The Premier Lacrosse League all star break has arrived, marking the midway point of the season. The second half will undoubtedly fly by as quickly as the first did, and award season will be on us.
By now, the campaigns for positional awards are well underway, and some players are separating from the pack. In a few positions, the favorite feels clear. In others, there is still a long list of players who could take control of the race.
Eamon McEneaney Attackman of the Year
The Favorite: Jeff Teat
Contenders: Michael Sowers, Asher Nolting, Kieran McArdle
Dark Horse: Josh Byrne, Xander Dickson, Marcus Holman
Jeff Teat is the extremely heavy favorite for MVP at this point. The only way he isn’t the Attackman of the Year is if something happens where he wins MVP so he doesn’t win Attackman of the Year and it goes to someone else. This would be wrong. Honestly, barring something like Jeff Teat being abducted by aliens and the rest of Earth getting hit with a Men In Black level memory erasure to delete all we ever knew about Jeff Teat, he’s going to crush the award season. But just in case the Men In Black scenario happens.
Michael Sowers and Asher Nolting are putting very good seasons together. Sowers has committed just five turnovers so far this year, averaging one per game, despite being third in the league in touches. Nolting currently is second in the league in assists and in points, trailing only Teat in both categories. He records an assist on just over 12% in his passes, the highest rate in the league among players who have played every game. Nolting and Sowers both serve as primary ball carriers and distributors, facilitating offenses loaded with shooters or secondary dodgers. QB is a high pressure role, and both have excelled.
Gait Brothers Midfielder of the Year
The Favorite: Matt Campbell
Contenders: Dox Aitken, Grant Ament, Tom Schreiber
Dark Horses: Zach Currier, Myles Jones
Campbell’s sophomore season has been outstanding. He’s currently leading the PLL in points from the midfield, narrowly ahead of Grant Ament. Where he really excels is in scoring points, the stat name PLL uses for total points just from goals. Campbell is at 14, the only midfielder in the top 10 in the PLL. Only Teat, Dickson, and Holman have more. Only two other idfielders are even in double digits. Campbell currently leads the league in two point goals, and is shooting 33.3% from the midfield. He seems to have shed the volume shooter tag (read as high number of shots for a low percentage) and has developed into one of the top offensive threats in the PLL from range.
Ament is fully healthy, playing with confidence in his burst, and it shows up when you watch him play. He gets a fair amount of short stick matchups just because of the Archers personnel, and they’ve been very good at switching his matchup with pairs looks. Only Schreiber has more assists from the midfield. Ament is also shooting a scorching 42.9%, and has just six turnovers in five games. If he heats up in the second half, he could have a legit chance to be the first player to win both Attackman of the Year (2021 winner) and Midfielder of the Year.
Schreiber will always be in the mix for this award, he’s just had a fairly down shooting year out of the gate. He’s right around 18% shooting and has just four total goals, one of which is a two pointer. It would not be surprising for him to still be there on award night, even if his shooting only picks up a little bit, because of how good he is as a passer. He leads the league in assists from the midfield.
Aitken has scored a point in the first minute of four of the Atlas six games this year. He’s been a key to their fast starts. He and Jones have been the best midfield dodging options for the Atlas so far, and their play has been a bit overshadowed by the electric Atlas attack. Zach Currier, as always, may not be a league leader in any one specific category, but his game impact is as big as anyone in the league. Just seven points in the first half, but has as many CTs as several starting defenseman, as many or more GBs that several LSMs and wing players, and is shooting for a better percentage that several starting attackman. The whole is bigger than the sum of the parts.
Dave Pietramala Defender of the Year
The Favorite: Gavin Adler
Contenders: Matt Dunn, Garrett Epple, Jack Rowlett
Dark Horse: Ben Randall, Graeme Hossack.
A position group that looks like it will be a battle to the end. There still is no good singular metric to measure the impact of a great defensive player. Some of the best defenders ever have very low CT and GB totals, so those aren’t always trustworthy. Epple currently leads the league in CTs.
I have Adler at the front of the pack right now. He’s third in the league in CTs. He guards top matchup every week, and that really can be lefty/righty independent. He made Brennan O’Neill invisible in the matchup with the Cannons. At the PLL level, there are very few true matchup erasers, but Adler is on the list. Adler also has zero penalties this year. Regardless of matchup he locks it up, and plays clean.
The next three here are all on the list as well. Epple, Dunn, and Rowlett have all been game changers. Epple also leads the league in penalties and PIM, which I consider a negative. Rowlett has just two penalties this year, Dunn has yet to commit a foul.
Randall currently is second in the league in CTs. He is a versatile enough defender to be shuffled around on matchups. One week he may guard a physical attackman, the next a quicker player, and he handles himself well in both cases.
Hossack is only a dark horse because he missed three games to start the season. In his two games back he’s been spectacular, and with the same level of play in the second half, he’ll almost certainly be a finalist. But we have precedent for outstanding numbers and performance in limited games not being enough to win an award. Dillon Ward was off the charts good in a year where he missed multiple games on paternity leave and came up short in award season.
Brodie Merrill LSM of the Year
The Favorite: Ethan Rall
Contenders: Tyler Carpenter, Colin Squires, Jared Conners
Dark Horse: Koby Smith, Jake Piseno
It would be perfectly reasonable to make Carpenter the favorite right now. Carpenter has a whopping 30 GBs, the next two top totals among LSMs (Squires and Rall) have combined for 31. Carpenter also has four points, including a two pointer hit, and leads all LSMs in caused turnovers with five. I give Ethan Rall a narrow edge because I rate him as a slightly better team defender than Carpenter through the first half. Rall is better at being disruptive and causing CTs as an offball defender. Both are exceptional off the ground, both are a CT waiting to happen int he open field, it’s basically hair splitting. A rookie taking home LSM of the Year would certainly be special, but not unwarranted for Carpenter.
Squires has had a great first half to the season statistically. The only LSM with more GBs and CTs is Carpenter. The void left by Michael Ehrhardt has been massive. In preseason it looked like rookie Stephen Zupicich had a grasp on the top LSM role, but Squires play has won him the job. He’s been a tone setter in Whips wins this year.
Koby Smith leads all LSMs in points. Given how he plays in transition this should come as no surprise, he’s got five points but hasn’t hit a one point goal yet. The evolution of the LSM position has made being involved offensively and looking for scoring opportunities a hard requirement. Smith does that at as aggressively as anyone, even if sometimes he sometimes opts for the more high risk plays.
Oren Lyons Goalie of the Year
The Favorite: Brett Dobson
Contenders: Colin Kirst, Blaze Riorden, Dillon Ward
Dark Horses: Jack Kelly, Liam Entenmann
Dobson currently leads the league in save percentage, and is just one save behind Kirst for most in the league. Kirst has played one more game than Dobson has. The Archers netmidner was key in steadying the Archers defense while Hossack was out. In some cases, he downright stole them wins. He made 23 saves in the season opener against Philadelphia, a game the Archers won by just one goal. He’s averaging over 15 saves per game, the best mark in the league.
Kirst has the league’s best SAA average among goalies who have started every game, even with an extra game played, at 11.2. For my money, he makes the spectacular look ordinary more than any other goalie in the league this year.
Riorden is a similar situation to Hossack above. He missed time with an injury, so he’s not quite going to be considered a favorite right now. But in the three games he has played, he has a single digit SAA, and the best save percentage in the league. The same play level in the second half, and Riorden will be back at award’s night again.
Liam Entenmann is an interesting one to watch. He has started just one game, but that game was maybe the best first professional start a goalie has ever had. He made 14 stops, allowed just four goals (the last coming in garbage time), and had a 78% save percentage. He was calm, he had a command of the defense, the game looked like it had already slowed down for him.
Paul Cantabene Faceoff Athlete of the Year
The Favorite: TD Ierlan
Contenders: Joe Nardella, Trevor Baptiste
Dark Horse: Luke Wierman
Ierlan and Nardella are the leaders in faceoff percentage at the break. Nardella has a narrow edge, sitting at 70.4% to Ierlan’s 70.1%. I put Ierlan a hair in front right now. The Redwoods specialist went 24-34, north of 70%, against Trevor Baptiste and 16-22, again north of 70%, against Luke Wierman. His worst game so far this year is a 67% day against Nick Rowlett. Ierlan has scored a goal in three of the Redwoods four games, and committed just a single turnover. Nardella’s last two weeks have been very good, over 60% against Baptiste and Sisselberger, but not quite as dominant as Ierlan’s. Nardella also has just one goal on the year, and has committed seven turnovers. Nardella also has a 31-31 game against the Cannons boosting his percentage, Ierlan does not. Baptiste is always a contender for this award, currently at 63% but having a serious impact as part of the Atlas offensive scheme. Luke Wierman has already faced very difficult competition in his young career. He got worked pretty hard by Ierlan, but went 60% or better against Sisselberger and Baptiste, and has scored twice.
George Boiardi Hard Hat Award (SSDM)
The Favorite: Danny Logan
Contenders: Matt Whitcher, Jeff Trainor, Piper Bond
Dark Horse: Zach Geddes, Ian MacKay
Danny Logan is the player who smashes the “sort by points, pick the top guy” method for awards. He won’t set the world on fire with stats. In the first half he has one point. He has four ground balls. He’s caused two turnovers. All are basically middle of the pack at best. But he also plants attackman in the ground. He wins matchups against everyone in the PLL. Everyone. Like Tyler Warner used to be, he warps the way you traditionally scheme a defense, because it’s a shorty you never have to support.
Piper Bond is having a strong sophomore year and has become the clear top SSDM for the Archers, filling the shoes left by Latrell Harris. Bond is the only SSDM in the league with double digit ground balls (15). Downside, Bond also has more turnovers committed than any SSDM in the league. Bond’s running mate, Connor Maher, has five CTs this year and could play his way intot he convo in the second half. Matt Whitcher is having an outstanding year for the Waterdogs, particularly going from D to O. He leads the position in CTs, and has a pair of goals this year. He’s shown he can dodge to score in transition. Jeff Trainor is the same type of player and is worthy of consideration. He leads SSDMs in points with four (Justin Anderson has seven but he really isn’t a true SSDM). Only Bond has more GBs that Trainor. Trainor does have six games played already, giving him a bit of a leg up when it comes to stats, but his play on wings and on both ends for the Cannons has been excellent.
The Chaos SSDM group has also been good. Zach Geddes and Ian MacKay both give the Chaos great transition options. MacKay can do just about anything on a lacrosse field. Geddes is an exceptional athlete, and his top end speed is very much in line with the new Chaos identity on the offensive end.
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