OAKVILLE, Ontario — Buffalo, Rochester, Calgary, New England and Georgia got all the available first-round talent at the NLL entry draft Monday night, while Vancouver, Saskatchewan, Toronto and Colorado could only watch because they had previously traded away their picks.
Eight Americans, including Tewaaraton Award winners Dylan Molloy and Matt Rambo, were among the 59 players selected through six rounds.
Here’s how the nine teams fared.
BUFFALO
The rebuild of the Bandits was placed on a solid foundation when they selected impressive forward Josh Byrne first overall. The six-foot-three lefty grew up playing indoor lacrosse in New Westminster, B.C., was an NCAA field star as captain of the Hofstra Pride, and was the MLL professional field league’s Rookie of the Year this summer as a Chesapeake Bayhawk.
“He has elite skill,” said Bandits GM Steve Dietrich. “We’re real excited to have him.”
The Bandits needed lefty reinforcements after trading Ryan Benesch to Colorado on Aug. 1 and are now loaded on that side with incumbents Mitch Jones, Pat Saunders and Blaze Riorden being joined by Byrne and crease crasher Jordan Durston, who was acquired from Vancouver in a trade for forward Anthony Malcolm and the No. 12 pick.
“I think I’m going to mesh really well with these guys,” Byrne said. “They’re an unselfish group. It’s going to be a cool situation.”
The Bandits used their second-round pick, No. 13 overall, to add right-side attacker Chase Fraser of Vancouver, who was Rookie of the Year in the summer indoor Western Lacrosse Association.
ROCHESTER
Rochester snagged three Ohio State teammates from Ontario in the first round: defenseman Jake Withers of Peterborough at No. 2, forward Austin Shanks of Whitby at No. 5, and forward Eric Fannell of St. Catharines at No. 6.
“We did our homework,” said GM Curt Styres. “We were hoping to get the guys that we got. They seemed to fall right into our hands. We did very well.”
Knighthawks coach Mike Hasen coaches the Peterborough Lakers during summers and they won the Mann Cup as Canadian amateur champions last Friday. Lakers teammates Withers and Zach Currier were two of their best back-end players and were rated highly for the NLL draft. The ‘Hawks chose Withers, a superior checker who also specializes in faceoffs, over the lightning-fast Currier.
“Withers fit what we were looking for,” Hasen explained. “He’s a great faceoff guy who’s going to give our offense the ball more often than we’ve had it in the past and he can play a real good back end for us. At the same time, he can push the ball in transition. It’s something he hasn’t done very much during the summer, but he can do it. I’m a D guy by nature. If he can improve on our back end and get the ball to our offense as well, that makes our offense better at the same time.”
Withers won 134 of 172 faceoffs he took in six Mann Cup games.
“I’m thankful to the Knighthawks for giving me this opportunity,” said Withers. “I’m excited for camp and, hopefully, I’ll win another championship. I’m used to their defense system being coached by Haser the last two summers in Peterborough. It’s a good fit.”
CALGARY
Calgary was up at No. 3 and was elated that Princeton grad Currier was available.
“We were surprised,” said GM Mike Board. “We had him at one or two. For him to drop, we had to shift gears a little bit, but it was a pretty easy fill-in. We’re fortunate to get a player like that. He’ll fit right into our system. He’s exactly the type of player we were looking for. We just weren’t sure we were going to be able to get him. So we’re pretty happy.”
Said coach Curt Malawsky: “Zach is a very dynamic player who was built for the NLL.”
At No. 9, the ‘Necks also got Tyler Pace of Coquitlam, B.C., via the University of Denver.
“He’s a real solid kid,” said Board. “He’s a righty with lots of upside. He can play offense or defense. We were looking to help our back end, so with Currier on the left side and Pace on the right side, I think we’ve added to our transition game. We’re hoping they turn into long-term Roughnecks.”
Calgary concluded the first round by taking at No. 11 lefty forward Ryan Martel from the Langley, B.C., Jr. A team.
NEW ENGLAND
New England selected transition runner Colton Watkinson of Burlington, Ont., via Limestone at No. 7, transition runner Anthony Joaquin of Brampton, Ontario, via St. Joseph’s at No. 8, and forward JP Kealey of Langley, via Robert Morris at No. 10. All are lefties.
“We didn’t have a lot of left-handed defenders last season,” explained coach Glenn Clark. “It’s not vital that you have floor balance on defense, but we wanted to even that out a little bit. We wanted to get a little bigger and more athletic and add good sticks to push the ball up the floor.”
GEORGIA
The champs used their No. 4 slot to select First Nations player Zed Williams out of the Can-Am league’s Native Sons and the University of Virginia.
“He can play out the back door, he can play out the front door, and he’s a great loose ball guy,” said coach Ed Comeau. “We really like his versatility. That’s something we want to add to our team this year.”
Georgia then traded its next four picks for plum spots in future drafts.
VANCOUVER
The Stealth opened the second round after acquiring the No. 12 pick from Buffalo and they chose transition runner Ryan Fournier, who was on the 2015 Minto Cup-champion Six Nations Jr. A team. The Ottawa native starred at Loyola University Maryland and played on a Quebec Sr. B team this summer.
“I was really surprised,” Fournier said of being drafted sooner than expected. “To hear my name was unbelievable.’’
The Stealth last had a first-round spot in 2013 and will again be first-round bystanders the next two years.
TORONTO
Toronto got its first shot at the new talent at No. 15 and took lefty transition runner Drew Belgrave, who was good enough to be promoted from the New Westminster juniors to play all six Mann Cup games with the senior Salmonbellies. Belgrave has an excellent chance of being in the Rock lineup on opening night Dec. 17 as teams search for speed and more speed in the fast-forward NLL.
At No. 18, the Rock selected defenseman Zac Masson, who was the 2016 Ontario Jr. A Defenseman of the Year, but won’t be in the NLL any time soon since he’s playing NCAA hockey at Alaska Anchorage.
SASKATCHEWAN
The 2015 and 2016 champions were idle until the second round when they took at No. 16 transition runner Nick Finlay of Peterborough’s Jr. A team and Ohio State’s Johnny Pearson, a lefty forward who played in the WLA this summer.
COLORADO
The Mammoth had to wait until the third round when 24 players were already gone. Their priority was adding depth on the right side of the offense after trading Callum Crawford to Buffalo in the Benesch deal. Ryan Lee, who played WLA summer ball after his NCAA season with Rochester Institute of Technology, was their pick.
WOLVES LIKE AMERICANS
The first American drafted, by New England at 27, was Brown University’s Larken Kemp of Greenwich, Conn.
The Black Wolves also chose Syracuse University’s Nick Mariano of Westchester, N.Y., at 37 and the University of Maryland’s Matt Rambo of Philadelphia at 46.
“We talked to all three of them,” said GM Rich Lisk. “They all are interested in playing in the NLL. We’ll bring them in and give them a shot.”
The NLL, now with 11 teams with San Diego and Philadelphia to begin play in 2018-2019, aims for as many as 20 NLL teams within five years and seeing more and more indoor leagues established in the United States feeds optimism supply of players can meet demand.
“My team was built on Americans when we were back in Philadelphia,” said Lisk. “We had a lot of them. Some guys started going to outdoor lacrosse and not playing indoor. Now they’re coming back. I have three or four on my team right now – Brett Manney, John Ranagan [and] Joel White. We think it’s a great opportunity for American players. Tom Schreiber came up to Toronto last year and ripped it up and became Rookie of the Year. I believe in the American thing. Plus, I’m am American GM (from Princeton, N.J.), so I like bringing my Americans in.”
University of Denver’s Connor Cannizzaro of Cazenovia, N.Y., went 28th to Colorado and Brown’s Dylan Molloy of Setauket, N.Y., went 43rd to Buffalo.
Buffalo GM Steve Dietrich on Molloy: “He’s real interested in playing. He doesn’t know if he’ll be able to play this year because he just started a job in New York City, but the National Lacrosse League is definitely on his radar. I don’t know if it’s this year or next year, but he’ll definitely play.”
Denver’s Christian Burgdorf went 49th to Toronto, Maryland’s Isaiah Davis-Allen of Springfield, Va., went 50th to Georgia and Albany’s Adam Osika was the 59th and last player selected, by Georgia.
GOALTENDERS
It was slim pickings.
Toronto got Riley Hutchcraft at No. 30. The 20-year-old from Toronto entered the draft early and he will be back with his junior team in the city’s Mimico neighborhood next summer. Vancouver used No. 48 to get local New Westminster Jr. A goalie Erik Kratz.
EXPANSION DRAFT
For the expansion draft next summer to launch the San Diego and Philadelphia rosters, conjecture has existing teams each protecting 10 runners and one goaltender.
WINGS AND ONLY WINGS
Mike French was at the Black Wolves table. He retained partial ownership of the franchise when it left Philadelphia for New England. He won’t be involved with the new team in Philly owned by Comcast Spectacor, but he’s sure a contest to name it will result in retention of the old Wings name.
“I’ve said that if the team ever comes back I want it to be the Wings,” says French. “It will be.’’