The PLL Championship Series is only a few short weeks away. Rosters for the event will be dropping any day now, so no better time than to take a shot in the dark and guess who will be in DC. Four teams will battle: Utah Archers, New York Atlas, Boston Cannons, and Maryland Whipsnakes. Teams will field a roster of 12 players, two goalies and ten field players. Clubs, if able, have to use players from their existing 25 man roster. If they don’t have enough players available, they can add players from the player pool to fill any gaps. In past years, there have been player pool additions that shined enough to make their way onto a summer 19 man roster (Brendan Krebs two years ago, Ronan Jacoby last year).
Final rosters may vary, but if I was GMing and all these players were available, this is how I’d build my squad for each of the four teams battling in Washington DC.
Utah Archers
Ryan Ambler
Grant Ament
Ryan Aughavin
Piper Bond
Connor Maher
Matt Moore
Beau Pederson
Jon Robbins
Jack Runkel (Player Pool Add)
Jack VanOverbeke
Nick Washuta
Mason Woodward
If this is the 12 man, Archers might be a good pick to win the whole thing. This roster includes their hyper talented SSDM trio, pure scoring weapons like Ament, Ambler, and Moore, stretch shooters like Aughavin, and poles who can play offense in Woodward and Robbins. Nick Washuta has played great ball in the Championship Series before. Jack Runkel is a blast from the past, and it’ll be exciting to see him in net 10 years after his college career ended to see not just today’s pro shooters, but today’s shooters in the Sixes game. I always lean towards building purely offensive minded rosters for Sixes, wanting to just outgun the opposition, but the balance in this group could change my mind.
New York Atlas
Dox Aitken
Tyler Carpenter
Chet Comizio
Bryan Costabile
Xander Dickson
Liam Entenmann
JC Higginbotham (Player Pool Add)
Myles Jones
Keegan Khan (Player Pool Add)
Logan McGovern
Dylan Molloy
Connor Shellenberger
Once again, this is just my guess at a roster based on players who are currently signed to Atlas and don’t have commitments indoors. There could be other commitments that alter things, which would allow players like Ronan Jacoby, who was excellent for Utah last February, or Koby Smith, a great offensive minded LSM with Sixes experience, to join this group. Player to watch for Atlas remains Bryan Costabile. In the first year of the Championship Series, Romar Dennis stole the show from two point range. It went a bit unnoticed as a result, but Bryan Costabile actually put the ball in the net the same amount of times Romar did, 19 in total. Of course 15 of Romar’s 19 were twos, so he ran away with points, but Costabile had just as many total goals. He’s excellent in the Sixes format. Also fun to watch will be Connor Shellenberger’s first appearance in the format at the event. He seems like a natural fit for it.
Boston Cannons
Matt Campbell
Ryan Drenner
Garrett Epple
Bubba Fairman
Adam Ghitelman
Zach Goodrich
Marcus Holman
Matt Kavanagh
Colin Kirst
Asher Nolting
Ethan Rall
Jeff Trainor
They’ve now done this a few times, so we’ve gotten used to the Cannons squad that should be there. The Boston roster doesn’t have many guys who are committed indoors and should be able to field a full 12 man roster without extra additions. Most of these are familiar faces to the event. I hope Garrett Epple gets a shot with Boston. He went with the Redwoods, and ultimately was forced out due to injury, but was an impact player with the shorty in his limited time. I am hoping to see him carry the torch for converted close defenders, who aren’t usually offensive minded or transition players, in the format. Matt Kavanagh was the hero a year ago, and while there are some fun young options for the format like Alex Vardaro, it would just feel wrong to exclude the guy who won you the title game last February.
Maryland Whipsnakes
Jacob Angelus (Player Pool Add)
Matt Brandau
Ryan Conrad
Tate Gallagher (Player Pool Add)
Colin Heacock
Jack Koras
Brendan Krebs
TJ Malone
Will Mark (Player Pool Add)
Dylan Pallonetti (Player Pool Add)
Roman Puglise
Matt Rambo
Whips added four players to the roster for the event, all of whom obviously will be represented here. That’s evidence that they have plenty of guys unavailable, which is unfortunate. But some of their key players down the stretch last year, notably Levi Anderson and Adam Poitras, are out to promising starts on their indoor careers, and Joe Nardella remains a force for the FireWolves. The Whips also have a number of players who coach in college or high level high school (Jake Bernhardt, Mike Chanenchuk, and Kyle Bernlohr to name a few) which presumably makes them unavailable. Tucker Dordevic or Brad Smith would have to be activated from IR to play. I am not clear on the timeline for final roster submission for the event, but if it comes after the trade deadline, Matt Brandau could feasibly make his Whips debut in DC. He has Sixes experience, playing for the USA at the World Games in Birmingham. I’m holding out hope that while Rambo isn’t playing indoors, he might be able to make it for Sixes, but if not, the Whips could run Wheaton Jackoboice, who they just re-signed, or Garrett Leadmon in that spot. Colin Squires could also make the squad as a converted LSM.
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