Clutch Kings: Rock Rookie Owen Hiltz is Fashionably Late
Owen Hiltz, Toronto Rock (Photo: Alexis Goeller)
The Lax Mag’s Clutch Kings tracks an individual player’s game-tying, go-ahead and game-winning goals, then weighs them based on when they’re scored (first, second, third or fourth quarter, plus OT), but also in what on-floor situation they’re finished (even-strength, power-play or short-handed goals). The Clutch Kings countdown calculates the league’s most money goal scorer all season long, crowning the king at the conclusion of the current NLL campaign. Click here for a more detailed breakdown of Clutch Kings scoring.
Owen Hiltz, Toronto Rock (Photo: Ryan McCullough)
He ranks second on the Rock roster and amongst all rookies behind Toronto teammate CJ Kirst, and is just 24th across the league when it comes to goals so far this season, but in The Lax Mag’s Clutch Kings countdown, Owen Hiltz continues to break into the very top of our leaderboard.
Why?
Well firstly, Hiltz is doing a majority of his goal scoring over his first eight games in the NLL in the fourth quarter.
Of his 16 goals right now, exactly half have been scored in the fourth quarter, six of those factoring into our Clutch Kings calculations: 2 game-tying goals, 3 go-ahead goals, and one winner, which was scored this past weekend in Toronto’s too-close-for-comfort 12-10 win over the Oshawa FireWolves. Oh yeah, they were all scored in even-strength situations too - no power-play, extra-man or empty-net gimmies.
In fact, no NLL player - rookie or otherwise - has scored more than one go-ahead goal in the fourth so far this season, while Hiltz has those just mentioned three. Only Ottawa’s Jeff Teat, who also leads the league in straight goals right now, has more game-tying goals (4) than Hiltz in the fourth frame. While Teat has more total fourth-quarter goals, Hiltz’s finishing past the 45-minute mark has meant just a fraction more to his team’s game-winning success, the Rock now 5-3 and firmly in fifth place in the league’s unified standings.
Owen Hiltz, Toronto Rock (Photo: Jonathan Tenca)
Is Hiltz’s early clutch touch in the NLL a fluke?
Well, we’ll only know for sure once we get to the end of the regular season, when inconsistently clutch players fall off our season-long leaderboard along the way, but when it comes to Hiltz, this shouldn’t be a shocker.
For those that watched Hiltz play for the OJLL’s Peterborough Lakers, you saw him score plenty of pivotal goals during his memorable Junior ‘A’ career. Then of course last year with Syracuse University, Hiltz also did this in a wild comeback in the NCAA Quarters…
Far out of the cameraman’s range, Hiltz quietly picked his spot and buried that Joey Spallina feed before most Harvard defenders even realized he’d darted right by them.
That game, now known as “The Mother’s Day Miracle” saw Syracuse down 8-2 at half to Harvard, only to see them storm back to take down the Crimson 13-12 in OT, erasing the second-largest deficit in an NCAA Tournament game for the Orange since 1980 – a game that happened over two decades before Hiltz was even born.
“My defender looked away for a second…,” and for Owen Hiltz, that’s often all it takes…
Toronto have rarely had a player rank quite this high on our CK leaderboard. Below are the highest ranked Rock players at the end of each season since 2022, the year TLM rebooted this clutch-scoring formula and feature…
Season: CK Rank. Player (NLL G Rank) Team, CKs Points (GTG/GAG/GWG)
2022: T20. Zach Manns (T59) 16.50 (4/4/1)
2023: 26. Stephen Keogh (T40) 13.75 (2/2/3)
2024: 10. Mark Matthews (T31), Toronto, 25.75 (6/4/3)
2025: 20. Chris Boushy (11) Toronto, 20.00 (5/9/0)
By our money math, Hiltz’s clutch value has already surpassed virtually every Rock player over the previous four seasons, and based on his current big-goal scoring pace, he may pass the few others by this time next week.
Before we get to our updated Week 12 league-wide leaderboard, below are this year’s top clutch-scoring rookies behind, well, Owen Hiltz.
Owen Hiltz, Matt Sawyer and CJ Kirst (Photo: Ryan McCullough)
Of the 46 rookies that have played in the NLL this year, only eleven have scored a game-tying, go-ahead or game-winning goal. In fact, Hiltz is the only rookie this year to score a game winner so far this season. He’s done it twice actually. Plus, his 19.75 CK points (scroll to the bottom of this page to see how we grade goals) is just a few clutch PTS from matching the entire 2026 NLL rookie class combined (24.50).
Clutch Kings: Rookies
CK Rank. Player (NLL G Rank) Team, CK Points (GTG/GAG/GWG)
1. Owen Hiltz (T24) Toronto, 19.75 (2/4/2)
T2. Nolan Byrne (T40), Georgia, 5.50 (3/1/0)
T2. CJ Kirst (T13), Toronto, 5.50 (3/1/0)
4. Sam English (T101), Toronto, 3.50 (1/1/0)
T5. Braedon Saris (T67), Colorado, 2.00 (0/0/1)
T5. Pat Kavanagh (T67), San Diego, 2.00 (2/0/0)
T7. Noah Manning (T67), Calgary, 1.50 (0/1/0)
T7. Will MacLeod (T89), Halifax, 1.50 (0/1/0)
T9. Ari Stevens (T141), Colorado, 1.00 (1/0/0)
T9. Jacob Hickey (T101), Georgia, 1.00 (1/0/0)
T9. Michael Grace (T101), Georgia, 1.00 (1/0/0)
Leading into Week 12, Hiltz is just 1.25 CK points behind our current leader, Saskatchewan’s Zach Manns, who was kept relatively quiet for the first time all season last week (0G, 2A) in the Rush’s 12-9 win over the San Diego Seals.
Clutch Kings: Week 12
CKs Rank. Player (NLL G Rank) Team, CK Points (GTG/GAG/GWG)
1. Zach Manns (T5) Saskatchewan, 20.25 (4/2/4)
2. Owen Hiltz (T24) Toronto, 19.75 (2/4/2)
3. Jeff Teat (1) Ottawa, 18.75 (4/5/1)
4. Curtis Dickson (4) Vancouver, 16.25 (3/2/3)
5. Shayne Jackson (T9) Georgia, 15.00 (1/4/3)
6. Connor Fields (2) Rochester, 12.00 (2/2/2)
7. Tanner Cook (T5) Calgary, 11.50 (2/2/1)
8. Will Malcom (T16) Colorado, 11.25 (3/3/2)
9. Tre Leclaire (T13) San Diego, 11.00 (3/0/2)
T10. Austin Shanks (T13) Saskatchewan, 10.50 (3/0/3)
T10. Chris Boushy (T28) Toronto, 10.50 (2/1/2)
12. Ethan Walker (T47) Oshawa, 9.50 (2/1/2)
13. Ian MacKay (T28) Buffalo, 9.25 (3/3/1)
T14. Cody Jamieson (T40) Halifax, 9.00 (3/1/1)
T14. Alex Simmons (3) Oshawa, 9.00 (5/2/0)
16. Mitch Jones (T16) Las Vegas, 8.75 (2/2/1)
17. Dawson Theede (T9) Oshawa, 8.50 (1/3/1)
18. Dhane Smith (T9) Buffalo, 8.00 (2/2/1)
Scoring System
First 3 Quarters (GTG/GAG/GWG)
Even-Strength Goal: 1.00/1.50/2.00
Power-Play Goal: 0.50/0.75/1.00
Short-Handed Goal: 2.00/3.00/4.00
Fourth Quarter (GTG/GAG/GWG)
Even-Strength Goal: 2.00/3.00/4.00
Power-Play Goal: 1.00/1.50/2.00
Short-Handed Goal: 4.00/6.00/8.00
Overtime (GWG)
Even-Strength Goal: 6.00
Power-Play Goal: 3.00
Short-Handed Goal: 12.00