At long last, Week 1 is here in the National Lacrosse League. Let’s waste no time and go team by team, starting with the defending East Division champions.

Buffalo Bandits

As I mentioned in the offseason review post, not a lot changed since the last time we saw the Buffalo Bandits back in June, including my thoughts on where the Bandits are headed into this upcoming season. They still have the most offensive firepower in the NLL, and the defensive core is still together outside of the departure of Kevin Brownell. Or, verbatim, one more time, this week sucks. The rest of the offseason will probably suck too. The regular season may be stressful in its own way with pressure to ensure that the team is in contention for another Championship appearance, but the fact of the matter is, all they can do now is run it back.

While not a traditional X-Factor, how far the Bandits go this year likely falls on the shoulders of Matt Vinc. Again, as I wrote after Game 3, the championship-or-bust years of this core will only last as long as his extended prime lasts. That’s less about Vinc himself and more about how each upcoming season, while he’s still at the top of his game, becomes more crucial for a championship or, well, bust. Vinc took the early parts of the summer off after dealing with nagging injuries during the playoffs while still managing to get some games in during the Peterborough Lakers’ run to their 4th straight Mann Cup. He should be fresh to start the season. He’s earned the benefit of the doubt that he will be at the top of his game until he isn’t, but will John Tavares have a quicker trigger to give more minutes to Doug Buchan?

The East is still going to be theirs to lose, while the West has a little bit more competition this year of its own to win the NLL Finals.

Week 1 Opponent: Albany FireWolves

The FireWolves will start their season in the same place that their season ended last season, although this time, the offense is going to look a lot different, as each of their top 5 scorers in 2022 is now on other teams. Joe Resetarits will be looking to build on his MVP finalist campaign last season in silver gold, as he signed with the Philadelphia Wings in unrestricted free agency. Ryan Benesch re-joined the Halifax Thunderbirds, also in unrestricted free agency. Andrew Kew and Reilly O’Connor were traded on the same day, with Kew and Ethan Woods being traded to Georgia for Ethan Walker and the 7th overall pick in 2022, and O’Connor being traded to the Riptide for Kieran McArdle in a trade that also saw a pick swap with the 8th overall pick going to Georgia and the 4th pick going to Albany. Then finally their 5th leading scorer, Jacob Ruest, was traded to Vegas for Jackson Nishimura.

After all of that, the FireWolves’ new-look offense will consist of McArdle and Walker on the left side and Charlie Kitchen (now the FireWolves’ longest-tenured forward at one year), Connor Kelly, and Tanner Thomson on the right side. While the offense may still be a mystery, the likes of Brett Manney, Greg Downing, Colton Watkinson, and John LaFontaine lead a strong defensive group, Joe Nardella will still have a major impact on the game as a league-leading faceoff man, and Doug Jamieson between the pipes. The key for the Bandits in week 1 will be to not let the offense have a chance to get comfortable with a quick start from their own offense.

Rochester Knighthawks

It’s easy to only go up from here when you go from two wins in your first season to four in your second, but the Knighthawks are continuing to acquire talent while their young core gets older and more experienced. If Austin Hasen can develop as a second righty option behind Ryan Smith, they, along with Holden Cattoni and Connor Fields on the left side, are a strong top 4 options with Turner Evans and Thomas Hoggarth as complimentary pieces near the net, Adding Brad Gillies to the fold out the back door to go along with Paul Dawson, Dan Coates, Matt Gilray, and Ryland Rees as right-handed defenders give Mike Hasen and Pat O’Toole a lot of flexibility schematically. If their young lefties can continue to grow as well, led by Mitch Ogilvie’s steady pace towards what could be a breakout second season for him.

With no Evan Kirk again this season, the goalie room is once again a mystery. Rylan Hartley has all the potential in the world and has now started for parts of two seasons, but the injury recovery makes him a mystery, especially in the early season. Meanwhile, Riley Hutchcraft has played four seasons in the NLL and seen his fair share of professional shots but has only faced 74 in games in 105 minutes in the net. That’s not necessarily his fault, as Nick Rose very rarely comes out of the net even if his occasional bad game limited more opportunities for him during that time, but that doesn’t make it any less of a mystery how he will do with more regular time. We still don’t know who will be starting, so the competition is still open, but both goalies seem eager to work with each other.

Unfortunately for the Knighthawks, they will be starting the season how they ended it in the injury department, as Ryland Rees, Cory Highfield, and Jeff Wittig will start the season in IR while Thomas Whitty, Tyler Biles, and Carter Schott will start on PUP. Their first opponent of the season showed last season that they can score on this Knighthawks team, so the players that do start in the lineup will need to hold their own with the next man up.

Knighthawks Week 1 Opponent: Georgia Swarm

We’re now five years removed from the Swarm’s championship run in 2017, and the roster is becoming more and more unrecognizable since that, as three more players from that team announced their retirement this year: longtime goaltender Mike Poulin, defenseman Joel White, and forward Jordan Hall. Trade deadline acquisition Stephan Leblanc also retired. The Swarm will be looking for their first new starting goalie since Poulin took over that starting role in that 2016-17 season. Former Knighthawk Craig Wende has the starting gig to start the season, but 11th overall pick Brett Dobson (St. Bonaventure’s own) will be lurking to become the team’s goalie of the future. Wende has played 390 minutes in the NLL since 2019 with a 12.58 GAA and .779 SV%.

The Swarm will still be led up front by their two former MVPs, Lyle Thompson coming off a 47G 55A season in 17 games, and Shayne Jackson who had 36G and 41A of his own. The addition of Andrew Kew will give them an upgrade over Hall on the left side, while the right side will get a breath of youth as well as Ryan Lanchbury, the #2 overall pick in 2021, will be making his debut this season. Brendan Bomberry and Jordan MacIntosh will probably split time playing out the front and back door to round out that unit, while the likes of Zach Miller, Tanner Buck, and Teioshontathe McComber will have bigger roles on the left side. There is also a Thompson brother reunion this year in Georgia as the Swarm acquired Jeremy Thompson from Panther City this fall to join Lyle and Miles. However, Miles will start the season on IR due to a training camp injury. Jeremy is expected to play mostly defensive minutes while splitting faceoff time with MacIntosh.

As always against the Swarm, the key for the Knighthawks will be to neutralize Lyle on-ball with help support to take away passing opportunities to the other forwards. That’s traditionally easier said than done, as Thompson had a 7-point night and 19-shot attempts when these two teams squared off in Georgia on March 4 and a 6-point night with 12 shot attempts in their first matchup of last season on January 21. Offensively, take whatever worked from that March 4 game and run with it. That game finished with Georgia winning 17-16 in overtime led by 9 points from Ryan Smith. With the injuries on the back end for the Knighthawks to start the season, they’re more likely to find themselves in a high-scoring game, so Gavin Prout’s debut as an offensive assistant is going to come with some extra pressure on the offense to start strong.

Albany and Buffalo will faceoff at 7:30 on Saturday from Key Bank Center, while Rochester and Georgia will start at 8:00 from Gas South Arena in Duluth. Rochester will play their home opener next weekend against the Toronto Rock on December 10. Both games can be streamed on ESPN+.

Now that game previews are written, let’s continue previewing the rest of the league.

Toronto Rock

Once again, the Toronto Rock will be the top competition for the Bandits at the top of the Eastern Division, but this time, it was the Rock making the big splash in free agency. A team that identifies itself with the strength of its defense, Toronto signed former Saskatchewan Rush captain Chris Corbeil to add another stud to that unit. In a surprising move, the Rock traded former MVP Candidate Rob Hellyer to Vegas as he was looking for a change of scenery out west, with the Desert Dogs returning first-round picks in 2024 and 2025. With Challen Rogers correspondingly moving from a primarily defensive role to one that is offensive, the offense will not be skipping a beat, and Corbeil’s presence will be a smooth plug-in with Rogers no longer playing most of his minutes on defense. Stephen Keogh and Corey Small’s signings will improve the Rock’s secondary scoring for the Tom Schreiber-led unit, so Owner/GM Jamie Dawick is not playing around in the team’s second season in Hamilton and they’re first with a full 9-game slate of home games with full buildings with COVID protocols now out the door.

Halifax Thunderbirds

A 4-team-per-conference playoff format can be a killer, especially for the two teams in the 2v3 slot with the first round being single elimination. One thing or another turns in a different direction and the Halifax Thunderbirds are the ones playing two out of three with the Bandits for the rights to go to the finals, but Challen Rogers had other plans.

So the Thunderbirds come back in 2022-23 with a little less outside noise of expectations (they were the season-opening betting favorites to win the title last year) and a whole lot more offensive firepower. The trade deadline acquisition of Shawn Evans didn’t end up working out, but Curt Styres made sure this summer to give the offense two new jolts of energy. The biggest splash came in the lead-up to the draft with the Thunderbirds trading the 9th overall pick in 2022, a 2025 2nd, and Jackson Reid to Panther City for Randy Staats. Despite not having played since before the COVID shutdown due to a knee injury in the summer of 2021, Staats will slot in as the Thunderbirds’ new #1 option on offense and greater support on the right side for the still-young trio of Austin Shanks, Clarke Petterson, and Chris Boushy. Another hole they filled on the left side with Brandon Robinson signing in Buffalo and Dawson Theede starting the season on PUP was re-signing Ryan Benesch after he split the 2021-22 season between Panther City and Albany. Benesch’s 81 points topped the whole Thunderbirds roster last season, and he continues to put up strong numbers even now entering what will be his age-38 season. While they will need to prove further that they belong in the top tier of the East with Buffalo and Toronto, the Thunderbirds will find themselves in the division mix and be ready come playoff time to continue to work towards their unfinished business.

Philadelphia Wings

Flipping over to the West bracket as the 5th best team in the East, the Wings clinched a wild-card playoff spot on the final day of the regular season. After coming within a single goal of pulling off a first-round upset over the San Diego Seals, the Wings went out and upgraded their offense. With Kevin Crowley leaving the Wings to go back out West, the Wings filled the hole on the right side with Joe Resetarits and then upgraded their defense with the signing of Chad Tutton. The return of Cory Vitarelli to the lineup after only playing 10 games due to injury will fill the hole left by Corey Small heading to Toronto, and Matt Rambo having another season of box lacrosse under his belt should lead to some more production from him on that left side. If Zach Higgins can continue to play at the level he has since he came to Philadelphia, the Wings will be in the mix again.

New York Riptide

The Riptide is probably going into this season as the biggest wild card in the East. After a 1-7 start last season, they went 5-5 in their last ten to finish 6-12, scoring the second-most goals in the NLL. The problem was that they gave up 226, which was the most in the NLL. Jeff Teat is the players’ favorite to win MVP in his second NLL season after 37 goals and 71 assists in only 16 games last season. Callum Crawford had 88 points of his own in only 15 games, and Connor Kearnan broke out with 34 goals in a finishing role. The focus in the offseason for Jim Veltman was on the defense, and they were able to bring in Kevin Brownell from Buffalo and Jordi Jones-Smith from Saskatchewan. . With a full offseason of preparation as the team’s starter, a 23-year-old Steven Orleman will be the x-factor on Long Island this season.

Out West

San Diego Seals

After being stunned by the Mammoth in the West Finals, San Diego, pun alert, made the largest waves of the offseason. Not only did they sign Kevin Crowley, who most expected to end up with the Vancouver Warriors as a native of New Westminster, BC, but they reeled in the biggest name. A season after poaching Dane Dobbie from Calgary, they got his long-time running mate in Curtis Dickson to join in on the fun. A forward unit of Dickson, Dobbie, Crowley, Mac O’Keefe, Wes Berg, Austin Staats, and Casey Jackson can rival that of the Bandits back east. The big names on the back end are all back, and Frank Scigliano will look to repeat the success he had last season. If there was a year to finally get a 41-year-old Brodie Merrill his first NLL championship, this is it. But the competition knows that too and is going to give them everything they got.

Colorado Mammoth

There wasn’t a lot of turnover on the Mammoth roster this season, as is expected for a defending championship team, but even with Ryan Lee starting the season on injured reserve and Tyson Gibson on the holdout list, they have something that they did not have until late in the championship run: A comfortable Zed Williams. It took the former PLL MVP and Georgia Swarm forward a while to define a role for himself in the traditionally Lee and Eli McLaughlin-led offense, but after dominating the NLL Finals, it feels safe to say that Williams will improve upon a 20 goal 25 assist season in 2021-22. If Connor Robinson can repeat his own breakout season and Tyson Gibson can replicate his success from his 2019-20 rookie of the year season in his first full season in Colorado, the Mammoth will be right back in the conversation atop the West with Dillon Ward back and ready to go in the net and the Mammoth core still together on defense as well.

Calgary Roughnecks

The third seed in the West is going to be as competitive as the race for the West’s crossover wild card spot. If the Seals and Mammoth are expected to go 1-2, the other 5 teams in the West could all put together seasons that are strong enough to take the last guaranteed spot in the conference seeding. Despite losing the aforementioned Curtis Dickson, the Calgary Roughnecks will still start the season with a head start in that race with the other teams looking to knock them out of that top 3. After leading the team in points in 2021-22 with 95 in 18 games, Jesse King will be assuming the top dog position on the Calgary offense this upcoming season with familiar faces Dan Taylor and Tyler Pace looking to step up in their supporting roles. Brett Hickey signed with the Roughnecks in the offseason to help fill the void left by losing Dickson, and Tanner Cook and Kyle Waters will look to build on their rookie years. Defensively, Curt Malawsky’s squad still has Zach Currier to lead the way along with the addition of Jeff Cornwall, and with the only 25-year-old Christian Del Bianco only continuing to get better as one of the league’s best goaltenders, the report of the Roughnecks demise could be greatly exaggerated as far as they’re concerned.

Saskatchewan Rush

It wasn’t a secret coming into the 2021-22 season that the Saskatchewan Rush’s championship window was on the downswing, but an 8-10 season and a tie for the 7th most goals for in the league were not on anyone’s radar. Now without Chris Corbeil, the veteran-heavy Rush will move forward and look to get back to the winning ways that have been familiar in Saskatoon since the franchise relocated to Central Canada. The Mark Matthews, Robert Church, Ryan Keenan combination is still in place, with Marty Dinsdale returning to the Rush after a season in Vancouver, and Kyle Rubisch returned to the team after testing the waters in free agency, so not all is doom and gloom, especially with Mike Messenger’s continued rise to stardom in a transition role. Maybe they just needed this full offseason with Jimmy Quinlan as their head coach after taking over the job mid-season. After years of Aaron Bold and Evan Kirk being bonafide number 1 options in net from 2016-2020, Alex Buque and Eric Penney will compete for the number 1 spot this season. Both goalies have had success in the NLL but have struggled with consistency and carrying that consistency over a full season. Laine Hruska, the Saskatoon native, is on the team’s practice squad and could also get games if he develops quickly. Aside from the goalies, the Rush will look for one of Josh Currier or Dan Lintner to bounce back after down seasons in their first year in Saskatchewan, while Marshall Powless will look to do the same in his second NLL season. The sixth overall pick in 2022, Austin Madronic, will also be in the rotation.

Vancouver Warriors

After years of the Stealth/Warriors franchise omitting prioritizing the draft, the Warriors now have picked in the top 4 of the last 3 NLL drafts: Reid Bowering in 2020, Adam Charalambides in 2021, and Owen Grant (who will be playing for Delaware this spring) this past September. That’s one way to start turning the page after years of losing in British Columbia after making the NLL Finals in their final season as the Washington Stealth. GM Dan Richardson relieved head coach Chris Gill of his duties after the season and replaced by Troy Cordingley, who was the Bandits’ head coach from 2013-2018 and was in a scouting role after that until taking the Warriors job. The Warriors have carried the culture change moniker throughout the offseason and will be pairing the fiery Cordingley with the addition of another famous pest in Shawn Evans. The addition of Evans and the return of Mitch Jones, who only played 4 games in 2022 due to injury and had 12 goals and 14 assists in those games, will spark the Warriors’ offense. Like with the Rush, the ability to take the next step with a growing young defense will be its goaltending, which will once again feature Steve Fryer with Aden Walsh and Ethan Woods each having an opportunity to step into the second roster spot once Woods returns from injured reserve.

Panther City Lacrosse Club

Panther City went full tale of two halves in their debut season, starting 1-9 and then winning 5 in a row, including an undefeated March, and then going 1-3 in March but having that one win on the road in San Diego. The offense was led by dark horse rookie of the year candidate Patrick Dodds and 26 goals and 58 assist season, with the likes of Will Malcolm, Phil Caputo, Nate Grenon, and Dean Fairall all having career seasons and Nick Damude establishing himself down the stretch as the organization’s #1 goaltender. Tyler Burton joins the experience defensive unit and will likely replace Jeremy Thompson as the primary faceoff man. On top of all of the breakouts Panther City saw in 2021-22, this year’s edition in Fort Worth will be getting their inaugural draft pick Jonathan Donville in the lineup after being part of Maryland’s stacked national championship squad in 2022. Tracey Kelusky’s squad has all the potential in the world coming into this season.

Las Vegas Desert Dogs

The Desert Dogs will certainly be judged alongside the success of Panther City in their first inaugural season at Mandalay Bay. Their pre-Christmas break schedule features two matchups with Panther City on December 9 and December 16. With the roster that Shawn Williams has assembled, it’s not out of the…deep breath…cards.

*Hold for boos*

For starters, Rob Hellyer was able to step up as the number 1 option whenever Tom Schreiber was out of the lineup in Toronto, so that is a role he’s acquainted with. Then while he’s in the twilight of his career, Zack Greer’s move from a loaded San Diego depth chart to Vegas will allow him to aim for a 40-50 point season if he can stay healthy. Like Greer, Reid Reinholdt and Jacob Ruest will also have more opportunities for touches after coming from loaded depth charts. As with all expansion teams in this era of NLL expansion, the defense will take some time to adjust to playing with each other and acquiring an identity, but the group Williams assembled has plenty of solid options, led by Tor Reinholdt, Travis Cornwall, Garrett McIntosh, and James Barclay. Goaltending is, again as per usual, the biggest question mark, as both Joel Watson and Landon Kells are still very young into their careers, with Kells only playing 10 career minutes across 4 games and Watson being thrown into the fire late in the season as the third goalie for the Knighthawks. One thing that could take pressure off the goaltending would be breakouts from a trio of young talent at the forward ranks, with Marshal King getting his first chance at regular starter minutes, Charlie Bertrand in his second season of box lacrosse, let alone professionally, and Jack Hannah’s first experience in the box game after finishing his college career at Denver last spring.

Outlook

You’re not going to get me to make any projections, but what I can assure you, reader, is that this season of the National Lacrosse League will be ultra-competitive, and there isn’t any team that doesn’t have a path to a playoff position if everything goes as each team plans. For a lot of those teams, goaltending remains the biggest question mark, which, as we know from hockey, makes projections very volatile. Regardless, if this will be your first season of following the NLL, enjoy it! And sign up for either ESPN+ or TSN Direct to get access to all 135 regular season games, and if there is an NLL team by you, get to a game! There’s no such thing as a boring NLL game, with a cheaper ticket and a very exciting in-game experience.

Photo Credit: Rochesterknighthawks.com