adam Levi (@AdamLeviLAX) August 29, 2025

The Games

Summer ball across Canada has seen very exciting conclusions this summer, with the only final series left to be played is the Mann Cup (Sr. A). Let’s recap the other championships:

Minto

The Coquitlam Adanacs cemented back-to-back Minto Cup championships and became the first team from BC to win the Minto in Ontario since the 1970s. The core of Cody Malawsky, Jaxon Dillon, Nathan Chalmers, and Ryan Colsey led the ‘Nacs in scoring, while 2025 draft prospect Jack Kask finished the playoffs with an .837 save percentage.

The Adanacs represented the BCJALL in the Minto after a 14-3 regular season, sweeping the four seeded Delta Islanders and the 2-seeded Victoria Shamrocks (who defeated the Nanaimo Timbermen in the first round) in the provincial playoffs.

In Alberta, the Rocky Mountain Junior Lacrosse League was represented by the Raiders Lacrosse Club, formerly of Okotoks after a 13-2 regular season. They are also going to be the hosts of the 2026 Minto Cup.

Then in Ontario, the Orangeville Northmen, led in net by Bandits prospect Evan Constantopoulos, picked up the ontario championship to join the St. Catharines Athletics in the Minto, as they were the host city for this year’s event. The Athletics featured another Bandits prospect, Lukas Nielsen. The Northmen narrowly edged the Whitby Warriors, who upset the Toronto Beaches in the OJLL semifinals.

In the round robin at the Minto, Orangeville and Coquitlam each went 2-1, while the Athletics were 1-2 after beating Orangeville, who defeated Coquitlam. The Raiders lost all 3 of their games. The Adanacs beat the Athletics 14-11 in the one-game semifinal to meet the Northmen in the Best-of-3 final. In Game 1, Malawsky scored 4 straight goals on the way to a 7-5 win, and then after Game 2 was tied at 6 after 2 periods, two goals for the Northmen were erased by 4 of the next 5 goals for the Adanacs, finished off with the go-ahead goal courtesy of Parker Kennedy and the eventual game-winning-goal from Nathan Chalmers on the powerplay. Anna Taylor’s recap here.

Prezzy

In Senior B, the Presidents Cup took place in Brooklin, where the Snake Island Muskies of the Three Nations Lacrosse League edged the host Brooklin Merchants of Ontario Series Lacrosse to win the gold medal. The Edmonton Miners of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League beat the Six Nations Rivermen (also of OSL) to win bronze. The Muskies were led by the tournament’s leading scorer, Knighthawks forward Ryan Lanchbury, who had 15 goals and 17 assists in 6 games.

Locally, the Allegany Arrows of the Can-Am Lacrosse League once again featured Chris Cloutier and Chase Fraser. Cloutier had 14 goals and 14 assists in 4 games, while Chase Fraser had 16 goals and 10 assists in 5 games, which included another viral highlight

Chaser Fraser with yet another ridiculous goal. The smile at the camera after is perfect. @PatMcAfeeShow he did it again.

🎥: Jeff Nikula pic.twitter.com/haohR2vMOT

— Dan Arestia (@danarestia) August 28, 2025

Founders

Junior B’s Founders Cup took place in Calgary in the Tsuutina Nation, and featured everyone’s favorite teal turf. Locally the Seneca WarChiefs represented the First Nations Junior Lacrosse League (they play their regular seasons at the Cattaraugus Community Center).

The winners of the two pools were the Junior B Coquitlam Adanacs representing BC and the evenutal winners, the Kahnawà:ke Hunters representing Ontario.

Mann Preview

On one side, it felt like a formality, but the path still had multiple twists and turns.

In the WLA, while the New Westminster Salmonbellies and Victoria Shamrocks were the favorites to host this year’s Mann Cup, the Coquitlam Adanacs had a 15-2-1 regular season, led between the pipes by Christian Del Bianco in his first Senior A season since 2022 (he played the last two seasons with the Ladner Pioneers in Senior B).

The ‘Nacs took care of the Maple Ridge Burrards in 4 games in a best of 5, which would also be the same series final for the other semifinal matchup, where the Salmonbellies took care of the Shamrocks.

In the best-of-seven WLA finals, while Coquitlam won Game 1, the Salmonbellies veteran roster prevailed with the wins in each of the next four games to advance to hosting the Mann Cup. Frank Scigliano outdueled Del Bianco and took home the playoff MVP.

Over in Ontario, Major Series Lacrosse saw the Six Nations Chiefs, who in the offseason added Josh Byrne and Ryan Smith up front to only further their star power up front, went 16-2 in the regular season and then swept the ahead of schedule Owen Sound North Stars in the semifinals to once again find themselves in the MSL Final.

While Brooklin had a 3-2 lead in their series with the Peterborough Lakers and leads in the third period of both Games 6 and 7, the Lakers prevailed to make the finals another Six Nation vs Peterborough final.

Last year, the Lakers got out to a surprising 2-0 lead in the finals before dropping 4 straight, the Chiefs had a gentlemen’s sweep in this year’s final to head back to New West for the Mann. One of Peterborough or Six Nations has represented Ontario in the Mann each year since 2012.

The Chiefs will enter the Mann Cup looking for their third straight title, while the Salmonbellies aim to be the first WLA team to win the Mann Cup since the 2015 Victoria Shamrocks. The Bellies have won 24 Mann Cups but have not won since 1991, appearing 8 times since. The Chiefs are 8-0 all time in the Mann Cup.

PLL Update

The New York Atlas and Denver Outlaws will play for the PLL Championship on September 14. Locally, the Outlaws feature Knighthawks defender Jake Piseno, Penn Yan’s Mike Manley, and are coached by Fairport’s Tim Soudan

Draft Saturday

The NLL Draft will take place on Saturday, September 6, starting at 1 pm. It’s another virtual draft, and the First Round will be streamed on NLL+.

CJ Kirst is the projected #1 overall pick, as it could be the second consecutive year that an American could go #1 overall in both the NLL and PLL (Brennan O’Neill). The Toronto Rock, of course, have the first 3 picks of the draft.

Picks: Round-Pick

Buffalo’s picks: 1-14, 2-21 (Acquired from Philadelphia during last year’s Dispersal Draft), 2-32, 3-39 (Acquired from Ottawa), 4-61, 5-74, 5-75, 6-89

Rochester’s picks: 2-24 (Acquired from Colorado in Zed trade), 3-43, 3-47 (Acquired from Buffalo in Cory Highfield trade), 4-57, 5-71, 6-85.

Full draft order tracked by Swarm It Up

(Photo Credit: Nanticoke Media)