Lacrosse leagues remain stuck on hold
NLL keeping all playoff options open as teams wait out shutdown caused by COVID-19
To hear Vancouver Warriors general manager Dan Richardson tell it, the National Lacrosse League isn’t giving up on its season.
“They’ve talked about all sorts of scenarios. I think they’ve talked about a fourteam playoff and an eightteam playoff and a 12-team playoff depending on what happens with the regular season. I think they’ve talked about everything,” Richardson said of the powers that be in the 13-team boxla circuit that suspended action March 12 due to COVID-19.
“They’ve told us all to just stay ready.”
The NLL regular season is scheduled to run until April 25, with eight teams moving onto the post-season under that format.
The Warriors, who are in their second year under the Vancouver Canucks’ umbrella and playing out of Rogers Arena, had five games left on their 18-game slate when the league went on hiatus. That was tied with two other teams for second-fewest games left, behind the Philadelphia Wings, who had four to go.
The Saskatchewan Rush had eight games on their calendar in league play when competition was paused.
Vancouver is one of five Canadian teams in the league. The Warriors, with a 4-9 record, were 11th in the NLL in terms of win percentage at the pause, with the San Diego Seals (6-6) and the Calgary Roughnecks (5-5) the next in line ahead of them.
Where things get tricky for the NLL is that they would take their cues from the NHL and the NBA, and NLL clubs are routinely the second or even third tenants in their buildings behind teams from those two leagues.
For instance, the Warriors would get priority after the Canucks at Rogers Arena, and if the NHL is playing a condensed schedule there would be limited dates available for the Warriors. Things would be even more pronounced for a team like the Colorado Mammoth, since they share the Pepsi Center in Denver with the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets.
Warriors left-hander Mitch Jones was second in NLL scoring at the time of the break. His 74 points, including 28 goals, in 13 games left him behind only New England Black Wolves righthander Callum Crawford, who had 76 points, including 33 goals, in 11 games. Five players had at least 70 points.
With the way the standings currently sit, Vancouver would have the third pick in the NLL Draft this off-season. It generally takes place in September. The Warriors’ franchise, which played under the Vancouver Stealth banner and out of the Langley Events Centre for five seasons before the Canucks bought the team, hasn’t had a first-round pick since 2013.
Former general manager Doug Locker traded away six straight first-rounders in a bid to upgrade his squad. Vancouver has made the playoffs just once since 2014.
Meanwhile, Western Lacrosse Association commissioner Paul Dal Monte says that there’s a league meeting Saturday to discuss the next steps for the seven-team summertime Senior A club circuit.
The WLA announced last week that it was delaying the start of its season. It had been slated to kick off May 21.
Dal Monte says the league has drawn up multiple schedules and could start as late as July. The league commonly has its teams play an 18-game regular season.
“We have several scenarios ready, depending on how things progress,” Dal Monte explained.
NLL teams and WLA teams feature many of the same players. There are some players who take the first few weeks of the WLA season off to rest up.
Dal Monte says he’s in touch with representatives from multiple NLL clubs. “We’re aware of what they’re contemplating,” he said.
The WLA champion is slated to travel east in early September to face the winner of Ontario’s Major Series in a best-of-seven series for the Mann Cup, Canada’s national Senior A boxla championship.
“I’ve been in regular contact with Doug Luey,” Dal Monte said of his Major Series counterpart, “and their league and our league are very much aligned.”
The Peterborough Lakers beat the host Victoria Shamrocks in five games last September to win Ontario’s fourth straight Mann Cup and 13th in the past 14 years. A Lower Mainland team hasn’t won the trophy since the Coquitlam Adanacs captured it at the Pacific Coliseum in 2001.
The Langley Thunder was one of the busiest teams in the winter reshaping their roster for this coming season. They added sniper Curtis Dickson and goaltender Frankie Scigliano from the Maple Ridge Burrards in separate deals.
Langley went to Mann Cups in 2011-12.
The B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League is slated to meet again April 15 to discuss its next move. The eight-team loop was originally slated to begin their season April 27.