NLL Factories: The programs producing players for the league’s modern era
Nick Rose and Rylan Hartley, Orangeville Northmen (Photo: Colleen Grimes)
Have you ever wondered which Canadian Junior A program produces the most National Lacrosse League players?
And not only the most, but the best players that eventually get used by teams over and over again.
We wonder about that, a lot.
The Lax Mag has pulled every roster since the 2006 NLL regular season, a range we’ve entitled as the league’s modern era. It’s also the oldest season a present-day player competed in. Nearly two decades later Matt Vinc (San Jose then, Buffalo now), Callum Crawford (Calgary then, Panther City now) and Aaron Bold (Portland then, Vancouver now) are all either 40 or soon to be 40 yet still competing at the highest level of the sport.
After collecting over fifteen years’ worth of NLL rosters (we used NLLStats.com for that), we were then left to determine which Junior A program each player came from. In theory, it’s a relatively simple assignment, but as always seems to be the case when it comes to Canadian junior lacrosse, things got complicated.
To counter all that confusion, we came up with a system.
Firstly, we stuck to Junior A programs versus digging too deeply into Junior B or C. There is no denying that programs other than the A level have played a pivotal role in the development of many professionals, but it became clear early on, those club’s percentages would be so incredinly low, they’d barely factor in our factories formula.
How did we conclude which Junior A program would get credit for a specific player?
Whichever club a player played a majority of their Junior A regular season career with, that’s who got them. In very few cases, an NLLer played the exact same amount of regular season games for two Junior A clubs. The tiebreaker was their playoff game total, which worked every time.
Both players and goalies were included.
If a player was drafted into the NLL but never played a game, congrats for being picked, but we strictly want to know who made it and contributed to an NLL team. A majority of players taken in the NLL Entry Draft never go past their initial training camp. Although not so much anymore, teams would often pick no-chance locals (for some minor publicity in the city paper), family members (for obvious reasons) and even NHLers (the Calgary Roughnecks once drafted Gary Roberts, who did play Junior A lacrosse for the Whitby Warriors in the mid 80s, and was really good) in the later rounds on draft day. Including them here would defeat the purpose of this project.
Not surprisingly, the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League and British Columbia Junior A Lacrosse League came up the most while ripping through rosters and tagging players with their predominant club.
Others are catching up.
We included the US Box Lacrosse Association’s National College Box Series, America’s answer to Junior A ball south of the border. While they don’t come close to making it into our Top 10, the recently launched leagues have had several players not only drafted, but also earn full-time rosters spots in the NLL: Trevor Baptiste, Jake Govett, Jack Hannah, Jack Jasinski, Hunter Lemieux, Mac O’Keefe and Skylar Whinery.
The Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League’s Junior A loop also registered many players, especially in more recent seasons, but just hasn’t been around long enough to contend with the clubs that cracked out list. For those interested, the Calgary/Okotoks/now just Raiders are the highest ranked RMLL program, fishing 19th overall. Recent Minto Cup regulars, the Edmonton Miners, are also gaining ground.
While counting up every individual player who has played in the NLL since 2006 was a good start, it also didn’t really fully make sense. Should a program get the same credit for a player that squeezed into one game versus one that played full seasons for over a decade? Of course not.
To solve that, we also added up every player’s games-played total, which put a higher value on the players that played more often. Basically, a Junior A program ranked higher if they developed a player like say Vinc, who has 269 GPs (and counting) to his credit versus someone that barely made a roster, played once, reeked and were released.
Below, see the Top 10 Junior A programs across Canada that have produced not just the most, but the most utilized NLL players since 2006 (ranked by combined regular season GP totals).
Rylan Hartley, Orangeville Northmen (Photo: Colleen Grimes)
10. Burnaby Lakers
Total NLL Players: 48
Total Games Played: 2,911
Notable Players: Garrett Billings, Matt Brown, Dane Dobbie, Dallas Eliuk, Ilija Gajic, Alex Gajic, Curtis Hodgson, Riley Loewen, Mark Miyashita, Peter McFetridge, Cam Sedgwick, Jamie Shewchuk, Bobby Snider, Geoff Snider, Kaleb Toth, Devan Wray, Taylor Wray
9. Victoria Shamrocks
Total NLL Players: 57
Total Games Played: 2,916
Notable Players: Aaron Bold, Nick Carlson, Cory Conway, Rhys Duch, Gary Gait, Tyler Hass, Nolan Heavenor, Jesse King, Matt King, Blaine Manning, Scott Ranger, Lewis Ratcliff, Ryan Ward
Note: Also includes Esquimalt Legion
8. Burlington Blaze
Total NLL Players: 46
Total Games Played: 2,920
Notable Players: David Brock, Kevin Brownell, Pat Campbell, Bryan Cole, Alex Crepinsek, Paul Dawson, Stephan Leblanc, Dan Lomas, Jordan MacIntosh, Dan MacRae, Pat Maddelena, Kiel Matisz, Ethan O’Connor, Ryan Smith
Note: Also includes Bay Area Bengals and Burlington Chiefs
7. Brampton Excelsiors
Total NLL Players: 48
Total Games Played: 3,286
Notable Players: Mike Carnegie, Scott Carnegie, Sandy Chapman, Chris Corbeil, Dan Dawson, Tyson Gibson, Mike Hasen, Jim Moss, Clarke Petterson, Kyle Rubisch, Andy Secore, Rory Smith, Dan Teat, Jeff Teat, Jim Veltman, Adam Wiedemann
6. Peterborough Lakers
Total NLL Players: 56
Total Games Played: 3,514
Notable Players: Dan Carey, Josh Currier, Zach Currier, Scott Evans, Shawn Evans, Turner Evans, John Grant, Mike Grimes, Thomas Hoggarth, Robert Hope, Tracey Kelusky, Kyle Laverty, Brad Self, Scott Self, Brock Sorensen, Kyle Sorensen, Bryce Sweeting, Cory Vitarelli, Nick Weiss, Chris White, Jake Withers
Challen Rogers, Coquitlam Adanacs (Photo: Colleen Grimes)
5. Coquitlam Adanacs
Total NLL Players: 59
Total Games Played: 3,605
Notable Players: Matt Beers, Wes Berg, Jason Bloom, Reid Bowering, Robert Church, Jeff Cornwall, Travis Cornwall, Kyle Couling, Christian Del Bianco, Matthew Dinsdale, Chris Gill, Jordan Gilles, Athan Iannucci, John Lintz, Curt Malawksy, Derek Malawksy, Ben McIntosh, Garrett McIntosh, Mike Messenger, Tyler Pace, Reid Reinholdt, Tor Reinholdt, Tyler Richards, Challen Rogers, Eli Salama
4. Six Nations Arrows
Total NLL Players: 83
Total Games Played: 3,815
Notable Players: Marshall Abrams, Adam Bomberry, Brendan Bomberry, Cory Bomberry, Brett Bucktooth, Joey Cupido, Ryan Dilks, John Gallant, Angus Goodleaf, Kedoh Hill, Clay Hill, Dean Hill, Warren Hill, Cody Jamieson, Doug Jamieson, Kenny Montour, Tommy Montour, Tehoka Nanticoke, Craig Point, Delby Powless, Johnny Powless, Shane Simpson, Sid Smith, Austin Staats, Randy Staats, Roger Vyse
Cody Jamieson, Six Nations Arrows (Photo: Colleen Grimes)
3. Whitby Warriors
Total NLL Players: 62
Total Games Played: 4,238
Notable Players: Alex Buque, Sheldon Burns, Scott Campbell, Jason Crobsie, Mitch de Snoo, Bill Greer, Zach Greer, Zach Higgins, Stephen Hoar, Cam Holding, Graeme Hossack, Matt Hossack, Shayne Jackson, Ryan Keenan, Curtis Knight, Dan Ladouceur, John Lafontaine, Dan Lintner, Mark Matthews, Gee Nash, Reilly O’Connor, Gavin Prout, Shaydon Santos, AJ Shannon, Adrian Sorichetti, Derek Suddons, Chad Tutton, Mitch Wilde
2. St. Catharines Athletics
Total NLL Players: 52
Total Games Played: 4,321
Notable Players: Mike Accursi, Tyson Bell, Tyler Burton, Dan Coates, Craig Conn, Nick Damude, Eric Fannell, Holden Garlent, Rory Glaves, Sean Greenhalgh, Thomas Hajek, Latrell Harris, Ian Hawksbee, Mike Hominuck, Rich Kilgour, Ian Llord, Joel McCready, Pat McCready, Eric Penney, Steve Priolo, Frank Resetarits, Joe Resetarits, Ian Rubel, Corey Small, Billy Dee Smith, Mark Steenhuis, Jon Sullivan, Steve Toll, Andrew Turner, Matt Vinc
Jeremy and Jason Noble, Orangeville Northmen (Photo: Colleen Grimes)
1. Orangeville Northmen
Total NLL Players: 74
Total Games Played: 4,813
Notable Players: Glen Bryan, Brandon Clelland, Bruce Codd, Chad Culp, Scott Dominey, Craig England, Jesse Gamble, Brad Gillies, Jon Harasym, Greg Harnett, Jon Harnett, Rylan Hartley, Rob Hellyer, Billy Hostrawser, Adam Jones, Mike Kirk, Brad Kri, Rusty Kruger, Ian MacKay, Mat MacLeod, Brodie Merrill, Pat Merrill, Brandon Miller, Ken Millin, Jason Noble, Jeremy Noble, Chris Origlieri, Nick Rose, Josh Sanderson, Nathan Sanderson, Phil Sanderson, Andrew Suitor, Daryl Veltmen, Dillon Ward
Ian MacKay, Orangeville Northmen (Photo: Colleen Grimes)