It has been 1,597 days since the release of the last true lacrosse video game (Casey Powell Lacrosse 18). While that game certainly had its flaws, it was nice to pick up a controller and play a lacrosse video game. Let’s take a minute and imagine a new PLL focused video game has released in the year 2022. What exactly would the player ratings be? One of the best parts of a new Madden game every year is the fans reacting to their favorite players and team’s ratings. This eight part series will cover each of the PLL teams hypothetical player ratings. We have covered the Archers and Atlas, but now it is time for the Cannons.
I’d like to thank Dan Arestia for inspiring this idea.
DISCLAIMER: This is 100% an opinion piece and you are entitled to disagree with everything in this article if you choose to do so. Not every player is a 99 overall. It takes years of experience and consistency to even come close to that sort of ranking. Just because your favorite player is an 82 overall in no way shape or form means he is a bad player. The league just has far too much talent.
Attack
Lyle Thompson: 99 OVR
Asher Nolting: 85 OVR
Mark Cockerton: 76 OVR
John Piatelli: 74 OVR
Recap: Lyle Thompson has made the rounds recently on Twitter due to fans debating on if he is wasting his career away playing for a hopeless Cannons team. The dude if arguably the best player in the world and the Cannons have done a poor job thus far at setting him up to succeed. The addition of Asher Nolting is certainly helpful but the Cannons still lack a true third attackman to fill out a starting line which is a necessity in the PLL.
Overall Average: 84 OVR
Midfield
Ryan Drenner: 83 OVR
Stephen Rehfuss: 82 OVR
Ryan Tierney: 79 OVR
Johnathan Donville: 78 OVR
Jake Froccaro: 76 OVR
Chris Aslanian: 75 OVR
Recap: The Cannons don’t have any real standouts at the midfield position. Every other team in the league at least has one guy that is an elite threat, but you just don’t get that with the Cannons. Sure Ryan Drenner and Stephen Rehfuss are solid midfielders, but I would slide them closer to the “average” category than I would “elite” category. Drenner has been carrying most of the load at the midfield getting an LSM tagged on him every game with very little help from his supporting cast.
Overall Average: 79 OVR
SSDM
Bubba Fairman: 83 OVR
Zach Goodrich: 77 OVR
Tim Edwards: 76 OVR
Pat Aslanian 75 OVR
Recap: Bubba Fairman has truly embraced his role as a SSDM which has helped out the Cannons immensely. The SSDM position is difficult to assess due to a lack of stats that jump off the page. None of these guys besides Bubba are standing out amongst the crowd in my opinion.
Overall Average: 78 OVR
Defense
Jake Pulver: 88 OVR
Holden Garlent: 87 OVR
Jack Kielty: 83 OVR
Bryan McIntosh: 78 OVR
Recap: Despite their record, the Cannons defensive unit is pretty solid on paper. Jake Pulver is two-time PLL All-Star and Holden Garlent plays relatively solid defense. The lack of an offense and poor SSDMs has skewed the public perception of the Cannons defensive players, but when it comes to ranking the players individually here, the Cannons d-poles are in no way shape or form a liability when compared to other d-poles in the PLL.
Overall Average: 84 OVR
LSM
Brodie Merrill: 91 OVR
Andrew Newbold: 77 OVR
Recap: Brodie Merrill is arguably one of the best d-poles to ever play the game of lacrosse. However, he has reached that point in his career where he is on the decline. Merrill is currently 40 years of age with his professional stats dating all the way back to 2005. His performance this season has been average at best, but don’t let that take away from the fact that he is one of the best to ever do it.
Overall Average: 84 OVR
Faceoff
Stephen Kelly: 80 OVR
Alex Woodall: 78 OVR
Recap: The Cannons have come to learn that the PLL is a faceoff heavy league. We have seen teams like the Archers struggle to win games solely due to an inability to win faceoffs. Stephen Kelly hovers around that 50% win percentage mark which is solid but not tremendous. The Cannons are fine holding onto Kelly for the time as he is certainly good at his job, but adding a guy above that 50% mark would be ideal for the club.
Overall Average: 79 OVR
Goalie
Nick Marrocco: 85 OVR
Colin Kirst: 81 OVR
Recap: If Nick Marrocco is anything it’s consistent. The dude has averaged above 50% his entire professional career with an average of 12 saves per game. The Cannons shouldn’t be in a rush to ship him off anytime soon, but if they do Colin Kirst seems like he would have no problem stepping up to the plate as a starting goalie in the PLL.
Overall Average: 83 OVR
