NLL Insider

We hit up the 2002 NLL Entry Draft a couple weeks back, so today we’ll rehash the 2003 draft, as the title of this post would suggest.

And get this…

With 26 fewer total picks made in the 2003 draft versus the 2002 draft, we saw more current full-time ballers taken in 2003 than the year previous. 26 guys taken in the 2003 draft are still currently playing in the NLL, while only 19 are still kickin’ around from the 2002 draft.

Kinda weird, but when you stack both draft years up against one another, it really goes to show how relatively weak ‘02 was and how surprisingly deep ‘03 was.

The rule of thumb I’ve always used is that pretty much everyone taken within the top 20 in the NLL is usually more or less a lock. Some teams might have their top 20 arranged a bit differently, but those first 20 players, for the most part, are usually set. Some teams might take an outta left field gamble, which we’ll look at shortly, but every GM usually has the same 20 or so names written down in those first two rounds.

So with only nine guys in 2002’s top 20 still in the league (14 from 2003), not only was ‘02 lacking depth in later rounds, the first couple rounds were pretty slim too.

Anyways, 2003 was a pretty interesting draft year. There were about five guys that were rumored to go first overall.

AJ Shannon was fresh off a National Title with Virginia, one in which he played a pretty dominating role in. Ryan Ward had just rocked the hell outta the WLA, taking home regular season MVP honours. Taylor Wray was one of the most punishing and athletic defenders teams had seen in a number of years, all while coming off a pretty impressive stint with the Duke Blue Devils. Craig Conn was, well, Craig Conn, so unless you had just picked up boxla that day, you knew how sick he’d been during St. Catharines dominating years, complete with Minto rings and a lineup of guys that would love to drop the gloves with him.

And then there was Mark Miyashita. Miyashita had a pretty impressive college career playing for former NLLer and fellow Minto Cup winner, Randy Mearns, at Canisius College. He’d played a super key role for the Burnaby Lakers, winning Minto titles in 2000 and 2002, where he just oozed leadership all over the court.

Former Burnaby Lakers’ Head Coach and GM, Paul Dal Monte, the head honcho for Vancouver at the time, were coincidently also the first ones at the podium on draft day. So, although those other four names previously mentioned were being bantered around as potential #1 guys, Dal Monte didn’t hesitate when he made Miyashita the first name called out at Toronto’s Westin Harbour Castle (where I spent about $30 on a bagel and juice in the hotel’s restaurant… I’ve never been able to shake that off). The combo of being a local guy who’d played for him and had a slick lookin’ resume at school and with his junior club seemed like the the trifecta most teams can only hope for when they make their first round pick.

In hindsight, with the way Miyashita’s pro career has developed, most would probably have taken a number of other guys before him, but on the day, no one blinked when the Ravens made their pick.

So there’s your primer, now onto the biggest winner, loser, bust and late round surprise. Hit up our first Revisiting the Draft for a bit of a definition on each…

Biggest Winner
On the day, there was no bigger winner than Calgary. They grabbed Miyashita’s Burnaby teammate, Taylor Wray, who probably in hindsight was the guy that shoulda gone first, and then even picked up quality D guys like Brad McDonald and Jess Moleski in later rounds. Shortly after the draft they also traded for Taylor’s bro, Devan, who still suits up for the franchise, ditto for Moleski obviously too. It was probably Calgary’s most impressive showing ever on draft day. And no, fellow NLL Insider Chris Hall didn’t pay me to say that.

The other winner on the day was probably Marty O’Neill. The current Minnesota Swarm GM was at the time doing the same thing for Philly, landing both Ryan Ward and Tom Hajek in the opening rounds. O’Neill also took G-Town’s Kyle Sweeney, who we’ll look at a bit more later, with the team’s last pick after swinging and missing with guys like Michael Howley and Kevin Brennan in the middle rounds. Not too shabby, but when you factor in that O’Neill currently has four guys on Minny’s roster from the ‘03 draft, Marty benefitted a whole lot from that year. The Swarm currently sport Ward, Miyashita, Andrew Biers and Jon Sullivan, all taken in the ‘03 Entry Draft. The most interesting of those four might be Sullivan. The former St. Kitts A’s & Spartan Warriors’ D-man was the 47th name called out on the day, going to Rochester, but never cracking their lineup. Since then, Sullivan has gone from being a mid-round gamble to one of the best pure D guys in the pros.

Biggest Loser
This is kind of a tough one. Teams like San Jose, Colorado and Buffalo have little to show for from this draft class, but the biggest disaster probably happened in the Toronto Rock camp. The Rock passed over defender Hajek, who was far from a gamble at the time (so don’t go there), at the eight spot, and instead took Salisbury stud and non-boxla prospect Josh Bergey, whose last name carried most weight on the day then his previous box experience, which was little to none prior to Toronto dropping jaws when they announced his name. Bergey had gotten some hype heading into the draft, many thinking he’d go somewhere late in the second or early third round by a team that could afford a gamble, but the Rock were far from that team. Toronto would be on the clock again a few picks down, taking little talked about and husky Six Nations forward Stew Monture, a guy one GM told me on the day, “is not built for the NLL.” That pick was made with the 13th overall selection, and with a host of Ontario based prospects dreaming of playing for their hometown pro team, the Rock would make another bizarre pick at 17 when they took Cornell defender Ryan McClay, another American who was on absolutely no other team’s radar that early in the draft. Their most impressive pick woulda been Chris McElroy, current Edmonton Rush captain, but for whatever reason, he never stuck in TO. In fact, had Toronto not had Craig Conn fall in their laps during the recent Arizona Dispersal Draft, they too would have nothing to show for from 2003. Although Terry Sanderson was brought in later that year, rejigging the lineup in the next off-season in order to score the 2005 Champion’s Cup, many point to the 2003 draft as the start of a string of weak draft year’s for the franchise, right up until the 2007 Entry Draft last year. Can the Rock buck that trend in September?

Biggest Bust
It would be easy to point to the Rock’s early picks, or that first overall selection Mark Miyashita has underperformed at the pro stage, but the one guy from that draft year that has not been able to make things work in this league has got to be Kevin Olson. Olson was taken by Vancouver with the last pick in the second round, but after averaging over four points per game in his previous three junior seasons with Burnaby, to go along with a pair of Minto rings, many felt that Olson could have been the steal of the draft. Olson has continued to kill the scoring charts in the WLA and has been one of BC’s most consistent O guys, but after stints with a handful of NLL clubs, the still young 26-year-old prospect just hasn’t found his niche in the NLL. He’s the classic example of a summer stud not working in the slightly different brand of ball in the pros. The guys got such a slick game in the summer, not sure what the problem is once the snow starts falling.

Biggest Surprise
Well, McElroy has certainly panned out a helluva lot better than most GM’s would have thought five years ago, same with Sullivan, but the biggest surprise from 2003 has gotta be the dude taken with the absolute last pick of the day, Kyle Sweeney. Most were long gone when Philly took Sweeney (I was trying to recoup some coin from that bagel), easily one of this past season’s ten best D guys, and although Kyle only found his way into the Wings’ starting lineup a year later in 2005, it’s been all gravy since. Sweeney is one of the game’s best field-to-box stories ever and plays an athletic brand of ball that saw him more than double his 2007 digits. Whether the Wings knew something or just lucked out, the pick now makes ‘em look like geniuses. In fact, Sweeney is only one of three Americans in that draft that are still in the league. The other two? San Jose’s Tim Booth, who was actually taken by Rochester, and Kevin Leveille, who played six games for Chicago two seasons ago.

Checkout what players from the 2003 draft are still in the league today and which four are still with the same team that took ‘em…

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