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.

Jacob Hickey, Georgia Swarm (Photo: David Pickering & Greg Mason)

For the first time, The Lax Mag will recognize the Rising Player of the Year, highlighting the players (non-goalies) that saw the biggest on-floor gains, both statistical and in their overall role with the team and across the league.

In the past, we had unofficially referred to this category as Breakout Player of the Year, but that definition kind of limited the pool of players that could be considered. Breakout implies more of an unestablished or pro unknown having a coming out campaign, but we also want to recognize players that potentially went from being really good to one of the game’s new greats.

Below are the Top 5 players our player rankings calculations confirmed saw their game rise the most during the 2026 NLL regular season.

5. Jacob Hickey

Age: 23
Position: Defense
Team: Georgia Swarm
Acquired: 2023 NLL Entry Draft (8th overall)
From: Toronto, ON

No player in the NLL saw a larger statistical increase in both loose balls per game (+2.78) and caused turnovers per game (+0.72) than Georgia’s Jacob Hickey, who served as one of the Swarm’s trusted core defenders this year, adding some significant spark and point production in transition too. Actually, the only player in the league that saw a slightly higher rise in his defensive stats was Toronto’s Phil Mazucca, who just missed inclusion in our Top 5 after an injury limited him to eleven games this season. Hickey was one of only two Swarm players with season-ending totals in loose ball, caused turnovers, and blocked shots to rank Top 5 on the team. The other was Georgia captain Jordan MacIntosh, who was one of our highest ranked transitional defenders in 2026. An under-the-radar rookie who fit into just half of the Swarm’s games last year, Hickey took a giant step in 2026 and was a key contributor on one of the stringiest defensive units in the league.

Tre Leclaire, San Diego Seals (Photo: Kalea Vizmanos)

4. Tre Leclaire

Age: 28
Position: Forward
Team: San Diego Seals
Acquired: 2020 NLL Entry Draft (4th overall)
From: Surrey, BC

After going back and forth between an O and D role during his first few years with the Seals, Tre Leclaire played by far his most prominent role in San Diego’s offense this year, seeing a strong statistical spike in goals per game (+0.56), assists per game (+1.06), and obviously points per too (+1.61). It was one of the biggest O stat-line increases of any player in the league - Leclaire hitting 30 goals for the first time in his career, all while still registering strong LB scoops all season long (82). Leclaire’s 31 goals led the Seals in 2026. He was also one of the few forwards this year to own a per-game average in the following stats to rank Top 100 (for the entire season) in four of five categories: goals, assists, loose balls, caused turnovers and blocks. Today, Leclaire is easily one of the most complete forwards in the game.

Tyler Pace, Calgary Roughnecks (Photo: Jenn Pierce)

3. Tyler Pace

Age: 31
Position: Forward
Team: Calgary Roughnecks
Acquired: 2017 NLL Entry Draft (9th overall)
From: Coquitlam, BC

Like Leclaire, Tyler Pace had started his NLL career in more of a transitional role, used sparingly up front when needed. In more recent seasons, however, Pace has become one of the main contributors on Calgary’s offense, and with the likes of Curtis Dickson & Jesse King signing in Vancouver over the offseason, 2026 turned out to be a career year him. Not only did Pace see a massive rise in his offensive stats across the board in comparison to 2025, he also crushed his career-high point total (86 in 2024 – 103 this year). Pace was one of only eleven players to crack 100 points this past season, finishing Top 10 in the league for the first time over his eight years in the league.

Chris Cloutier, Las Vegas Desert Dogs (Photo: Jonathan Tenca)

2. Chris Cloutier

Age: 30
Position: Forward
Team: Las Vegas Desert Dogs
Acquired: Free agent, signed 3-year deal on Oct. 27, 2025
From: Kitchener, ON

Only Andrew Kew (+2.65) and Michael Sowers (+1.98) saw a bigger 2025-to-2026 per-game point rise than Chris Cloutier (+1.91), who unlike those two, played a full 18-game schedule this year. After leaving Buffalo for Las Vegas over the offseason, Cloutier was given an opportunity to be a team’s main shooting threat versus more of a secondary scorer like he was with the Bandits. Well, Cloutier delivered. Actually he kinda overdelivered. Leading Las Vegas in shots on goal, straight goals, and power-play goals, Cloutier hit 40Gs for the first time in his career and also had a career-high 77 loose balls. He was a big reason why the Desert Dogs had their most offensive productive season yet…

Las Vegas Goals Per Game

2023: 9.9
2024: 9.8
2025: 10.5
2026: 12.2

…and also why they just about made the playoffs for the first time too.

1. Tanner Cook

Age: 27
Position: Forward
Team: Calgary Roughnecks
Acquired: 2020 NLL Entry Draft (5th overall)
From: Courtice, ON

He was in our Top 30 all season long and was near or right at the top of the NLL goal-scoring race from start to finish too. You could argue Tanner Cook’s actual breakout season happened at some point over the three previous years, but in 2026, he took his game to another level and was arguably the most dominant power forward in the NLL this year. Again, like everyone listed here today, Cook saw a significant spike in his stat-line this year: +1.06 goals, +0.67 assists, and +1.72 points per game. He became just the third Calgary Roughneck to lead the NLL in goals (49), joining future hall-of-famers Dane Dobbie (51 in 2014) and Curtis Dickson (54 in 2017). He finished second in The Lax Mag’s season-ending Clutch Kings leaderboard, also topping the NLL in even-strength goals (44), game-tying goals (8), and hat-tricks (11). Cook also just missed 30/60/90 status, his season-ending line reading: 49G, 52A and 89LB. In 2026, Cook went from really good to exceptionally great, and is The Lax Mag’s pick for this year’s Rising Player of the Year.