2026 NLL Player Rankings: Transition Player 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.
Zach Currier, San Diego Seals (Photo: David Pickering)
TRANSITION PLAYER OF THE YEAR
So, a few things before we jump into this year’s Top 5 highest ranked transition players in The Lax Mag’s annual Transition Player of the Year analysis.
We are not including Zach Currier, who we’ve previously named our TPOTY three times over the previous four years, even though he’s got a T beside his name and was included in the league’s 14-player TPOTY ballot.
Why? Because the league’s most versatile player does not play a true transitional role anymore.
He didn’t really last year either, moving to a full-time forward position in San Diego, and played an even higher percentage of minutes up front this year. Yes, Currier played critical minutes on the Seals’ short-man unit and back-checks better than probably anyone in the league, but this isn’t what a transition player is. If it was, other forwards would be up for the honour, and they never are. The only other “forward” included in this year’s TPOTY ballot is Philadelphia Wings second-year player Dalton Young.
Dalton Young, Philadelphia Wings (Photo: Greg Mason)
Currier will no doubt get votes for this year’s NLL TPOTY honour. With no criteria outside of your own team nominating you for ballot inclusion, there are no rules. For those that simply look for overall versatility, well, Currier is the most complete player in the game, so he’ll get those votes not doubt. For those looking to recognize D-first players that actually transition the ball up the floor and impact their team’s O (which was the exact type of player this award was originally intended to recognize, but has been bastardized during the modern era), not sure how Currier can be considered in the role he plays today.
While the NLL has never provided media or fans a definition of what a transition player is or any criteria when it comes time to cast a TPOTY vote, current NLL Commissioner Brett Frood kinda did during the final week of the regular season.
As part of the league’s “Commish’s Finish of the Week”, Frood described a Will Johansen Week 21 end-to-end goal, saying, “Will Johansen exemplifying prototypical transition lacrosse, with an end-to-end straight up power goal. He grabs the loose ball at GLE and showcases his speed before selling the pass to free the defender and then stretches the keeper before an assertive far-side finish.”
So, below are the top-rated names The Lax Mag’s NLL Player Rankings math (again, more on that here), and in the words of Commissioner Frood, exemplify prototypical transition lacrosse.
TOP 5 TRANSITION PLAYERS
Jake Boudreau, Saskatchewan Rush (Photo: Jonathan Tenca)
5. Jake Boudreau
Age: 27
Team: Saskatchewan Rush
Stat Line: 6 G, 16 A, 14 SOG, 128 LB, 20 CTO, 19 BLK
Acquired: 2021 NLL Entry Draft (7th overall)
From: Brampton, ON
For the second straight season, our Player Rankings calculations have Jake Boudreau as one of the NLL’s top transitional players. While his overall stat line saw a slight decline in overall production, few in the league impact both sides of centre like Boudreau continued to do for the Rush in 2026. Two areas his stats saw a significant jump were turnovers (gave the ball away just five times all regular season) and blocked shots (posted a career-high 19 blocks in 2026). While Boudreau didn’t connect in transition as much as in recent seasons, he still always effectively pushes the ball into the offensive zone and cleanly dishes it off to eager Rush forwards (Sask’s 206 regular season goals were the second highest in the league this year). If you’re simply looking at stats when picking your TPOTY Top 5, then Boudreau maybe didn’t make your list. If you’re evaluating his overall impact and effectiveness (Boudreau made our Team of the Week five times in 2026), then he’s right up there with today’s top transitional players, period.
Sam English, Toronto Rock (Photo: Jonathan Tenca)
4. Sam English
Age: 25
Team: Toronto Rock
Stat Line: 11 G, 17 A, 52 SOG, 132 LB, 16 CTO, 7 BLK
Acquired: 2025 NLL Entry Draft (2nd overall)
From: Burlington, ON
After their April 10th win over the Ottawa Black Bears, Toronto Rock Head Coach Matt Sawyer told Sam English, “You’re a special player, and there’s nobody like you in this fucking league.” Based on the Rock rookies’ body of work during his first season in the big leagues, Sawyer’s post-game statement is pretty accurate. English, who we ranked as this year’s Rookie of the Year runner-up, is the definition of a true transition player in this league. A consistent defender that switches to offense the second the Rock regain possession, English is impossible to leash sprinting over centre, and has slick finishing skills while flying up the floor. Even with two games missed due to injury, English led Toronto in loose balls (132). And as we mentioned in his ROTY bio:
“We quote this multi-stat breakdown many times throughout the season, but let’s go there again to support Sam English being our second-highest ranked rookie this year… As part of our weekly NLL Player Rankings analysis, we pull the Top 100 per-game averages in the following stats: goals, assists, loose balls, caused turnovers, and blocked shots. At the end of the regular season, only two players in the NLL had averages high enough to rank in each of those 100s. One is San Diego’s Zach Currier, who has long owned the rep as one of the sport’s most complete players. The other? Toronto Rock rookie Sam English.”
Connor Kirst, Las Vegas Desert Dogs
3. Connor Kirst
Age: 28
Team: Las Vegas Desert Dogs
Stat Line: 7 G, 14 A, 27 SOG, 144 LB, 26 CTO, 8 BLK
Acquired: 2022 NLL Expansion Draft (5th overall)
From: Bernardsville, NJ
Playing for Vegas and being an American are likely what kept Connor Kirst out of the league’s TPOTY talks, but honestly, there were few as effective & electric in a D-first transitional role than Kirst was this year. Throughout the season, Kirst was one of only a handful of players to have per-game averages in goals, assists, loose balls, caused turnovers and blocks to rank in at least four of five categories. Even with a single GP missed, Kirst led Las Vegas in loose balls (144), caused turnovers (26) and had one of their highest blocking averages on the team too. His offensive numbers may not stand out enough for some, but based on overall impact on both sides of centre, Kirst was one of this year’s best and owned one of 2026’s most balanced stat lines.
Mike Messenger, Saskatchewan Rush
2. Mike Messenger
Age: 32
Team: Saskatchewan Rush
Stat Line: 7 G, 13 A, 21 SOG, 131 LB, 15 CTO, 29 BLK
Acquired: 2016 NLL Entry Draft (3rd overall)
From: Surrey, BC
While you could easily argue Mike Messenger being Defensive Player of the Year worthy (he’s Saskatchewan’s defensive leader, and has been since Kyle Rubisch left), the nine-year Rush vet also provides significant value transitioning up the floor. Up until the final week of the regular season, Messenger was actually our highest ranked T player in TLM’s weekly NLL TOP 30 NLL Player Rankings. Over the first few months of the season, Messenger was by far our highest ranked transitional defender, but did see his offensive production slow as the season progressed. With that said, Messenger was just a few points shy of last year’s league-voted TPOTY, Owen Grant, and arguably had a slightly stronger D stat-line too. This is the third time over the past five seasons Messenger has cracked our season-ending Top 5: 4th in 2022, 4th in 2024 and 2nd in 2026. Zach Currier and Ian MacKay, both now primarily O-first players, are the only others to make our TPOTY Top 5 that many times.
Jordan MacIntosh, Georgia Swarm (Photo: Victoria Adkins)
1. Jordan MacIntosh
Age: 36
Team: Georgia Swarm
Stat Line: 10 G, 22 A, 55 SOG, 109 LB, 22 CTO, 15 BLK
Acquired: 2011 NLL Entry Draft (4th overall)
From: Oakville, ON
Top transitional lacrosse is often a young man’s game. You need agility, speed, smarts and a gas tank that allows you to play more minutes than most other players in the league. Jordan MacIntosh, at the age of 36 and (still) playing in his 14th season in the NLL, is one of the league’s older bodies (25th oldest to be exact), but if you watched him play in 2026, you’d have never known how many miles he’s logged in this league. MacIntosh was one of the Swarm’s top defenders (led the team in LB and second in CTO), but also their most potent transitional player while averaging nearly two points per game. He was the NLL’s highest scoring D-first player, supplementing a Swarm offense that ranked just 8th in goal scoring this year. Jordan MacIntosh was a true traditional player in 2026, and is The Lax Mag’s pick for TPOTY. If MacIntosh wins the league’s T vote, he’ll match Brodie Merrill for most TPOTY wins with three. He won the award twice over a decade ago in 2013 and 2014.