In the NLL, nobody is overpaid

News flash: Lacrosse is different from other pro sports. Why? Lots of reasons. It's the handshakes after every game, not just after a playoff series. It's the post-game parties, where players hang out with fans. It's the goalie sitting in the penalty box after a major penalty. But one of the most-often mentioned differences is that lacrosse players aren't paid nearly as much as NHL, NBA, NFL, or MLB players. One quick example: if longtime Bandit John Tavares had made the current league maximum salary for a franchise player (about $34,000) for each of his 22 seasons, that would come to a little less than $750,000 over his entire career. Since the max salary hasn't been that high the entire time, and Tavares hasn't made the maximum every year, his actual career total would be much less. His nephew John Tavares, the captain of the New York Islanders, made $900,000 last year alone. And a number of hockey players make ten times that. Alex Rodriguez makes almost thirty times that.

The salary thing is brought up a lot, as proof that lacrosse players play for the love of the game and not for the money. I'm not going to argue with that statement (at least not right now, though I have before), but there is an important corollary that often goes unnoticed. With all the talk in Toronto this past week about Phil Kessel signing an eight-year $64-million extension with the Maple Leafs, it hit me.

Lacrosse fans don't care about player's salaries.

Lacrosse fans compare players like fans of every other sport. This guy has more goals / loose balls / saves than that guy. This guy has more Championships than that guy. This guy gets more playing time than that guy. There are lots of metrics that people use for comparing players, some more useful than others. But salary is never one of them.

When Kessel signed his deal, there were a lot of people talking about whether he was worth it. Who else in the league is making an average of $8 million a year, and how does Kessel compare with them? Did the Leafs overpay? These are questions never asked about lacrosse players. Obviously, it's because the salaries are so low. But because the salaries are so low, the range of salaries is also low.

The league minimum salary for rookies is a little over $9,000, while the highest-paid player in the league makes less than 4 times that (the aforementioned $34,000). By contrast, the minimum NHL salary in 2013 is $525,000 while the highest-paid player, Shea Weber, makes $14 million, or over 26 times the minimum. Weber could use one year of his salary and cover the entire NLL player payroll several times.

It's not that salary is never an issue. Just ask the Minnesota Swarm, who traded away Ryan Benesch this past summer and Aaron Wilson and Ryan Cousins a couple of years ago, in deals that very likely reduced their payroll significantly. Were these salary dumps? Maybe, but since we don't have any details on what players make, we don't really know. Fans generally know that NLL owners don't make bucketloads of money from their NLL investment, and so if they have to trim back payroll, that's just how it is.

The NLL doesn't generally release salary information, but I'm sure that's partially because fans aren't asking for it. It's interesting to talk about a player's salary when he makes more in one year than you would in a century. It's interesting when you figure out that Alex Rodriguez makes $40,000 per at-bat, and that's if he's healthy and plays a full season; if he only has 300 at-bats instead of 600, he makes $80,000 per. But if a player makes less than you do, it's not quite as interesting a conversation. Who's going to do the math and figure out how much Shawn Evans makes for every minute he's on the floor? (Answer: No idea, since I don't know Evans' salary.) If you hear that one player makes $18,000 while another player who isn't as good makes $21,000, who's going to be outraged over the perceived injustice? It's just not enough of a difference to get anyone angry, except perhaps the player himself.

But of course the player wouldn't get angry, since he's playing for the love of the game and not the money. Right?

The NLL schedule: A balancing act

The 2014 NLL regular season schedule was released a couple of weeks ago. It's two games longer than previous years, and Minnesota is in the East now so they play Eastern teams a lot more than the past few seasons when they were in the west. Apart from that, it's not a lot different from previous years. And that has a lot of fans unhappy.

Some of the problems are just scheduling weirdnesses:

• Six of the Bandits' last eight games are on the road.
• The Mammoth play on January 10th and 11th, and then January 17th and 18th. That's four games in 9 days.
• Four teams play their 5th game on February 1. That night Colorado plays their 8th.
• Edmonton's first three games are against Colorado (2) and Calgary. Then four of their last five games are against Colorado (2) and Calgary (2).
• Vancouver plays on February 14th in Colorado and the 15th in Calgary. Then they have a weekend off before playing in Edmonton on March 8. Then they have another weekend off before hosting the Roughnecks on March 21. Between February 15 and March 21, a day shy of five weeks, they play one game. Between January 25 and March 21, almost two full months, they have one game at home.

But we have to remember that the NLL teams are almost never the primary tenant in their arena. The Rock get dates only if the Leafs and Raptors don't want them. Similarly, the Wings get dates if the Flyers and Sixers are on the road or idle. It's the same for everyone else, though it's not the NHL with Vancouver or Rochester. Is it ideal that the Stealth have two weekends out of three with no games? Obviously not but if the arena isn't available, that's what has to happen.

Also, the NLL players don't make the money that the NHL and NBA players do. It might be easy for the Calgary Flames to move a Saturday game to Tuesday if a conflict comes up, but the Roughnecks can't do that because most of the players work during the week. So the NLL teams are forced to stick to weekend games, thus limiting the number of available dates for them. And the league can't afford to be flying teams across the country all the time – it's not unlikely that one scheduling possibility is to fly the Stealth to Buffalo one weekend, Rochester the next, and Philadelphia the one after that. That's three cross-country trips in three weeks. Nobody wants that. This season, the Stealth travel to play Toronto and Philly one weekend, and then Rochester two months later, and they skip Buffalo altogether. Considering the alternatives for east cost trips, that's not bad.

The bigger issue people are having is that the schedule is so unbalanced. Each team plays every other team in its division either three or four times but it's not consistent. Most pairs of teams in different divisions face each other only once while some play twice. And once again, Toronto and Colorado don't face each other at all. The Rock and Mammoth have only played each other 6 times ever, despite the fact that they've both been in the league for more than ten years. The first game in Mammoth history was in Colorado against the Rock on January 3, 2003, but the Rock have played in Colorado only once since.

Why is this so inconsistent? Why do the Bandits play Toronto, Minnesota, and Philly three times each but Rochester four times? Why do the Rock play Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver twice each but Colorado not at all?

One option would have been to keep the schedule at 16 games and have each team play every other team exactly twice – once at home, and once on the road. That gives each team 16 games and things are nice and balanced. Once you've done this, you can do away with the divisions entirely, since they are no longer meaningful. I actually don't mind this idea.

But say you want to keep the idea of divisions to keep travel costs down, which is a very realistic goal for the NLL. The first thing you need to do in order to have a balanced schedule with divisions is to make sure each division has the same number of teams.

You could keep the schedule at 16 games and have each team play each other team in its division 3 times and each team in the other division once. That gives the Eastern division 16 games and the Western division 14. So the Western teams would have to play two teams in their own division once more. But then you have the Stealth playing, say, the Mammoth and Rush four times and the Roughnecks three times and we're almost back to where we are now.

You also have to remember the symmetry of the schedule. I tried to think of a way to balance each division, but have the balancing different. I was getting close to having a working solution, except that in such a scheme, you might have the East teams play the West teams a different number of times than the West teams play the East teams. So for example, Buffalo might play Colorado a different number of times than Colorado plays Buffalo. This is, of course, not possible.

I don't pretend to have the answer. Personally, I might go with the 16-game balanced schedule and nuke the divisions. The new 18-game schedule isn't really that bad, except for the missing Rock-Mammoth game. If we could just add the requirement that every team must play every other team at least once a season, that would improve things quite a bit. But given the requirements and limitations all the teams have to work with, sometimes it seems surprising that they end up with a workable schedule at all.

Behind the scenes at the 2013 NLL Entry Draft

Just like last year, I attended the 2013 Entry Draft in Toronto, and like last year I managed to record the draft as it really happened, not what was broadcast after the fact. Here's the transcript of what they don't want you to hear:

---

George Daniel: Good evening and welcome to the 2013 National Lacrosse League entry draft, held here at the beautiful Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville. Thanks to Jamie Dawick and the whole Toronto Rock crew for hosting this event and yesterday's combine. And thanks also for all the Toronto Rock branded swag you provided. However as the commissioner, I'm not really supposed to wear stuff with one team's logo, so I'll have to return the T-shirts and polo shirts and hats and lanyards and sweat pants and shorts and socks and jackets and toques and mitts and scarves and the parka.

Jamie Dawick: But you can keep the boxers, since nobody will know you're wearing them!

Daniel: Good point! All right, let's move on to the first pick. John, you're up.

John Arlotta: Thanks George. With the first pick, the Minnesota Swarm pick…. Mark Matthews!

Daniel: That ain't funny, man.

Derek Keenan: Well, it's a little funny.

Arlotta: OK, sorry. Couldn't resist. I think everyone knows this already, but we'll take Logan Schuss.

Daniel: Great. Once again, the Minnesota Swarm is on the clock. I have a feeling I'll be saying that a lot this evening.

Arlotta: With the second pick, we'll take Jason Noble. Hey, did you know he has a twin brother who'll be available next year? We should totally try and get him too. How cool would that be – twin brothers on the same team? That's probably an NLL first.

Daniel: I don't know… I have this vague memory of these twin brothers… Ah, never mind. I don't think they were any good anyway. Steve, you're next.

Steve Dietrich: OK. Anyone named Smith available? I have a collection.

Daniel: <looks at piece of paper in his hand> IL Indoor says no. And I meant Govett, not you. You don't have a pick until halfway through the second round.

Dietrich: Oh right. I was just askin'.

Steve Govett: We have that Belanger guy in net but we need a solid backup. We'll take Dillon Ward.

Bob Hamley: What about Dan Lewis? He didn't do too badly last year and he's young.

Govett: Who?

Daniel: The next pick belongs to the Edmonton Rush. Derek?

Arlotta: Wait, Derek! We want that pick too! We'll give you our next pick and… um… Ryan Benesch! Oh, wait. <grabs piece of paper, looks at it for a second> Nik Bilic!

Joe Sullivan: Wait, don't –

Keenan: Done!

Arlotta: Woo! Another first round pick!

Sullivan: John, we didn't gain any picks. We just moved up one position. And we lost a good player to do it.

Arlotta: But… first round!

Sullivan: Never mind. George, we'll take Cam Flint.

Daniel: Right. Derek, it's your turn, unless Mr. Arlotta…

Arlotta: <looks at Joe Sullivan>

Sullivan: <shakes head>

Arlotta: <head drooping> No.

Keenan: Well, we're pretty weak with lefty offensive players, so maybe we'll… Oh wait, no we're not because we have Mark Freakin' Matthews! So we'll take a strong righty like Robert Church. Hey George, you may as well just give us the Championship Trophy now. It'll save time.

Curt Styres: Now wait just a second there.

Daniel: Come on Derek, you know it doesn't work like that anymore. Remember those years we gave it to Calgary before the playoffs and had to take it back? Let's play the season first.

Keenan: Whatever.

Daniel: Speaking of Calgary, Mike, it's your turn.

Mike Board: Thanks for bringing that up George. You made Curt cry. It's OK Curt, he didn't mean it. How about if I get Tor Reinholdt for you? Would that make you feel better?

Curt Malawsky: <silently nods>

Board: All right then, we'll take Tor Reinholdt.

Daniel: Sorry Curt, I did promise I wouldn't bring that up again, didn't I? Let's just put that behind us and move on. Back to John.

Arlotta: Another first round pick! This is so exciting. Joe, pick someone.

Sullivan: All right, we've got offense with Schuss, defense with Noble, and transition with Flint. Back to offense, so we'll take Scott Jones.

Daniel: OK, we're over to the Vancouver Raven- sorry Doug. I keep doing that. It's the Washing- sorry again. I'll get this right. The Vancouver Stealth.

Doug Locker: No problem George, took me a few days to get over it. With the 8th pick, the Washing- um, I mean the Vancouver Stealth will take Cody Bremner. George, you can edit that out in post anyway, right?

Daniel: Yes, nobody is listening to this part. When we go live I'll fix it up. Terry, you have the last pick of the first round.

Terry Sanderson: Hey, that guy at the back there that looks kind of like a cross beween Dion Phaneuf and Paul Rabil? We'll take him. Great lacrosse player plus Toronto hockey captain? How can you go wrong?

Bruce Urban: Paul who? Never heard of him.

Derek Keenan: Yes you have, remember last year when we did that deal with Vancou- I mean Washington?

Urban: NEVER HEARD OF HIM.

Daniel: OK, what's your name, son?

Ethan O'Connor: I'm Ethan O'Connor, sir. But why is everyone getting confused on the location of the Stealth?

Daniel: Welcome to the NLL, Ethan.

---

This should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway. This is entirely fictional and tongue-in-cheek. I am not implying in any way that George Daniel, John Arlotta, Steve Govett, or any of the other NLL executives are anything less than intelligent professionals with far more lacrosse knowledge than I could ever hope to have. It's just funnier if we pretend they're not.

The 2013 NLL Entry Draft

For the second straight year, I had the good fortune to be able to attend the NLL Entry Draft since it took place in the Toronto area. The 2012 draft was held at a hotel in downtown Toronto, while the 2013 draft was held at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre in Oakville. This year's location was even more convenient for me than last year's since the TRAC is halfway to Toronto from my place. Again this year I will post my thoughts on the draft event itself, though I'm afraid I have little to say about the players drafted. I don't follow the summer leagues or the MLL nearly as much as the NLL (and I don't follow anything below senior lacrosse at all) so I just don't know the players. If you're looking for that kind of insight, head on over to IL Indoor or In Lacrosse We Trust.

I realize the event was broadcast on the internet so many of you probably watched it happen, but since I didn't watch the broadcast, I don't know how much you could see or hear.

The event took place on the floor of the carpeted rink at the TRAC. (There are two lacrosse rinks at the TRAC – one with turf and one concrete.) A stage with a podium was on the far side of the rink (in front of the benches), and nine tables (one for each team) were set up in three rows of three in front of the stage. To the left of the stage was a long table where NLL staff sat, including Commissioner George Daniel. To the right of the team tables was a line of tables for media, and to the left was a smaller table for hosts Andy McNamara and Stephen Stamp.

The team tables were assigned in alphabetical order, starting with Buffalo at the front right, and going across and then back to Vancouver in the back row on the left. From left to right, the front row was Colorado, Calgary and Buffalo; the middle row was Philadelphia, Minnesota, Edmonton; and the back row was Vancouver, Toronto, and Rochester.

Behind those tables were several rows of chairs for draft eligible players and their families. By draft time, those chairs were entirely filled. The stands were for the fans, though I don't think there were more than about 30 people there, and I know a few of them were friends or family of the players. There were even a few people with media passes around their necks sitting in the stands. Last year, there was a combined seating area for players, family members, and fans, and I'm sure there were more people there than this year. I initially assumed there were just fewer fans this year, but maybe the players were told to try to limit the number of family members they bring since seating was limited, so that was the difference.

I talked briefly to Stephen Stamp before the draft started, and he said they were having trouble with their internet connection through the TRAC's wifi. My internet connection was working fine, but then I was connected through my smartphone. By the time the draft started, I imagine they got that all sorted out since I didn't see anyone on twitter complaining about the broadcast. One thing I did notice though: Stamp was using a Macbook at the beginning of the draft – I assumed it was to bring up stats and information on players as they were drafted. But later on I noticed that the laptop was either gone or closed, so whatever information he had came from his memory. Unfortunately for me, there was an eight foot wall of plastic (how do I know it was eight feet? Because Dan Dawson could just see over it.) between me and the PA system so I couldn't hear much. I could hear most of the player announcements, though a couple of times I had to wait 30 seconds and check twitter to see who was just picked, but as for the insight into the players, I picked up precisely none.

The first few picks seemed to go as expected, with Logan Schuss and Jason Noble going first and second to the Swarm. After Colorado picked Dillon Ward, the Rush and Swarm made the first trade of the night – the Swarm sent Nic Bilic and the #5 overall pick to the Rush for the #4 pick. The Swarm picked Cameron Flint, and the Rush took Robert Church with their pick. It seemed odd to me that the Swarm felt moving up one spot was worth Nic Bilic, but I thought maybe they really wanted Flint and didn't want to take the chance that the Rush would pick him. The Rush, however, had a jersey that already had "Church" on the back, so either (a) they had a few jerseys made up and grabbed Church's when they picked him, or (b) they knew they wanted Church and made up one just for him. Maybe they felt getting Bilic from Minnesota was worth the possibility of losing Church, or perhaps they knew the Swarm wanted Flint and decided not to mention that they weren't going to pick him.

What's even more strange about this whole thing is that Minnesota had the top two picks, but did not have a jersey for Jason Noble with his name on it. I don't know if they had one for Schuss since he wasn't there, but it's not like the Swarm didn't know who they were going to pick beforehand. They had jerseys made up for Sorensen, Matisz, and Jackson last year.

After Edmonton chose Reid Mydske in the fourth round, I tweeted that he and his brother (Brett) would be playing for the same team. I joked "Checking to see if this has ever happened before." I was surprised at the number of people who actually thought I was serious. People telling me about the Gaits, Powells, Selfs, Gajics, Dawsons, and even Squires. I'm sure I could come up with a bunch more without thinking very hard – of the top of my head: how about the Carnegies, Harnetts, and Malawskys – and that's just Calgary (Derek Malawsky never played for Calgary but he and Curt played together on Rochester). Don't forget the Sandersons (not Josh and Phil since they're cousins, but Ryan and Chris on the 1999 Baltimore Thunder) (OK, that one I had to look up), Evans's, Wrays, and Kilgours. This is not an uncommon thing in the NLL by any stretch.

Anyway, back to the draft. By the time it was over, most of the fans had gone. There were exactly five of us left, and I saw Mark Matthews chatting to three of them earlier on so I guessed they were friends of his.

I don't imagine they'll have the draft in the Toronto area again next year. Maybe if the league were based in Toronto I could see it, but the offices are in New York City. I think moving around the cities in the league would be good, especially for the western teams who've had to travel east two years straight. As I said last year, it was interesting to see the event happen live and watch "the inner workings of the league in action", though I think I might have gotten more out of it by watching the internet broadcast. At least I would have been able to hear Andy and Stephen's commentary.

But then again, Toronto Rock first round pick Ethan O'Connor was sitting right in front of me, and it was very smile-inducing to watch him and his family stand up and hug each other when his name was called. You can see that on the broadcast as well, but it's very different when you're there in person rather than watching online. That alone made the trip worth it.

The NLL Hall of Fame: Why is "not yet" an option?

Pat O'Toole, the former goaltender for the Rochester Knighthawks, Buffalo Bandits and New York Saints (!!) was elected last month to the NLL Hall of Fame. He was unquestionably deserving – 16 seasons in the league, second overall in total saves, two Championships, one Goaltender of the Year award, and he leads the Knighthawks in every goaltending category there is. He's the third straight person to be elected into the Hall by himself, and also the third straight goaltender, after Bob Watson and Steve Dietrich.

What was even more interesting about the announcement was who was not going in. Four other players were nominated: Pat McCready and Kaleb Toth both received 48% of the vote, well short of the 75% required, and Chris Driscoll and Regy Thorpe both received 21%. The 1993 Buffalo Bandits were nominated as a team and received 42%. The omission of Toth, in particular, had some heads shaking throughout the IL Indoor forums and Twitter. Many were saying he should have been a shoo-in, while others said that he was good but not quite worthy of the Hall of Fame.

This begs the question: what would make a player worthy? Obviously there's no criteria that guarantees you entry into the Hall, though being good enough for long enough to pick up 1000 career points (only 6 players have ever done it) would probably be the equivalent to 300 wins for a pitcher in baseball. But there will be lots of players that don't get 1000 points that deserve to be in the Hall – Paul Gait, Tom Marechek, Darris Kilgour, and Dan Stroup are already in the Hall with fewer. And that number's only useful for scorers – what about transition guys, defenders, and goalies? Finally, there's more to Hall of Fame worthiness than just numbers.

But I'm going to start with the numbers because, you know, that's what I do. Kaleb Toth finished his 13-year career with 713 points (14th all-time) in 186 games (24th), for a career average of 3.83 (46th). He had 9 seasons (in ten years) with 50+ points (14th), and 6 seasons with 60+ points (13th). Only Andrew McBride has played more games as a Roughneck. He's the team leader in goals, assists, and points; the next closest current Roughneck is Scott Ranger, 241 points back.

So he's 14th all-time in points. You might think well, he didn't make the top 10. But consider this: 1243 players have played at least one game in the NLL. Only 13 have more points than Toth, putting him in the top 1.2%. Was he as dominant as guys like Grant or Tavares? No. Was he the best player on his team his entire career? No, he played with guys like Tracey Kelusky, Lewis Ratcliff, and Josh Sanderson. But it's safe to say that he was one of the top 2 or 3 guys on the Roughnecks for eight straight years from 2002 until 2009.

You also have to consider the non-stats factors. He was the face of the Roughnecks for much of his career, being a hometown Calgary boy, and Calgary is now one of the cornerstone franchises in the league. Toth spent a lot of time in the community and attempting to grow lacrosse in Alberta and from what I understand, this has been very successful. And you can't forget his two years in Toronto, scoring one of the most famous goals in Toronto Rock history, if not league history.

So I think I've made my case for why Kaleb Toth deserves to be in the NLL Hall of Fame. Personally, I think Pat McCready should be in there as well. It would be harder to make a similar argument for McCready, but only because he was a defender and so comparing numbers is much harder. And I'd be OK with the '93 Bandits going in as a team. But that's not what this article was supposed to be about. It was supposed to be looking at the question of how we decide whether or not a player deserves Hall of Fame inclusion. But other than maybe the 1000 point plateau, there's no definite criteria for Hall of Fame candidates, so each has to be examined individually.

Because the NLL Hall hasn't been around all that long (there are only 21 people in it, 8 of which were not players), it's a little more difficult than other sports to say "so-and-so is in the Hall, and this guy's career was similar (or better), so he should be in as well". But if we want to go down that road, we can. Dan Stroup is in the Hall of Fame. Toth played 4 more games than Stroup but had 184 more points. They were both forwards so logic says that if Stroup's in, Toth should be in.

<begin rant>

What's probably happening here is the same idiocy that happens in other Halls of Fame: the concept of a "first-ballot Hall of Famer". The idea is that there are those players who were so good, they deserve to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as soon as they are eligible (on their first ballot). Meanwhile there are other players who are good enough to be in the Hall, but not as good as the "first-ballot" players, so they should not be inducted as soon as they're eligible, they should be made to wait a year or two (or nine, right Andre Dawson?). This makes no sense to me, and I wrote about it (in the baseball world) four years ago. From that article (and this part applies to the NLL Hall of Fame as well):

The Hall of Fame is not an ordered list of players. If someone deserves to be there, vote for him. If he gets 100% of the vote, well good for him, but it doesn't mean that he's better than Ruth or Cobb [or Gait or Veltman].

If you think Toth is worthy of the Hall of Fame, vote for him. If you don't think he's good enough, that's fine. But don't give me this "not yet" crap.

<end rant>

I'm not sure which I hope for more: (1) that the NLL Hall of Fame voters do not think this way (good) and they just believe that Toth isn't good enough (bad). Or (2) that the voters do think this way (bad) and that Toth will get in next year (good). We'll have to wait for the results of next year's voting to see which it is.

The end of the Blaine Manning era

I remember it like it was twelve years ago.

Young lacrosse star Kaleb Toth, who scored the last-second goal to give the Toronto Rock the 2000 NLL Championship, was traded to the brand-new Calgary Roughnecks for a player with no NLL experience and a draft pick. As a Rock fan, was I outraged? Did I feel ripped off? Not really. First off, I knew that Toth was an Alberta boy and being the first home-town player for this brand new team was likely a huge deal for him as well as for the Roughnecks. Secondly, the player we got back was the second overall pick in the previous draft, a strong forward named Blaine Manning. A second overall pick plus a first rounder should be enough of a return for Toth, shouldn't it? Still, we've all seen first round draft picks that just didn't work out; would Manning turn into one of those?

Obviously he didn't, and the rest is history. Manning scored 71 points (21+50) in his first season plus another 12 (4+8) in the playoffs (including the double-overtime winner in the semi-finals against the Washington Power) as the Rock won their third Championship. He was named Rookie of the Week five times, Rookie of the Month for March, and finally Rookie of the Year. Toth, for his part, racked up 79 points in his first of eight straight 50+ point seasons, became the face of the Roughnecks for a decade, and on his retirement became the first inductee into the "Forever A Roughneck" program. If there was ever a trade that worked out better for both teams, I'm not sure what it was.

Manning scored 60+ points in ten straight seasons, and 70+ in all but one of those. His best season was 2005 when he scored 105 points, tied with John Grant for second in the league after Colin Doyle's 111. Josh Sanderson was third with 102, making 2005 the only season in NLL history that three teammates scored over 100 points. At their prime, Doyle, Manning, and Sanderson formed what might be the most potent top three on any team in NLL history.

Manning was not just a strong scorer who could pick corners as well as anyone. He could shoot from outside, could drive to the net through as many defenders as necessary and liked to dive through the crease as well. But there are two specific things about Manning's play that I will remember: first, he would frequently switch hands. If there was no room to shoot right-handed or he was on the wrong side of the net, he'd flip his stick around and shoot as a lefty. I honestly don't know how effective this was and I assume it was less accurate than his right-handed shot, but he scored numerous goals this way, catching the goalie off-guard, and I've rarely seen other players do it. Second, he was almost untouchable on the penalty kill. If you needed to kill some time on the shot clock, give the ball to Manning and he'd simply hold it for 20-30 seconds, regardless of the number of people pounding (or sometimes piling) on him. Mark Steenhuis is also very skilled at this but for many years, Manning was the best.

Manning played in every Rock game for ten full seasons – 2002 to 2011 – but two games into the 2012 season, his consecutive game streak was halted at 162 (177 including playoff games) when he broke his collarbone. That streak was good for third place all-time after Doyle and Steve Toll, though all three have since been eclipsed by Shawn Williams. He returned in April, having missed ten games, but only recorded 9 points in his 6 games that year. Last season Manning was given a different role and was more of a "grinder", the guy that gets in the defender's way and thereby gives better looks to guys like Doyle, Billings, and Leblanc. But there were times where he tried to be the Manning of old and wasn't able to. The frustration on his face was obvious, which is why this announcement was surprising to me but not shocking. Evidently the toll on his body over the last couple of years was too much, and he decided that this was the end for his playing days.

Over the years of his career (2002-2013), only eight people have more points than Blaine Manning. Only one player (Bob Watson) has played more games in a Rock uniform, though Doyle will pass him this coming season. He is second in Rock history after Doyle in goals, assists, and points (both regular season and playoffs), and second after Jim Veltman in loose balls. He led the team in scoring twice and won four Championships with the Rock. Manning is certainly one of the greats in Rock and league history and should get serious consideration for the NLL Hall of Fame once he is eligible. He is one of my all-time favourite players and I wish him well in the next phase of his lacrosse career.

The Benesch trade: could both teams lose?

As you've heard by now, the Buffalo Bandits have acquired sniper Ryan Benesch and transition man Andrew Watt from the Swarm for two first round draft picks (2015, 2016) and a third round pick in 2017. This looks to be a great deal for the Bandits, who lose nobody from their roster while picking up two solid players including Benesch, a former rookie of the year and league scoring leader. It could also be great for the Swarm, who just love their first round draft picks. But it could also be a disaster for both.

The Swarm had four first round draft picks in 2012, and they have four more in 2013, including one of Buffalo's (from the Cosmo deal). Now they have Buffalo's first round picks for 2014 (Cosmo again), 2015, and 2016 as well as their own. This, plus Philadelphia's 2015 pick from the Kevin Ross trade, gives them at least eleven first round picks over the next four drafts.

This is a bit of a strange deal for the Swarm, on the assumption that Benesch didn't ask for a trade. As I said, they certainly love acquiring first round picks, but I'm not sure it makes sense to give up someone who's a star now for draft picks. I get that first round picks are important and can change a franchise entirely (right Edmonton Rush and Pittsburgh Penguins? Or the 2013 Swarm for that matter), but the best-case scenario for the Swarm is that they are able to draft someone as good as Benesch. If Benny was 34 and one of those "still pretty good but on the downside of his career" players, it might make sense, but he's only 28 and could easily be at or near the top of the league in scoring for the next five years or more. Even if the first of the draft picks they got results in the next Mark Matthews, they still have 2 full seasons of no Benesch and no Watt before then.

They do have four first-round picks this year, and if they want to get them all on the roster, then four players from last year have to go. They'll likely want Andrew Suitor back in the lineup, so that's one more. But I don't think Benesch and Watt were at the top of John Arlotta's "list of players who can be dumped in favour of rookies". In addition, this trade has made the Bandits better, so it's unlikely that the Bandits' first round picks will be all that high anyway.

Meanwhile the Bandits have no first round picks for the next four years. It's now safe to say that the Cosmo deal was a bust, in that Cosmo has only shown glimpses of the former Goaltender of the Year the Bandits hoped they were getting. Indeed, 2012 and 2013 were the worst seasons of Cosmo's career in terms of both GAA and save percentage. The Bandits have not yet given up anything for Cosmo – this year's draft will be the first of the two first-round picks they gave up. But unless Cosmo recovers in a big way next season, the next two drafts might be tough to swallow for Bandits fans.

If the Benesch deal doesn't work out for whatever reason, the two drafts after those might be just as tough. There would be nothing worse for Bandits fans to head into a draft knowing you have no first round pick this year or next because of a trade for a player that hasn't played for you for two years, but if Benesch is traded again, that could be the case. But Steve Dietrich knows this. With this trade, the Bandits are going all in with Benesch as their offensive leader for the next half-decade. Obviously losing John Tavares will hurt, whether he retires now or after another season, but with Benesch as the new offensive go-to guy, the Bandits can handle it. That's something they've never really been able to say before. Not saying Benesch is on a par with Tavares, arguably the best NLL player ever, but if you're looking to replace a strong lefty scoring threat, you could do far worse.

I have no reason to believe that Benesch won't be successful in Buffalo. If he does take over John Tavares' spot as the offensive leader of the team, the trade may work out very well for the Bandits. And if the Swarm's 2013 draft picks work out as well as their 2012 ones did (Matisz, Jackson, Sorensen, Crepinsek), they may be able to survive the loss of Benesch and Watt pretty well.

All trades take time to determine who the real winners were, in some cases a few years. If it takes that long to decide the winner of this deal, it's likely the Bandits came out on top. But if Dietrich's bet on Benesch doesn't work out, things could be pretty bleak in Buffalo for a long time.