NLL Insider

The inclusion of Rookie of the Year winner Craig Point in NLL Insider’s Top 50 ignited a flurry of emails and posts on the forum of where exactly the Minnesota Swarm snipe show should be penciled in in today’s NLL.

No one really chirped about the slick first year he threw down last winter, but many cited a “likely” sophomore slump in his upcoming second year in the bigs.

Will Point avoid “the slump” in 2009? Does it even matter if his numbers dip a bit this year when talking about what Point, or really any player, brings to the table?

After the jump, check out the worst stat drops by second year guys in the NLL (or MILL) and the best bumped up sophomore digits too. Try and make some guesses before hittin’ the link, cuz there are definitely some surprises in the rundown.

Before we get too into the numbers, just a couple rules to go over in regards to the breakdowns (saving me from a couple hundred emails crying about, well, crying about almost everything possible).

Obviously some sophomore drops over the years can be attributed to lengthy injuries, which aren’t really the players fault, right? So to avoid putting those slightly skewed numbers in the rundown, we broke down each player’s points per game numbers, instead of simply just their end of season totals (although we included guy’s year-end numbers in brackets as well). The points per game will also help with the vast season lengths we’ve seen since the early 90’s to 2008 as well.

We considered guys actual rookie year in the bigs as the first year they played more than three games, which is what defines their on-floor status (but not their contract status). So for example, even though a guy like Brian Langtry played three games for New York in 2000, his recognized rookie year was actually 2003 when he played more than three games with Colorado, winning ROY honours.

We included Ryan Painter on the list, although there probably should be a note beside his name. Painter exploded onto the pro scene with Ottawa in 2002, but then during the following off-season was in a car accident that left him with a pretty nasty concussion. Although he battled back to try and find a full-time spot with the Rebel in 2003, his injuries definitely didn’t allow him to come back to the player we saw a year earlier.

Then there’s guys who found themselves on different teams, playing in different systems, sometimes playing completely different positions in their sophomore seasons. Those guys were included, although there are a few other “stories” below that can be attributed to sharp declines. Bottom line, we’re lookin at stats, nuthin’ else.

And that’s about it. So, check out the biggest sophomore stat drops and biggest soph stat spikes in league history…

Biggest Sophomore Slumps

Ryan Painter 2002 rookie year
4.13 pts/game (66 end-of-year pts) to 0.83 pts/game (5 end-of-year pts)
-3.29 pts/game drop (-61 total pt drop)

Peter Morgan 2002
5.58 (67) to 3.50 (21)
-2.08 (-46)

*Derek Keenan 1992
6.13 (49) to 4.25 (34)
-1.88 (-15)

Mike Accursi 1998
3.50 (42) to 1.64 (18)
-1.86 (-24)

Chris Prat 1998
4.67 (56) to 2.88 (23)
-1.79 (-33)

Shawn Williams 1998
3.00 (36) to 1.45 (16)
-1.55 (-20)

*Brodie Merrill 2006
3.06 (49) to 1.53 (23)
-1.53 (-26)

Darris Kilgour 1992
4.88 (39) to 3.50 (28)
-1.38 (-11)

Ryder Bateman 2005
2.79 (39) to 1.50 (18)
-1.29 (-21)

*Ryan Boyle 2005
4.00 (64) to 2.75 (44)
-1.25 (-20)

Jon Harasym 2003
1.80 (27) to 0.69 (9)
-1.11 (-18)

Bill McGlone 2007
2.50 (40) to 1.40 (21)
-1.10 (-19)

Dean Hill 2007
3.79 (53) to 2.71 (19)
-1.07 (-34)

Mark Miyashita 2004
1.92 (23) to 0.90 (9)
-1.02 (-14)

*Brian Langtry 2003
4.13 (62) to 3.13 (50)
-1.01 (-12)

Best Sophomore Bumps

Andy Secore 2007
1.57 pts/game (22 end-of-year pts) to 5.43 pts/game (76 end-of-year pts)
+3.86 pts/game increase (+54 total pt increase)

Ben Prepchuk 2001
2.00 (24) to 4.88 (78)
+2.88 (+54)

Dan Dawson 2002
0.55 (6) to 3.25 (52)
+2.70 (+46)

Jake Bergey 1998
3.17 (38) to 5.83 (70)
+2.67 (+32)

Athan Iannucci 2007
3.60 (54) to 6.25 (100)
+2.65 (+46)

Kevin Howard 2002
0.80 (4) to 3.44 (55)
+2.64 (+51)

Derek Malawsky 1998
2.55 (28) to 5.08 (61)
+2.54 (+33)

Chris Panos 1997
0.75 (3) to 3.25 (39)
+2.50 (+36)

Chris Gill 1996
1.70 (17) to 4.18 (46)
+2.48 (+29)

Tom Ryan 1995
0.75 (3) to 3.20 (32)
+2.45 (+29)

Luke Wiles 2006
2.88 (49) to 5.13 (82)
+2.24 (+33)

*Tracey Kelusky 2001
3.64 (51) to 5.88 (94)
+2.23 (+43)

Chris Konopliff 2001
2.64 (29) to 4.87 (73)
+2.23 (+44)

Matt Shearer 1998
1.89 (17) to 4.10 (41)
+2.21 (+24)

Mike Hominuck 2005
1.50 (12) to 3.53 (53)
+2.03 (+41)

Kelly Hall 2004
1.67 (10) to 3.69 (48)
+2.03 (+38)

*won rookie of the year award

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