NLL Insider

They’ve got their National Lacrosse League Rookie of the Year back, and they’ve got their NLL Defenseman of the Year back. It’s all good up there in Minnesota, right? Well, kind of.

Sure, the Swarm are coming off a 10-6 season which saw them in the playoffs for the third straight season. But for the third straight season, they took a first-round exit from the playoffs and that’s not the goal. Never is, and never will be. The Swarm are no longer just “happy to be here” and they’re looking for an answer to that three-year question but this year’s biggest challenge is how to do it without the stick of Andy Secore, who landed in Edmonton via the dispersal draft. So what’s a team to do? Minneosta general manager Marty O’Neill, who happens to be the reigning GM of the Year in the NLL, says this is the reason for training camps.

“We’ll just get to camp and see how people compete for jobs,” he says.  “You have to be open-minded. Competition drives a team and people have to be rewarded for growth.”

So gone is Secore and his team-best 76 points, and the return of Keith Cromwell is not a sure thing at this point because of work commitments. O’Neill’s confident he’s got plenty of capable sticks to throw out on the offensive end for coach Duane Jacobs to work with. It’s just a matter of how it all comes together. Point is coming off a 61-point season that earned him the NLL’s top rookie award, and Ryan Ward (69 points), Sean Pollock (60) and Chad Culp (55) give the offense more options. Dan Marohl was productive in the five games he played in Minnesota following the trade from Philadelphia, and his ability to play the right or left side gives Minnesota some flexibility.

What O’Neill wants is more production from the power play, which was 6th in the NLL at 43 percent. Point and Dean Hill are back for that unit, but Secore’s stick will be missed, he says. That’s where draft picks come into the picture.

“It’s just a matter of how it all shakes out,” he says. “We’ve addressed the needs.”

Top draft pick Andrew Watts, out of Kitchener, and Ohio State’s Kevin Buchanon, the team’s No. 2 pick, will get their opportunities to prove they can contribute.

“Watts has a big body and can set picks and Buchanon’s got all sorts of skills,” O’Neill says.

 Getting the ball up the floor shouldn’t be a problem. As cool as it would be to have Mark Miyashita back on the floor, his lingering knee problems leave him as a question mark for the season. Still, the skills of Ryan Sharp, who O’Neill says is one of the best in the business, complements the work of Darren Halls and Riley Kemp, both of whom should be back from injuries suffered last year. Noah Talbot’s no slouch in the tranny game either, and O’Neill says he was impressed with the clearing work he did in Victoria this summer.

There are few worries on the defensive end, says O’Neill. The work of Cousins was recognized as tops in the NLL last year, and he’s got Jon Sullivan and Kemp, along with Talbot, Hill and Eric Pacey to keep him company in front of established goalie Nick Patterson. Sullivan, says O’Neill, is one of the most underrated defenders in the NLL.

“We can improve our man-down game,” says O’Neill of the unit that was 4th in the league, killing 59 percent. “But I’m pretty happy with the defense.”

The biggest question marks for the Swarm as they head into camp is how the offense will come together and whether the power play can shift into a higher gear. Big numbers in Canadian summer ball look great, but how they translate to the NLL is another story.

“This is a step up and it can separate guys,” O’Neill says. “Numbers and confidence are great, but when guys come here, it can be a little different. Yeah, we’ve made the playoffs three years in a row, but it’s our Achilles’ heel. We want to advance past that first round.”

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