Diamonds in the Rough Part Two. The deepest draft ever, the latest pick to ever win Rookie of the Year, and ConBroChill. Late round draft steals from 2010-2019.
- Dan Arestia
- 38 minutes ago
- 8 min read
Recently we looked at some late round lacrosse draft steals from the first ten years of MLL lacrosse. If you missed it, check it out here. Now we’re back with some more recent drafts for part two. We’ll start in 2010, and do things the same way. We’re shouting out notable players taken specifically from the last two rounds of the draft. For each year, I’ll give the context of how many rounds there were, and how many picks per round, because the size of the draft varied over the years.
2010. Eight round draft, six picks per round
Connor Martin, Attack, Chapman to Denver Outlaws (Round 7, Pick 5, 41st overall)
Martin is a bit of a caricature, best known for viral videos in the early days of social media. But he did play five years of MLL lacrosse and he came from Chapman to do it. In 2012 with Ohio, the man they call ConBroChill scored 23 goals and had 32 points on the year, even hitting a pair of twos. His star burned brightly, but briefly, on the MLL stage.
2011. Eight round draft, six picks per round
Jeremy Boltus, Attack, Army to Hamilton Nationals (Round 8, Pick 1, 43rd overall)
Adam Ghitelman, Goalie, UVA to Denver Outlaws (Round 8, Pick 3, 45th overall)
Jeremy Boltus won Rookie of the Year as the first pick in the draft’s final round. The only player to win the award after being taken later than Boltus is Jack Kelly, who won it after going 53rd overall. He was the 2nd pick in the Expansion Draft for the Charlotte Hounds, and then the top pick of the Atlanta Blaze in 2016 but was traded back to the Rattlers. Boltus missed almost an entire year with a knee injury, and then missed another year while he served in Afghanistan, but in his time on the field was one of the top scorers in the MLL.
Adam Ghitelman is still an active player, and is the oldest drafted player still active in the outdoor game. He has played 14 years, and ranked 4th all time in saves. He has been an all star three times. He started the 2013 MLL title game for Charlotte, making nine saves. In his career as a starter, or splitting halves, he has had a save percentage under 50% twice, and his career mark is 52.5%.
2012. Eight Round draft, eight picks per round
Brent Adams, Midfield, Fairfield to Chesapeake Bayhawks (Round 7, Pick 5, 53rd overall)
Charlie Cipriano, Goalie, Fairfield to Denver Outlaws (Round 7, Pick 6, 54th overall)
Shayne Jackson, Attack, Limestone to Denver Outlaws (Round 8, Pick 6, 62nd overall)
That’s some serious late value. Brent Adams was an all star twice and won the title in 2012 in Chesapeake. He played for Boston for four years before the launch of the PLL, when he was an inaugural member of the Redwoods. He was a critical two way midfielder for every team he was part of. Charlie Cipriano won two titles, first with Denver and then with New York. He is 22nd all time in saves with 610 across his decade-long career. Shayne Jackson primarily plays indoors, but flexed his outdoor muscles a few times. He was part of the 2019 Atlanta Blaze offense that is one of the best pro lacrosse has seen, scoring 43 goals and 58 points on the season. He’s still a current member of the Georgia Swarm, and won an NLL MVP.
2013. Eight Round draft, eight picks per round
In full candor, this year didn’t really have any. The only year this is the case. Everyone taken in the last two rounds, meaning picks 49-64, played a handful of games and called it a career or never really played at all. This was a tough year. But if you climb into round six, Hamilton took Jake Tripucka from Duke with the 42nd overall pick and Rochester got Noah Molnar from Lehigh with the 45th overall pick. Tripucka had a brief but productive career in the midfield, and Molnar started for Denver at SSDM for three straight years from 2015 to 2017. There was plenty of value earlier in the draft. John Ranagan went in round three, Eric Law went in round four, and Dominique Alexander went in round five. But things were dry in round seven and eight.
2014. Seven round draft, eight picks per round
Ben McIntosh, Midfield, Drexel to Denver Outlaws (Round 7, Pick 6, 54th overall)
McIntosh was drafted this year, but really didn’t break into the field game until the launch of the PLL. He appeared once for the Hounds in 2017, but otherwise is primarily an indoor player. That first year with the Archers, he played every game and scored 11 goals. He ultimately was taken by the Waterdogs in the expansion, and played for them in the 2020 bubble season. After that, his focus shifted back to the indoor game, where he’s been a productive goal scorer since 2015.
2015. Eight Round draft, eight picks per round
Joe McCallion, Midfield, Penn to Denver Outlaws (Round 7, Pick 8, 56th overall)
Nick Ossello, Midfield, Notre Dame to Denver Outlaws (Round 8, Pick 8, 64th overall)
Joe McCallion played ten games and scored 11 goals for the Hounds in 2016. The next year he was between Charlotte and Ohio, but was back to the Hounds in 2018 where he had 17 points. He was on the Whipsnakes for 2019 and 2020. He has three rings. Nick Ossello and Stephen Berger battle for the best Mr Irrelevant ever. Ossello won two titles, both with the Denver Outlaws, as an SSDM. He also played for the Redwoods in the PLL inaugural season and in the bubble season of 2020. He played two sports at Notre Dame.
2016. Eight Round draft, eight picks per round
Jack Kelly, Goalie, Brown to Denver Outlaws (Round 7, Pick 5, 53rd overall)
Jack Kelly is the latest player drafted to win Rookie of the Year. He is a two time champion, and the 2017 Goalie of the Year winner. He is 14th all time in saves with 879, and that’s despite missing multiple seasons worth of time due to a knee injury. He’s still active, playing for the Redwoods.
2017. Ten Round Draft, nine picks per round
Cody Radziewicz, Midfield, Hopkins to Rochester Rattlers (Round 9, Pick 4, 76th overall)
Ryan Lee, Attack, RIT to Rochester Rattlers (Round 10, Pick 4, 85th overall)
Radziewicz had a brief but productive pro career. He had 22 points in his first season with the Rattlers, and follow it up with 16 more in his second year. He played for the Connecticut Hammerheads in the MLL bubble season, but wasn’t added to a PLL roster post merger. Ryan Lee is a bucket. Flyin Ryan indoors, outdoors he’s always open and always scoring. In 2019 with the Outlaws, his first year outdoors, he scored 38 goals in 11 games. In the bubble season of the MLL, he had 18 goals in five games. He played three games for the Redwoods in 2021, but knee injuries have hampered his time on the field. He’s been a great scorer indoors, the hope is he’s healthy and can contribute for a PLL summer in the near future. Hard to argue there has ever been a better value pick than Ryan Lee 85th overall.
The 2017 draft was massive. 90 picks is a lot, the most of any year by a wide margin. Because of that there was more value in this draft. Comparing just draft position, there was a ton of value that wasn’t as “late” as the last two rounds, but still turned out to be steals. Mikie Schlosser went 54th overall, Max Adler went 61st overall, Nick Manis went 66th overall. The list goes on. This draft also saw Josh Byrne go in round three, Garrett Epple at the end of round 2, and Kevin Reisman in round five. Zach Currier went sixth overall. That’s how deep 2017 went.
2018. Seven round draft, Nine players per round
Ryan Beville, Defense, Jacksonville to Florida Launch (Round 6, Pick 7, 52nd overall)
Bryce Wasserman, Attack, Monmouth to Denver Outlaws (Round 7, Pick 8, 62nd overall)
Beville played 15 games for the Rattlers in 2019, and then started all five games for the Hammerheads in the MLL bubble. He joined the Chrome post merger but has been on the Holdout List since 2022. Wasserman was the 2020 MLL MVP, the year he won the title with the Cannons. He was also an All Star in 2019. He scored 36 goals in his 2019 season, and took 115 shots.
The PLL Days
In 2019, the PLL launched. Both the MLL and PLL had drafts, but since they competed for the same pool of players, teams went about the draft process differently. MLL teams preferred to take players they were certain would join the league or return to school, and players who may have been more likely to go to the PLL went in later rounds. This happened regardless of ability and talent level. As a result, there were interesting draft placements for some players. Jack Rowlett went 7th overall in the PLL draft, but went 48th overall in the MLL draft. It’s difficult to consider him some kind of MLL steal when he never played in that league. That said, from 2019 and 2020, the two years of drafts where both leagues existed, there were some notable draft picks.
Tim Troutner went 2nd overall in the MLL draft and 20th overall in the PLL draft. A 4th round pick, he played in the PLL, where he won the Redwoods starting job and eventually Rookie of the Year. He is the only 4th round pick to win the award, and the latest PLL draft pick to win the award. Warren Jeffrey went at the end of the 6th round, 46th overall, in the MLL draft and undrafted in the PLL draft. He was an immediate impact MLL player, winning the 2019 title for the Bayhawks, and was added to the Archers after the merger where he is an every week starter on the Archers defense since joining the league. Connor Farrell was taken in the 4th round of the PLL draft, and was a Rookie of the Year finalist. He made a PLL All Star game and was a finalist for PLL Faceoff Athlete of the Year in 2022. He was released following faceoff rule changes in the PLL and now is a faceoff specialist for the Buffalo Bandits indoors, where he won a title last year.
Following the unification of the leagues, we returned to a single draft in 2021. These drafts are recent enough that we may not really be able to evaluate the late round steals yet. The careers for many are getting started. But a few notables that are worth watching as they are off the outstanding starts to their careers.
2021
Jeff Trainor, M, UMass to Utah Archers (Round 3, Pick 2, 18th overall)
Charlie Bertrand, M, Merrimack/UVA to California Redwoods (Round 3, Pick 8, 24th overall)
2022
Colin Kirst, G, Lehigh/Rutgers to Boston Cannons (Round 3, Pick 8, 24th overall)
2023
Piper Bond, SSDM, Penn to Utah Archers (Round 3, Pick 5, 21st overall)
2024
TJ Malone, A, Penn State to Maryland Whipsnakes (Round 3, Pick 1, 17th overall)
Tyler Carpenter, LSM, Duke to New York Atlas (Round 4, Pick 2, 26th overall)
Adam Poitras, A/M, Loyola to Maryland Whipsnakes (Round 4, Pick 3, 27th overall)