Hammerheads load up on homegrown talent in MLL draft

The chance to play in lacrosse crazy Fairfield County was a major reason why the Major League Lacrosse’s former Dallas franchise moved to Fairfield’s Rafferty Stadium.

It didn’t take long for the Connecticut Hammerheads to tap into the area’s talentrich player pool as former New Canaan High star Michael Kraus was taken by Connecticut with the second overall pick in Monday’s MLL college draft. The Hammerheads followed that up by selecting former Yale defender Aidan Hynes with the eighth overall pick before taking former Wilton High standout Michael Brown in the third round and New Canaan native Brandon Salvatore in the fourth round.

“It is awesome, to have it be right in my hometown or pretty close is pretty cool,” said Kraus, who had 131 goals and 109 assists in 55 career games at Virginia. “I am excited, it should be fun.”

Kraus had 36 multi-goal games for the Cavaliers including a three-goal effort in a 13-9 win over Yale in the 2019 national title game.

Kraus had a chance to return for another season of eligibility but opted to embark on a professional lacrosse career.

Three former FCIAC stars going in the first 17 picks in the MLL draft including two of them taken by a Connecticut franchise is quite the testament to the talent coming out of Fairfield County. Darien and New Canaan squared off in the 2014 Class M boys’ lacrosse championship game and less than six years later, they have a chance to turn pro. Ridgefield’s Chase Levesque was picked by Boston with the 18th overall selection.

Evanchick was rather thrilled to have Philadelphia pick him after spending the last four years at Penn.

“It is awesome to have another chance to play in Philadelphia,” Evanchick said. “I am really excited to get back, I love Philadelphia and I know having [Darien High graduate Chris] Madalon in net, some familiarity there. I am really excited that Jamie Hanford, another Darien guy so definitely really excited to get back to Philly.

“I had spoken to them a little bit. I was hoping absolutely that there were Darien guys there and Philadelphia, I went to school there for four years. I sensed that they had some interest but I wasn’t sure if they were going to pick me or not but I could not happier that I ended up in Philly.”

Kraus and Evanchick could be taken in the Premier Lacrosse League draft, an event that has been postponed to a date yet to be announced. Both said that they will keep their options open but the chance to play in familiar environments could result in them joining MLL.

Hynes and Brown, rivals at Yale and Brown over the last four years, combined for 113 ground balls and with three defenders added in the MLL Supplemental Draft, there could be some new faces on defense when the Hammerheads hit the field. When the team played in Dallas in 2019, they were fifth in a six-team lead in goal differential allowing 209 goals and scoring 199.

The Hammerheads continued to add in-state talent with Salvatore, who played at Taft and finished with 170 ground balls and 71 caused turnovers while at Cornell. Ben Martin, who had 82 goals in 43 games at Dartmouth, former Yale midfielder Will Renz. Connecticut’s final pick was Charlie Bertrand, who had 210 goals and 274 points in 58 career games at Merrimack.

The Hammerheads have eight of the top 11 scorers from the 2019 Rattlers squad on its current roster. Will Sands, who was third in the MLL with 32 assists last season, was acquired in a trade with Boston which sent leading scorer Bryce Wasserman to the Cannons.

ARRIX IS HONORARY DRAFT PICK

The Hammerheads announced that Wilton native John Arrix, founder of Connecticut-based Lax.com, is an honorary MLL draft pick.

Lax.com set up online stores for the Darien, New Canan and Wilton girls’ lacrosse teams with the proceeds from the online sales being donated to Norwalk Hospital.