In 2014, Dillon Ward won a gold medal with the Canadian National Team at the FIL World Championship, and he was named the tournament’s MVP. This year, Canada lost to the U.S. in the gold medal game, but Ward was named the tournament’s most outstanding goalie, highlighted by a 24-save effort in a 10-5 victory over the Iroquois Nationals in the semifinals.

Ward continued his successful run in Major League Lacrosse with the Denver Outlaws, filling in for an injured Jack Kelly. The backup at the start of the season, Ward made 16 saves to help Denver win the MLL championship and defeat the Dallas Rattlers, 16-12.

“It was being confident in myself and being confident in our defense where we could get stops,” Ward said. “The coaches trusted in me and the defense trusted me to make changes and put us in a position to succeed.”

For all his success, Ward was not a top collegiate draft pick. Since 2013, he’s played on three different MLL teams. Now in his second stint with Denver, Ward was acquired by the Outlaws in the supplemental draft on two different occasions.

To supplement something is to add an extra amount to something; the supplemental draft makes MLL players who are not protected on a team’s roster available for other teams to add to their roster. Most often, these players provide depth or coverage for players still playing their collegiate seasons or in the NLL.

In Denver, however, the supplemental draft was a key component to building a championship roster.

“Our philosophy is they were all drafted out of college or picked up by somebody,” said Outlaws general manager and associate head coach Tony Seaman.  “Somebody somewhere thought they were good enough to play in the league. I figure there was a reason [Chesapeake head coach Dave] Cottle picked this guy, or [Lizards head coach Joe] Spallina or one of the other coaches. I say let’s bring them in and see what they can do.”

Ward isn’t the only player acquired via the supplemental draft — referred to as the “trash heap” by Quint Kessenich during the broadcast of the MLL championship game — to play a large part in Denver’s success over the 2018 season and the final championship game. As the cliché goes, one man’s trash is another’s treasure.

Defenders Finn Sullivan and Eli Gobrecht, as well as midfielder Nick Tintle, were all supplemental draft picks at one point, and played a large role in the Outlaws championship victory.

“They play harder. They’ve got a lot to prove,” Seaman said. “I love guys that have things to prove.”

Nick Tintle played for the Denver Outlaws in the 2016 and 2017 seasons. He was left unprotected going into the 2018 supplemental draft, where he was re-selected by the Outlaws in the fourth round.

“He’s never won a championship,” Seaman said. “He came back this year for one reason. He was going to retire. He was hurt last year and couldn’t play in the championship game. I remember our discussion [prior to the 2018 season]. He said ‘I don’t care who you want me to play, I’ll play anybody and we’re not going to lose.’”

Willing to play wherever he was needed, the Outlaws coaching staff moved long pole Gobrecht — selected in the seventh round of the 2018 supplemental draft — to SSDM, only to move him back just a few games later. He played in every regular season game in 2018, scoring a goal and adding an assist. In the championship game, Gobrecht switched to cover Rattlers leading scorer Jordan Wolf, helping to hold him to only one goal in the final three quarters of the game.

POLE GOAL! What a way to start the second half! Finn Sullivan scores his first @MLL_Lacrosse goal to take @DenverOutlaws up two against @RattlersLax. #MLLChampionship pic.twitter.com/vPOXD1ZJOT

— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) August 19, 2018

Also at close defense, Sullivan went undrafted out of Hofstra University in 2016. He was selected by Denver in fifth round of the 2017 supplemental draft and played in all 14 regular season games in both 2017 and 2018.

Not only did Sullivan make the team, he became the team’s top defender, often guarding the other team’s top player.

“To be honest, I really felt I could play in the MLL,” Sullivan said. “I was disappointed and surprised I didn’t get picked in the collegiate draft coming out of college, but I felt confident. I wasn’t too nervous. I felt I could belong and play, not go out and dominate, but fit in a defense and contribute. There was a confidence and a chip on my shoulder. It was like I had to prove I did belong and prove everybody that passed on me that they made a mistake, and I was going to go out and contribute to a team any way I could.”

Ward said he understands why he continuously finds himself available during the supplemental draft. He plays in the NLL and isn’t available for the start of the season. Teams need a goalie right from the beginning, so Ward isn’t an option.

Seaman, however, is a fan of Ward’s, and with Jack Kelly already on the team, he can afford to bring in Ward later in the season.

“I learned over my seven years that Dillon Ward is an amazing goalie, especially when he doesn’t play in the summer box league,” he said. “The only time he hasn’t done that is four years ago because of the summer world games and this year because of the summer world games.”

“He plays great when he isn’t two days a week bending over and defending a box goal, and he gets to play every day for the Canadian field team,” he said. “He was the perfect guy to back up Jack Kelly.”

According to Sullivan, not being the only supplemental draft pick to earn a roster spot and consistent playing time on the Outlaws made it easier to step in and contribute.

“There’s an example right there in front of you that from day one if I put my head down and do what I need to do,” he said. “Either Tony or [Outlaws head coach] B.J. [O’Hara] or [assistant coaches] Jon Cohen or [John Grant] Jr., it doesn’t matter if you’re the last pick in the supplemental draft, you can find a place on a team.”

The Outlaws typically finish in the championship game which means they usually have one of the two last collegiate draft picks, so Denver doesn’t have many high draft picks on its roster.

Ward said the makeup of the roster and character of his Denver teammates helps everyone feel they are partially responsible for the team’s success, including supplemental draft picks.

“That just goes back to how special the locker room we had is,” he said. “It was an egoless room. No one cared about who was leading the success. It was what way do we need to pull the rope and how hard do we need to pull? We didn’t have one superstar, we had a team, especially on defense. We stuck to the game plans our coaches put in, and if we needed to make adjustments, we were able to do that seamlessly. In the championship game we gave up nine goals in the first half and only three in the second half.”

The Outlaws players from the supplemental draft went from overlooked to MLL champions. Their journeys to that point mirror the path the team took to the 2018 MLL championship. Denver started the season 1-4 before going on a six-game winning streak and earning the third seed in the MLL playoffs despite an injury to their starting goaltender.

An appreciative Sullivan said both his individual path and the team’s path to winning the championship is made even better because of the obstacles they overcame.

“It makes it sweeter the championship because of the long climb it took to get there. I owe it to the Denver organization for taking a chance on me in the supplemental to see what I had,” he said. “[The coaching staff] know how to pick the right guys for our team on the field and that fit in the locker room as well. My hat’s off to them.”