NLL Insider

Johns Hopkins' Paul Rabil will compete in this year's NLL Entry Draft Combine in Boston.

The NLL released its list of the 40 ball players that will compete in this year’s NLL Entry Draft Combine, which will take place just prior to the Entry Draft slated for the weekend of September 6-7 at Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden.

After the jump, check out the 40 players that will be showing off their stuff for GM’s, coaches and scouts as they fight to move up in the projected draft order (check back next week for NLL Insider’s top prospect rankings) or even just to hopefully find a spot in the league period.

Now, before everyone flies off the handle and asks why (which some of you have already done)some of the higher profile names have been left off the list. Firstly, the NLL Entry Draft Combine is not a showcase, it’s, well, a combine. If you wanna watch the absolute best guys in the box game that are 21 and under, watch the Minto Cup, not the combine. (Read More…)

The Calgary Roughnecks got busy yesterday, inking forward Curt Malawsky to a one-year deal, pending league approval. After finding his way to the Roughnecks last season following the now-permanent hiatus of the Arizona Sting, Malawsky split his 44 points between 22 goals and 22 assists in 15 games.

Also signing on the dotted line was 21-year-old Dane Dobbie, whose shortage of playing time last season raised a few questions. Dobbie has since spent the summer ripping it up as the WLA rookie of the year, tallying 75 points in 18 games. His Coquitlam Adanacs will be taking on the New Westminster Salmonbellies in game one of the WLA finals tonight.

“He is an offensive leftie and rookie of the year in the WLA,” said Roughnecks owner Brad Banister. “He is probably the most sought after player in our league right now for upcoming offensive talent.”

• In other news, here’s one more sad story of an athlete giving up on his lacrosse dreams. How’s that workin out for ya there, Michael Phelps?

New West and Coquitlam will meet in the Western Lacrosse Association (WLA) finals. The best of seven series kicks off on Tuesday night in Queens Park Arena at 7:45pm PST.

The New Westminster Salmonbellies advanced to the final with a 4-0 series sweep of the Victoria Shamrocks and have been waiting a week to get going. Up 3-1 in their semi-final series, Coquitlam was pushed to Game 7 by Burnaby before capturing the series with a 9-5 win last night. (Read More…)

Well, all the provincial stuff is in the books and even though the Orangeville Northmen, Victoria Shamrocks, Edmonton Miners and Calgary Mountaineers are gettin’ ready to kick-off the Minto Cup later this week, The Money Ballers is closin’ up shop for the summer.

And… Cody Jamieson locked ‘er down in his typical dominating fashion, taking both the regular season Money Ballers crown and the playoff edition too.

His 16 point lead over runner-up Adam Jones of Orangeville, quadrupled his regular season Money Ballers lead, which he won by edging out Nanaimo rook Colton Clark. (Read More…)

It may have taken 12 years, but last night someone other than the Burnaby Lakers took the top spot in B.C. and the Victoria Shamrocks did it pretty convincingly with a 9-2 win in game five. Matt Flindell made 40 saves in total, allowing just one goal in the first and one in the third with a shutout period in between, earning him most outstanding player of the tournament honours.

Adding scoring support for the Shamrocks was Kory Kowalyk with two, and singles from Matt Yager, Cayle Ratcliff, Aaron McLean, Michael Pires, Dustin Wadden, Joel Henry, and Cory Conway. Burnaby goals came courtesy of Shaun Dhaliwal and Bill Laidler.

With the Shamrocks now destined for Calgary next weekend, the Minto schedule is as follows. (Read More…)

Brampton struck first in Game 1, then fell short and now we’re all tied up 1-1 in the battle for Major Series Lacrosse glory.

John Grant Jr.’s goal with 2 minutes left in regulation Sunday night lifted the Peterborough Lakers to a 9-8 win over the Excelsiors, settling what had been a back-and-forth Game 2 in the series that sends the winner into the Mann Cup finals. It was Grant’s first goal of the game, but he did help set up Scott Evans’ goal just 2 minutes earlier that tied the game, 8-8. And it looks like anyone who saw the game had plenty of offense to watch. The teams combined for 113 shots on goal, but goalies Pat O’Toole (Peterborough, 50 saves) and Anthony Cosmo (Brampton, 46) came up big in holding their respective foes to single-digit scoring.

Game 3 is set for Wednesday at 8 p.m. in Brampton.

Ryan Sharp and the Swarm will now be competing against Portland and the rest of the West for a post-season spot starting in '09.

With the inclusion of the Boston Blazers to an already loaded Eastern Division, which owned seven of the league’s teams versus the West’s five in 2008, sources say that obviously geographically moving Minnesota made the most sense.

Minnesota plays in the Western Division in both the NHL and NBA.

The East will again have seven teams (Buffalo, Rochester, Philadelphia, New York, Toronto, Chicago and Boston), while the West will begin 2009 with six teams (Calgary, Edmonton, Portland, Colorado, San Jose and Minnesota).

Sources also say however that even though the Swarm will be part of the West’s standings, their regular season schedule will still have a heavy eastern feel to it in order to maintain some of the rivalries they’ve spent the past four seasons building.

Explosive offensive performances from Joel Henry, Dylan Benard and Cory Conway combined with 39 saves from Matt Flindell led the Victoria Shamrocks to a decisive 11-4 win over the Burnaby Lakers last night, evening up their series at 2-2 and forcing game five tonight in Victoria.

Henry had three goals and one assist while Benard added two and one and Conway one and three, Michael Pires had one and two, Cayle Ratcliff and Myles Kenny had one goal and one helper apiece and Kyle McCartney and Kory Kowalyk each added singles. Flindell made a massive 19 saves in the first period, shutting out the Lakers while his team jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Shaun Dhaliwal led the Lakers with two goals and one assist and Dane Stevens had one and two. The final in the best of five goes off tonight in Victoria, 5:00 PM PST at the Bear Mountain Arena.

Photo of Nick Rose and Glen Bryan by Ward Laforme Jr.

Andrew Suitor struck first in the game, scoring just 27 seconds in. Adam Jones had three goals and one assist, Matt McLeod had two and one, and Matt McMurray and Greg Harnett added singles. Jones and McLeod finished the playoffs with 58 and 51 points, respectively. Nick Rose earned the win in net. For the Arrows, Mitch Nanticoke led with three goals. Cody Jamieson capped off his decorated Jr. career with 77 points in this year’s playoffs, including one last night.

The Orangeville Northmen will travel to Alberta to take on the best the rest of this country has to offer, including the Edmonton Miners, Calgary Mountaineers, and either the Victoria Shamrocks or Burnaby Lakers as the final game of their series will be played tonight. To see a few more pictures from Ward Laforme Jr., click on. (Read More…)

With only the Edmonton Miners and Calgary Mountaineers having secured their spots in the Minto Cup so far, this weekend could mean big things for the top teams in Ontario and B.C. Not only are the Orangeville Northmen and Burnaby Lakers just one win away from booking their tickets to Calgary, but Peterborough and Brampton continue their battle to see who will host the Mann while Coquitlam and Burnaby Sr. will duke it out to see who will get one step closer to a trip to Ontario. We’re getting down to don’t-blink time in summer ball, so for a quick look at who plays where tonight and for how many marbles, keep reading. (Read More…)

Once again for the Edmonton Miners it didn’t matter that they didn’t finish first in the regular season, it didn’t matter that they were going up against a team that’s looked primed for the Minto Cup all season, and it certainly didn’t matter that they lost game one of the Alberta Jr. A finals. The perennial provincial champs—2005 being the only exception—switched into playoff mode and wiped out the Edmonton Eclipse four games to one to take top spot and earn another trip to the Minto. (Read More…)

Cody Jamieson is expected to join Syracuse in the fall

Hyped Canadian prospect Cody Jamieson finished up classes Friday for Onondaga Community College and will graduate, says OCC coach Chuck Wilbur. And contrary to some rumors, the dynamic attackman is applying to Syracuse, not entering the National Lacrosse League Entry Draft. Wilbur is hopeful Jamieson can get in to SU in time for the fall but said worst-case scenario would be the spring. The important thing, for SU fans, is that Jamieson did everything he needed to do this summer and will graduate from OCC.

More good news comes in regard to Jeremy Thompson, a middie from nearby LaFayette High and a former IL Top 10 recruit. The do-it-all middie took classes this summer in Northern New York while playing for Akwesasne in the Canadian Junior A loop. Wilbur says Thompson should be good to go as well, but that it will take a bit longer to sort through because the credits must transfer back to OCC. Worst-case with Thompson, Wilbur says, is that he’d have to finish up at OCC in the fall and head to SU for the spring semester.
(Read More…)

This is the big one.

The one GM’s were trading up for years earlier and the one that has already produced multiple Champion’s Cup winners and multiple year end hardware winners too.

It’s the Entry Draft Brodie Merrill was slated to go first in during his freshman year at Georgetown. Ditto for Sean Greenhalgh at Cornell, Jeff Zywicki at UMass and even though he played D at Canisius, Matt Vinc was the first keeper in a while most felt would be capable of making the jump from being a stud Jr. A tender to a solid one in the bigs too.

To make a long story short, 2005’s first round was as close to a can’t miss as the league had ever seen.

Brodie obviously was number one and Derek Keenan in Portland made no bones about the fact that the Lumberjax would be taking him first and building their franchise around the two-way work horse for years to come. (Read More…)

The Rochester Knighthawks are going with a little bit of the old and a little bit of the new.

Signed Thursday were veteran forward Ken Millin and young goalkeeper Ben VanEvery. What Millin brings is no secret. Before winning a National Lacrosse League title with the Knighthawks in 2007, he was part of four title teams in Toronto. He brings quality runs off the bench and is an intregal part of the team’s depth. Between the pipes, the Knighthawks are going to get a look at 22-year-old VanEvery, who is wrapping up a solid Quebec Senior season with the Kahnawake Mohawks. He’s a former Minto Cup winner with Six Nations and is set to compete for the Sr. B President’s Cup that kicks off next week.

• San Jose Stealth sign two: SJStealth.com
• Knightingales to host auditions: Knighthawks.net

With an early exit from the WLA play-offs my fellow Victoria Shamrocks and I are off to the golf course to enjoy the last three weeks or so of the gorgeous west coast summer. The golf courses have been calling my name for months, so here’s hoping I can bring my handicap down a few strokes! With all this free time I have now I’ve been able to do a little reflecting on the season that was in the WLA.

(Read More…)

Defender of the year candidate Jon Harnett and rookie of the year candidate Randy Staats (photo: Ward Laforme Jr.)

We’re closing in on the day we officially announce our picks for all the National Junior Player of the Year nods, but with a good couple weeks or so before we make anything completely official, we wanted to hear what the fans had to say too.

After the jump you’ll find all the players and coaches we nominated based on what they did in 2008 (emphasis on 2008), and are asking you to let us know who you think deserves the nod out of the pool of players we like. Agree or disagree, we still wanna hear your voice. (Read More…)

Man is Orangeville ever cleanin’ up.

Their 29 wins during the summer are well above any other team’s combined regular season and playoff total.

They’re 16-4 in their last 20 games, which next to the Edmonton Eclipse, who’ve only played in-and-around 20 games, is by far the best in the country in that stretch too.

Their trio of Adam Jones, Matt McLeod and Stephen Keogh is still firing on absolutely all cylinders and look as close to unstoppable as you’re gonna get this year. How do you think they stack up against last year’s slick trio in Six Nations of Shawn Evans, Cody Jamieson and Craig Point? (Read More…)

We’re still about 6 months away from the National Lacrosse League’s return to Boston, but Beantown’s already feeling the love.

The roster of the Blazers is taking shape following the dispersal draft and now the team is not only getting ready to participate in the Sept. 6-7 entry draft, it’s getting ready to host it at TD Banknorth Garden. Tom Ryan, a regular contributor for us here at NLLInsider.com, is the team’s coach and he’s been super busy scouting talent across North America. The Blazers also are getting plenty of love from local media with recent profiles in the Braintree Forum and The Boston Globe.

The Blazers even have plans for a video game on the team’s Web site and a Blazers Lacrosse Festival on the first day of the draft with a skills competition, meetings with players and an exhibition game that night, so it’s pretty apparent they’re not just looking for a return to the NLL, they’re looking for a triumphant one both on and off the floor.

• Rush toughen up with O’Brien: Edmonton Sun
• Knighthawks sign Spack, Cougevan: Knighthawks.net

The New Westminster Salmonbellies completed their 4-0 series sweep of the Victoria Shamrocks early this week, improving their ‘08 record to a dominant 21-1. Their sole loss of the season was to Coquitlam Adanacs, who too look ready to advance to the Western Lacrosse Association (WLA) final and set up a rematch of last year’s championship.

Coquitlam went up 3-1 in their semi-final series with the Burnaby Lakers last night and will have an opportunity to close out their best of seven series at home this Thursday at 7:45pm PST. (Read More…)

It’s come down to another battle between Brampton and the ‘Borough, and it all kicks off Thursday night.

Brampton and Peterborough finished 1-2 in the Major Series Lacrosse regular season standings and the Excelsiors won two of the three meetings this seaosn. The clubs also played to a 10-10 draw, but those games obviously mean little now as the series for the right to advance to the Mann Cup finals begins with an 8 p.m. faceoff Thursday night in Brampton. Both clubs bring in plenty of offensive firepower, but there’ll be no shortage of defense with some of the game’s best goalies on the same floor. Brandon Miller and Anthony Cosmo of Brampton rank 1-2 in final MSL stats for the Excelsiors, and the return of Pat O’Toole coupled with the steady play early this season of Derek Collins gives the Lakers a solid anchor on the D end as the defending Mann Champs chase their fourth Cup in five seasons.

• Peterborough Fan Bus info for trip to Brampton: Lakers Web site