Last week, Premier League Lacrosse and Major League Lacrosse merged, turning the Boston Cannons into Cannons Lacrosse Club as the eighth PLL outfit and casting tons of questions around the professional field lacrosse world.
There is plenty of dust to settle before the PLL can start its first season as the sole face of pro field lacrosse. An expansion draft has already been declared for 2021, and a plan is coming for how now-former MLL players can enter the PLL. How the PLL looked in 2020 is very different from how it will look in 2021 and beyond.
All this week, we will release our five-part series predicting how it will all shake out, from expansion protections to a mock merger draft and more. It’s every lacrosse’s nerd big opportunity – let’s play GM.
PLL Expansion Draft 2021 – Projected Protections
In the previous expansion draft, teams were allowed to protect 11 players each. We’re going to keep those rules for the sake of argument, but keep in mind, it’s possible that number could be different this time around. But we’re not included in any board room discussions, so 11 is the best we have to go on right now. So, let’s blindly charge forward and predict the future.
First step, the protected roster for each of the current seven PLL sides.
Archers LC
Protected Players
Attack – Ryan Ambler, Grant Ament, Marcus Holman, Will Manny
Defense – Eli Gobrecht, Matt McMahon
Goalie – Adam Ghitelman
Long Stick Midfield – Scott Ratliff
Midfield – Dominique Alexander, Christian Mazzone, Tom Schreiber
Unprotected Players
Drew Adams, Curtis Corley, Josh Currier, Brendan Fowler, Stephen Kelly, Ian MacKay, Mark McNeill, Tyler Pfister, Jack Rapine, Joey Sankey, Mike Simon
Atlas LC
Protected Players
Attack – Ryan Brown, Eric Law, Rob Pannell
Defense – Tyler Durkin, Cade van Raaphorst
Face-off – Trevor Baptiste
Goalie – Jack Concannon
Midfield – Connor Buczek, Bryan Costabile, Romar Dennis, Paul Rabil
Unprotected Players
Craig Chick, Chris Cloutier, John Crawley, Kyle Hartzell, Austin Pifani, Jake Richard, Callum Robinson, Scott Rodgers, Jeremy Thompson, Joel Tinney, Kevin Unterstein
Chaos LC
Protected Players
Attack – Josh Byrne, Curtis Dickson, Austin Staats
Defense – Tyson Bell, Jarrod Neumann, Jack Rowlett
Goalie – Blaze Riorden
Midfield – Deemer Class, Jake Froccaro, Sergio Salcido, Dhane Smith
Unprotected Players
Dan Coates, Connor Fields, Mark Glinci, Thomas Kelly, Jason Noble, Troy Reh, Patrick Resch, Eric Scott, Miles Thompson, Matt Rees
Chrome LC
Protected Players
Attack – Matt Gaudet, Justin Guterding, Jordan Wolf
Defense – Jesse Bernhardt, Reece Eddy
Face-off – Connor Farrell
Goalie – John Galloway
Midfield – Ned Crotty, Will Haus, Jordan MacIntosh, John Ranagan
Unprotected Players
James Barclay, Sam Duggan, Hunter Forbes, Brendan Kavanagh, Michael Manley, Donny Moss, Jake Pulver, Brett Queener, Eli Salama, Justin Turri
Redwoods LC
Protected Players
Attack – Ryder Garnsey, Jules Heningburg, Matt Kavanagh
Defense – Garrett Epple, Eddy Glazener
Goalie – Tim Troutner
Midfield – Brent Adams, Pat Harbeson, Myles Jones, Jack Near, Sergio Perkovic
Unprotected Players
Hugh Crance, Tyler Dunn, Brendan Gleason, Kyle Harrison, Nick Ossello, Clarke Petterson, Greg Puskuldjian, John Sexton, Peyton Smith, Finn Sullivan, Gunnar Waldt, Joe Walters
Waterdogs LC
Protected Players
Attack – Kieran McArdle, Christian Cuccinello, Ryan Drenner
Defense – BJ Grill, Brodie Merrill
Face-off – Jake Withers
Long Stick Midfield – Ryland Rees
Midfield – Zach Currier, Connor Kelly, Ben McIntosh, Drew Snider
Unprotected Players
Wes Berg, Charlie Cipriano, Matt DeLuca, Steven DeNapoli, Dan Eipp, Patrick Foley, Kyle McClancey, Ben Reeves, Noah Richard, Chris Sabia, Drew Simoneau
Whipsnakes LC
Protected Players
Attack – Matt Rambo, Zed Williams
Defense – Matt Dunn
Face-off – Joe Nardella
Goalie – Kyle Bernlohr, Bryce Young
Long Stick Midfield – Michael Ehrhardt
Midfield – Jake Bernhardt, Mike Chanenchuk, John Haus, Ty Warner
Unprotected Players
Jay Carlson, TJ Comizio, Joseph McCallion, Tim Muller, Isaac Paparo, Brett Schmidt, Jeremy Sieverts, Brad Smith, Jacob Stover, Max Tuttle
PLL-MLL Merger Series
Monday – Protected Players
Tuesday – Cannons LC Expansion Draft
Wednesday – Top Ex-MLL Players Available, Part 1
Thursday – Top Ex-MLL Players Available, Part 2
Friday – PLL Mock Merger Draft
Did we get our protections right? Who are some of the best available players for Cannons LC in our mock expansion draft? Chime in on Twitter and Instagram!
