Warriors trade up for Burton at NLL draft
For the Vancouver Warriors, Tuesday’s National Lacrosse League entry draft was about who they added and who they did not subtract.
The newly minted Warriors brought six players on board via the annual selection process, most notably defender Travis Burton, 21, a product of the Brampton Jr. Excelsiors program who they traded up to get in the second round, No. 21 overall.
Vancouver did not deal out sniper Corey Small, although according to various sources they contemplated such a move, only to fail to land a return they fancied.
Small, 31, who has been Vancouver’s leading scorer the past two seasons, becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and the St. Catharines, Ont., native moved back to his home province last summer after a lengthy stint in Victoria.
The speculation is that Dan Richardson — brought on as general manager when the Vancouver Canucks bought the Vancouver Stealth in June and began rebranding them — will instead deal Small at the trade deadline midway through the year.
The thinking is Small would bring back more in a swap then as the last piece of the puzzle for a squad with championship aspirations. The Warriors are in a rebuilding mode, coming off a dismal 2-16 record last winter.
Former general manager Doug Locker was rumoured to be talking to the Calgary Roughnecks and Buffalo Bandits at the trade deadline last season about Small, but couldn’t complete a deal.
All Richardson would say about the situation in an email interview Tuesday was: “Corey Small will start the season with us.”
Vancouver didn’t have a first rounder on Tuesday, thanks to a 2014 trade with the Buffalo Bandits that brought Vancouver goaltender Eric Penney and since-retired defender Rory Smith. They didn’t have a second rounder initially, either, after a 2016 trade with the Saskatchewan Rush for defender John Lintz, who also called it quits prior to last season due to injury troubles.
Richardson and Co. coveted the 6-foot-3, 190-pound Burton, and Richardson said the Warriors had a deal set before the draft with the Georgia Swarm if he was still available in the second round. The Swarm went into the draft with five second-round selections.
The Warriors sent a 2019 second rounder to the Swarm in exchange for that No. 21 choice on Tuesday and a 2020 fourth rounder.
Richardson said the Warriors had Burton ranked in the “No. 9-15 range,” in the draft. Inside Lacrosse’s Stephen Stamp had Burton going No. 15 overall in his final mock draft Monday and suggested in it that Burton’s “athleticism and grit make him the kind of defender who can get opponents off their games.”
In 79 regular season games with Brampton, Burton supplied four goals, 16 points and 203 penalty minutes. In 11 playoff matchups this season, he had no points and 36 penalty minutes.
Richardson said: “He makes us bigger and meaner.”
Vancouver also went with a defender with their next pick (29th overall,) taking 6-foot-2, 220 pounder Nate Wade, 23, who spent his summer with the Western Lacrosse Association’s Nanaimo Timbermen. Vancouver also had the 32nd selection, thanks to a trade with the New England Black Wolves that sent veteran defender Andrew Suitor east, and Richardson grabbed lefty forward Jean-Luc Chetner, 22, who spent this past summer playing in the Western Lacrosse Association for the Maple Ridge Burrards.
Maple Ridge’s coaching staff included Chris Gill, the Warriors’ bench boss.
Chetner, who is on the smaller side at 5-foot-9 and 170 pounds, had 10 goals and 28 points in 12 regular season games with the Burrards and 11 goals and 21 points in 13 playoff encounters.
Stamp had him going No. 12 overall.
Vancouver rounded out the draft taking defender Dallas Wade in the fourth round, forward Braylon Lumb in the fifth round and forward Jon Phillips in the sixth round.
The Warriors open the regular season on Dec. 8, hosting the Toronto Rock.