After the first several weeks of the 2025-26 National Lacrosse League season are complete, The Lax Mag publishes a weekly NLL Player Ranking, examining the league’s Top 30 players from Week 1 right up until the end of the regular season.

TLM’s Top 30 NLL Player Rankings have nothing to do with reputations, career resumes, success in past seasons, whether we know a player personally, recognizing deserving players who’ve previously been passed over, player popularity, the size of their social media following, whether you slide into their DMs, or who others around the league tell us should get hype.

Our rankings, which only take into consideration only a player’s performance for the current regular season, will be calculated using both our star-rating system after each game, but also a player’s season-long statistical position (based on per-game averages) across the league. Only players who have played two-thirds of their team’s games or more will qualify.

Click here for an even more in-depth breakdown of our scoring system.

Joe Walters, Rochester Knighthawks (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

During the 2016 National Lacrosse League season, a record-low 13 Americans played in the league that year: Mitch Belisle, Kevin Buchanan, Greg Downing, David Earl, Ryan Hotaling, Mike Manley, Brett Manney, Brian Megill, Chris O’Dougherty, John Ranagan, Joe Resetaritis, Joe Walters and Joel White.

Since then, Americans have seen a slow yet steady increase on NLL roster real estate. This year, nearly 40 have earned their way into a regular season game, with more likely coming during the league’s second half of the 2026 season.

In today’s NLL Player Rankings post, we look at this year’s top-performing Americans both statistically (goals, assists, points, loose balls, caused turnovers and blocks) and who our TOP 30 math measures as the ten best Americans so far this season.

Indigenous players born in the US were not included. Players with dual citizenship that were born, grew up, and have lived most if not their entire lives in the US were included.

Connor Fields, Rochester Knighthawks (Photo: Jonathan Tenca)

GOALS PER GAME

Connor Fields (ROC) 3.00
Brennan O’Neill (PHI) 2.22
Michael Sowers (PHI) 2.17
CJ Kirst (TOR) 2.11
Jack Hannah (COL) 1.57

Yes, we know Connor Fields is a dual citizen and has played for Canada in international field lacrosse, but the East Amherst, New York native was born and continues to live stateside, so here we are. Anyways, Fields is one of two players in the league right now averaging at least a hat-trick per game (Colorado’s Andrew Kew is the other), and easily leads here. Just three more Americans are averaging at least two per presently (not great TBH), led by Philly’s Brennan O’Neill, who we recently selected as our midseason pick for Breakout Player of the Year.

Jack Hannah, Colorado Mammoth (Photo: John Matthew Harrison)

ASSISTS PER GAME

Jack Hannah (COL) 4.43
Connor Fields (ROC) 3.89
Joe Resetarits (PHI) 2.67
Dalton Young (PHI) 2.40
Pat Kavanagh (SD) 2.29

After missing three games earlier this year while he waited for a trade from Las Vegas to Denver, Jack Hannah cracks our Top 30 for the first time this season (he finally met our two-thirds GP requirement), and it’s largely due to where his helpers rank. Only Vancouver’s Keegan Bal (4.78) and Buffalo’s Dhane Smith (4.56) are averaging more assisters per game than Hannah’s 4.43, which has him on pace to smash his single-season record for apples - in just a max of 15 games too. Interesting to see two rookies rank so high in Dalton Young and Pat Kavanagh here. The record for most assists by an American rookie is 61 by Tom Schreiber with Toronto in 2017. Neither 2026 rook will come close to that record though.

Connor Fields, Rochester Knighthawks (Photo: Micheline Veluvolu)

POINTS PER GAME

Connor Fields (ROC) 6.89
Jack Hannah (COL) 6.00
Brennan O’Neill (PHI) 4.44
CJ Kirst (TOR) 4.11
Joe Resetarits (PHI) 4.11

Nothing too shocking here, with many of the same names already mentioned leading the list, including Toronto’s CJ Kirst, who continues to lead all rookies in most offensive categories. No longer projected to top Paul Gait’s long-standing rookie goals record, Kirst is still on pace to finish with 38, which would put him behind only Gait and Ryan Painter (45) for the all-time lead. Kist has just two goals and four points over the Rock’s last two games, both numbers well below his season average.

Matthew Paolatto, Colorado Mammoth (Photo: John Matthew Harrison)

LOOSE BALLS PER GAME

Matthew Paolatto (COL) 8.90
Trevor Baptiste (SD) 8.33
Connor Fields (ROC) 7.33
Ryan Terefenko (HFX) 7.00
Jake Naso (SK) 6.78

Our new dark-horse pick for Rookie of the Year, Sherborn, Mass-native Matthew Paolatto is quietly crushing it with Colorado this year. In addition to easily leading all rookies in loosies per game (he’s actually presently seventh across the entire NLL right now too), Paolatto has been one of this year’s top face-off takers…

Face-off Win %

*Trevor Baptiste (SD) 78.7%
Jake Withers (HFX) 72.0%
Justin Inacio (CAL) 65.9%
*Jake Naso (SK) 65.5%
Matthew Paolatto (COL) 61.9%

*Also American

During our very early ROTY status check, Paolatto didn’t even crack our Top 10. Five weeks later, he’s on the verge of breaking into our Top 5.

Also, he’s on pace to finish with 160 loosies, a number only bettered by a legendary list of first-year phenoms: Brodie Merrill (214), Reid Bowering (214), Zach Currier (200), Geoff Snider (180) and Trevor Baptiste (179).

CJ Kirst and Connor Kirst (Photo: Ryan McCullough)

CAUSED TURNOVERS PER GAME

Connor Kirst (LV) 1.38
CJ Kirst (TOR) 1.22
Danny Logan (SD) 1.13
Elijah Gash (TOR) 1.11
Jake Piseno (ROC) 0.78
Hugh Kelleher (TOR) 0.78

The Kirst brothers kinda easily sit one and two here, even though they play vastly different roles. While CJ Kirst’s offensive output has quieted considerably since the calendar flipped to February, the reason he is still our #1 pick for ROTY and remains in our updated Top 30 (even though several others are averaging higher them him offensively) is the extra defensive data he collects (CTO + LB) on a consistent basis. As we often mention when analyzing the top two-way talents in the league; The Lax Mag pulls the Top 100 averages for goals, assists, loose balls, caused turnovers and blocks per game. San Diego’s Zach Currier continues to be the only player in the league to rank in all five (and has for almost the entire season), but CJ Kirst is one of only seven players to appear in at least four of those five previously mentioned averages, which includes: Kirst, Jordan MacIntosh, Latrell Harris, Nick Weiss, Tre Leclaire, Will Malcom, and fellow American rookie, Pat Kavanagh. Big bro Connor just missed our midseason Transition Player of the Year mentions last week.

Eli Gobrecht, San Diego Seals (Photo: Alexis Goeller)

BLOCKS PER GAME

Eli Gobrecht (SD) 0.67
Mike Manley (GA) 0.60
Patrick Foley (PHI) 0.44
Tim Edwards (COL) 0.40
Connor Kirst (LV) 0.38

A regular in our preseason NLL TOP 100, San Diego Eli Gobrecht is #1 when it comes to US-born blockers. Gobrecht and Seals teammate Danny Logan, are arguably the league’s top American defensive duo, often overlooked for league-wide love while operating in San Diego’s team-centric defensive approach, where D stats are more spread out than with most other teams. Interesting to see Mike Manley’s name on the list, not because he’s not good enough, far from it. Manley is one of only 13 Americans that played in the NLL in 2016, a record low for American players going all the way back to Year 1 in 1987. Manley has played 130 totals regular season + playoff games in the NLL heading into Week 13, and continues to be a core component of the Swarm’s dominant defensive unit.

Casey Powell, Orlando Titans (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

BY STATE

New York 15
New Jersey 4
Pennsylvania 3
Several tied at 2

No state comes close to seeing more American players on NLL rosters than New York, one of twelve US states represented in the league this year. The only two Americans to ever be voted NLL MVP, Casey Powell (2010 Orlando Titans) and Connor Fields (2025 Rochester Knighthawks) are both from The Empire State and also played collegiately in their home state of NY: Powell at Syracuse and Fields at Albany.

Brennan O’Neill and Blaze Riorden (Photo: Caroline Sherman)

NLL TEAMS

Philadelphia Wings 8
Colorado Mammoth 5
San Diego Seals 5
Halifax Thunderbirds 3
Rochester Knighthawks 3
Toronto Rock 3

The Philadelphia Wings, both the 1.0 and today’s 2.0 version, have consistently had more Americans on their roster than any other team past, present, and hopefully future. While this US-heavy roaster approach worked in the early days of the league (the Wings winning the Cup in 1989, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1998 and 2001), in the modern era, the Phildelphia has struggled to make the playoffs or even win regular season games of late. That’s not a knock on Americans, who had their best-ever finish at the most recent World Box Lacrosse Championships, but just that Philly’s forced formula isn’t working, for a while now. Speaking of that 2024 Team USA silver-medal winning squad, six true American players represented the US in that tournament, but are not in the NLL this year: Charlie Bertrand (retired), Joe Nardella (injured), Mac O’Keefe (unsigned, by choice), Joey Spallina (draft eligible this year), Dalton Sulver (unsigned) and Joel White (retired). Injured then and again now, Tom Schreiber (free agent) and TD Ierlan (Toronto Rock), two of today’s top American box players, are also not in the NLL this year seemingly due to those long-term injuries. And lastly, the Oshawa FireWolves, Calgary Roughnecks and Ottawa Black Bears have not had a single American appear for them this year.

PLAYER RANKINGS: TOP 10 AMERICANS

Rank. Player (From) Team (Position)

1. Connor Fields (East Amherst, NY) Rochester (F)
2. Jack Hannah (Milford, OH) Colorado (F)
3. CJ Kirst (Bernardsville, NJ) Toronto (F)
4. Brennan O’Neill (Bay Shore, NY) Philadelphia (F)
5. Connor Kirst (Bernardsville, NJ) Las Vegas (D)
6. Joe Resetarits (Hamburg, NY) Philadelphia (F)
7. Eli Gobrecht (Ithaca, NY) San Diego (D)
8. Ryan Terefenko (Sinking Spring, PA) Halifax (D)
9. Danny Logan (Upper Arlington, OH) San Diego (D)
10. Tim Edwards (Jamesville, NY) Colorado (D)

Fields, who has consistently lived in our Top 10 over the past three seasons, clocks in at #1, but Hannah, who debuts in this week’s Top 30 at #16 below, is coming on strong while having, so far at least, the best season of his career.

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NLL TOP 30: WEEK 13

TW. (LW) Player, Team (Pos.)

1. (1) Brett Dobson, Georgia (G)
2. (3) Jeff Teat, Ottawa (F)
3. (4) Dhane Smith, Buffalo (F)
4. (2) Connor Fields, Rochester (F)
5. (5) Keegan Bal, Vancouver (F)
6. (9) Zach Currier, San Diego (D/F)
7. (7) Mike Messenger, Saskatchewan (D)
8. (6) Christian Del Bianco, Vancouver (G)
9. (8) Will Malcom, Colorado (G)
10. (10) Callum Jones, Ottawa (D)
11. (11) Dillon Ward, Colorado (G)
12. (12) Mitch Jones, Las Vegas (F)
13. (14) Rob Hellyer, Ottawa (F)
14. (15) Ryan Keenan, Saskatchewan (F)
15. (13) Ryan Lanchbury, Rochester (F)
16. (NR) Jack Hannah, Colorado (F)
17. (16) Alex Simmons, Oshawa (F)
18. (18) Jake Boudreau, Saskatchewan (D)
19. (19) Tanner Cook, Calgary (F)
20. (21) Nick Weiss, Buffalo (D)
21. (23) Jonathan Donville, Las Vegas (F)
22. (17) Tyler Pace, Calgary (F)
23. (22) Zach Manns, Saskatchewan (F)
24. (27) Jordan MacIntosh, Georgia (D/F)
25. (20) *CJ Kirst, Toronto (F)
26. (NR) Robert Church, Saskatchewan (F)
27. (NR) Robert Hope, Colorado (D)
28. (28) Josh Byrne, Buffalo (F)
29. (25) Austin Shanks, Saskatchewan (F)
30. (26) Jesse King, Vancouver (F)

*Rookie