2023-24 NLL Preview: Warriors Reshaped Under New Head Coach Curt Malawsky

With the 2023-24 National Lacrosse League season set to begin Dec. 1-2, USA Lacrosse Magazine is going team by team in the days leading up to the opener. Today, we take a deep dive on the Vancouver Warriors.

VANCOUVER WARRIORS

2022-23 Record: 4-14
Head Coach: Curt Malawsky, first season
 Assistants: Bob McMahon, Rob Williams, Dwight Maetche

Additions: Matt Beers, D (Saskatchewan); Kevin Crowley, F (San Diego); Ryan Dilks, D (Saskatchewan); John Lintz, D (Colorado)
Departures: Shawn Evans, F (retired); Jonathan Gagliardi, T (Las Vegas); Brandon Goodwin, T (Panther City); Logan Schuss, F (Calgary)

STORYLINES TO WATCH

How big a turnaround can Curt Malawsky bring in his first year as head coach?

There’s a new energy to the Warriors this season, and it all starts with head coach and general manager Curt Malawsky. The 2023 NLL Coach of the Year departed Calgary after 10 years leading the Roughnecks, joining Vancouver in search of work closer to home and a new challenge.

Malawsky, who led the Riggers to a franchise record 13 wins last season, has emphasized size and toughness in reshaping the roster in his image. He’s brought in established veterans like Matt Beers, Kevin Crowley and Ryan Dilks and continued to add to the team’s war chest of young talent by selecting four first-round picks this summer. He’ll have to wait on some of them, but he already has young guns like Owen Grant, Reid Bowering and Adam Charalambides to build around.

The Warriors were in need of a drastic change, with 2022-23 marking a fifth straight losing season. The team has not yet finished above .500 since moving to Vancouver in 2014, at best going 9-9 in 2017.

Last season, no one in the West had a worse goal differential.

Vancouver is moving in the right direction, but can it reverse its fortunes immediately?

Can the goaltending hold up?

The Warriors might have one of the top defensive units in the league after bringing in seven new faces, now featuring a group of Dilks, Beers, Bowering, Grant, Brett Mydske and John Lintz. That should go a long way in avoiding a second straight season at the bottom of the goals allowed chart.

But questions still remain between the pipes. Four players spent time in goal for the Warriors last season, with the majority of the minutes going to the team’s current duo of Aaron Bold and Aden Walsh.

Bold, the veteran and expected starter, played more in 2022-23 than he had in any season since 2019, posting a save percentage of 77.7 and a goals against average of 11.95. He clearly still commands respect, having recently been named the fifth-best goalie in the league in the NLL’s Top 50 ranking, but he is 38 and nearing the end of his career.

The 22-year-old Walsh is promising but experienced the typical struggles for someone his age. His 14.88 goals against average and 70.4 save percentage help explain why Bold was brought in midway through last season.

Also waiting in the wings is Connor O’Toole, a 2023 first-round pick who is currently on the practice roster. It all adds up to a murky situation in British Columbia. Is it fair to put the burden on any one of these options, or will it be goalie by committee?