2026 NLL Player Rankings: Goalie of the Year
While The Lax Mag’s National Lacrosse League Player Rankings typically orders the league’s Top 30 players from #1 to #30 since soon after the league’s opening weekend and right up to the end of the regular season, now that we’re in playoff mode, we’re shifting focus to our NLL year-end awards.
Specifically, who our rankings system (more on that here) says should win all of the NLL’s most important end-of-season honours, plus a new one for us this year: Rising Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Transition Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Goalie of the Year, and of course, Most Valuable Player.
Following the same rules for our weekly Top 30 (again, see here), only players that played at least two-thirds of the NLL regular season will be considered.
All of The Lax Mag’s awards will be announced throughout the 2026 NLL Playoffs.
Brett Dobson, Georgia Swarm (Photo: Victoria Adkins)
GOALIE OF THE YEAR
If you’ve been following The Lax Mag’s season-long TOP 30 NLL Player Rankings, you probably have a pretty good idea of who we ranked #1 in our annual Goalie of the Year analysis.
Spoiler alert: it was Brett Dobson, and the conversation for GOTY contenders starts and ends the second the Georgia Swarm’s starting stopper’s name is mentioned.
If anyone did not have Dobson as their top pick on the league’s official GOTY vote, remove your biased ass from the process, because you’re part of the reason the NLL’s awards system is so flawed, slanted and silly – a process we opted not to take part of this year as a result.
Below, see why Dobson was far and away this year’s best backstop, plus the other four goalies that were extremely good, just not GOTY good in 2026.
TOP 5 GOALIES
Warren Hill, Halifax Thunderbirds (Photo: Trevor MacMillan)
5. Warren Hill
Age: 33
Team: Halifax Thunderbirds
Stat Line: 843 SOG, 685 SV, 9.89 GAA, .813 SV%, 17.24 GSA, .500 W%
Acquired: Signed as free agent Dec. 4, 2018
From: Six Nations, ON
His best season was 2020’s COVID-shortened campaign, but this year, Warren Hill was even better. Hill missed mention in the NLL’s GOTY Finalist threesome, and likely lost votes because Halifax finished two games under .500 and finished eighth overall. As we’ve outlined in the past, NLL voters put a high value on team stats and team records when it comes to casting their GOTY vote (and oddly many other individual honours). He also had a rough stretch through mid-January to mid-February, where he struggled to play a full 60 minutes, the Thunderbirds not so coincidently going 0-5 over that same span. Hill had that ridiculous 2-goals against effort (a new NLL record) to start the season against Oshawa, and then had a really strong last two months, where he regularly saw 50+ shots and consistently had .800 save percentages in most matches. Like we’re seeing in the playoffs presently, when Hill’s on, the Thunderbirds are an extremely difficult team to beat.
Nick Rose, Toronto Rock (Photo: Christian Bender)
4. Nick Rose
Age: 38
Team: Toronto Rock
Stat Line: 501 SOG, 408 SV, 9.17 GAA, .814 SV%, 11.15 GSAA, .700 W%
Acquired: Traded from Calgary to Toronto Mar. 19, 2012
From: Orangeville, ON
Nick Rose never cracked out weekly NLL TOP 30 all season long, well, until the very final weekend of the season. After a slow start and then a rare injury that kept Rose sidelined for five games (he also backed up Troy Holowchuk for a single start later on too), when Rose returned, he was in GOTY form. He only met our GP criteria (a player must play at least two-thirds of the season to qualify for TLM’s Player Rankings) on Toronto’s last game of the year, his late play and overall stat position shooting him up our final rankings and GOTY analysis. His final GAA (9.17) and SV% (.814) was only bettered by record-book smasher Brett Dobson, while his .700 W% was only just barely topped by Vancouver Warriors tendy Christian Del Bianco (.706). Over Toronto’s final three games, Rose had one of the better statistical stretches of any stopper this year: 5.00, 6.00 and 9.75 GAAs + .884, .864 and .800 SV%), providing the Rock a huge boost heading into the playoffs. Nominated for the NLL’s GOTY the previous four seasons, Rose missed mention this year, likely due to those mid-season games lost on the sidelines (the Rock were 3-5 in in games Rose completely missed or played less than half of a game’s minutes). Rose is the only goalie in the league to make The Lax Mag’s season-ending Top 5 in each of the last five regular seasons, which includes this one.
Dillon Ward, Colorado Mammoth (Photo: John Matthew Harrison)
3. Dillon Ward
Age: 35
Team: Colorado Mammoth
Stat Line: 849 SOG, 688 SV, 10.04 GAA, .810 SV%, 15.49 GSAA, .688 W%
Acquired: 2013 NLL Entry Draft (3rd overall)
From: Orangeville, ON
Dillon Ward entered The Lax Mag’s TOP 30 NLL Player Rankings in Week 8, and never left, regularly ranking inside our Top 20, and usually only behind the #1 and #2 names below. Ward finished with a .800+ save percentage for the first time since 2022, and the fifth time over his 12-year career. His .810 SV% was sixth best in the NLL, and just behind Nick Damude (.811), our sixth highest ranked goalie in 2026. While Ward’s stats were just behind most of the netminder names mentioned here, where he really excelled was in our star-rating system, where he was regularly one of Colorado’s sixth highest ranked players in virtually every game in 2026. Oh, and get this…
Teams that allowed the most shots on goal in 2026
Philadelphia 1,017 (fifth consecutive year the Wings had “led”)
Calgary 954
Colorado 948
Oshawa 947
Halifax 939
Yet, the Mammoth were one of one of only four teams with a team GAA under 10…
Georgia 8.66
Vancouver 9.41
Saskatchewan 9.64
Colorado 9.94
…and one of just three teams with an overall SV% over .810.
Georgia .836
Vancouver .814
Colorado .813
How the hell does that happen? Dillon Ward.
Christian Del Bianco, Vancouver Warriors (Photo: Jordan Leigh)
2. Christian Del Bianco
Age: 28
Team: Vancouver Warriors
Stat Line: 890 SOG, 724 SV, 9.42 GAA, .813 SV%, 19.01 GSAA, .706 W%
Acquired: Traded from Calgary to Vancouver on Mar. 10, 2025
From: Coquitlam, BC
You could maybe argue Christian Del Bianco as a potential MVP this year, because subtract him from Vancouver’s roster in 2026, and first overall is not happening, the team likely slipping a number (probably a lot) of spots in the standings without their star stopper. Del Bianco was in Top 10 territory in The Lax Mag’s weekly NLL Player rankings from start to finish, and had it not been for Brett Dobson’s historic season with the Georgia Swarm, Del Bianco had a resume that was most definitely GOTY good enough. In fact, compare his full stat line this year to his 2023 season, when he was voted top tendy AND most valuable, and there honestly isn’t much of a difference in his season-ending data. Del Bianco led all goalies in points (again), his 17 assists a higher point total than 70% of all players (not just goalies) in the entire league. Plus, Del Bianco had a higher point total than every Warriors transition or defensive player, and even a handful of forwards.
Brett Dobson, Georgia Swarm (Photo: Caroline Sherman)
1. Brett Dobson
Age: 26
Team: Georgia Swarm
Stat Line: 876 SOG, 742 SV, 7.86 GAA, .847 SV%, 48.10 GSAA, .647 W%
Acquired: 2022 NLL Entry Draft (11th overall)
From: Oshawa, ON
The most obvious of any award winner this year, Brett Dobson, who we’ve had ranked #1 in our weekly NLL Player Rankings since Week 11, is The Lax Mag’s pick for this year’s top goaltender, by a landslide. We’ve been tracking and reviewing his stat all season long, but for those new to the program…
GAA
Old Record: Aaron Bold (’14 Edmonton) 8.73
’26 Dobson: 7.86
SAVE %
Old Record: Doug Jamieson (’20 New England) .829
’26 Dobson: .847
GSAA
Old Record: Matt Vinc (’13 Rochester) 34.46
’26 Dobson: 48.10
The one busted stat that is largely being ignored by the league and seemingly everyone else is Dobson’s 48.10 GSAA. For those unaware of GSAA (Goals Saved Above Average) means (From GoalieCoaches.com)…
GSAA is a relatively new statistic, but a valuable one used to measure a goalies play as compared to the rest of the goalies in their league. GSAA is hockey’s version of baseball’s “WAR” statistic.
Goals Saved Above Average is calculated by the league’s average save percentage with the number of shots a goalie has had. The resulting number is the average goals a goalie in whatever league you’re evaluating would’ve surrendered if they took the same number of shots as the goalie you’re evaluating.
Then, this number can be evaluated against the number of goals given up by the goalie in question, finally resulting in a plus/minus number, GSAA.
For Dobson to destroy Vinc’s GSAA record and then also set new standards in GAA and SV% in the manner he did, it’s beyond mind boggling. Not only is he being forced to save way more shots than the average NLL goalie, he’s doing it at an overall rate that no other goalie in NLL history has achieved.
Dobson had a really strong rookie season in 2023 (we ranked him second behind only eventual ROTY winner Jonathan Donville), followed it up with a decent second year for the Swarm, but then even by his own analysis, didn’t have the best year three in 2025. To go from that, to what he did this year is unheard of, and speaks to Dobson’s determination, commitment and drive to improve and elevate his game to the very top of the league’s goaltender rankings. All former GOTYs have not come close to his statistical 2026 dominance, not even the ones that were also voted MVP (Steve Dietrich in 2006 and Christian Del Bianco in 2023).
If this was any other pro sport, this type of statistically significant and historically important season would have been all everyone was talking about, but unfortunately, not in the NLL. Unexpected, unreal and unequalled by the past and present, Brett Dobson’s 2026 was one of the greatest goaltending campaigns, ever.