NLL Insider

At ‘his best’, Anthony Cosmo is ‘the best’ tender on the planet.

He has the size, athleticism, angles and vision to be the absolute best keeper in today’s NLL.

We saw that from Cosmo during the summer, when he not only won a Mann Cup with the Brampton Excelsiors, he was named the Mike Kelly winner too (aka Mann MVP), but he was a bit behind the pace from what we saw from him in the NLL in 2007, when he was named the pro game’s top keep.

It will be interesting to see how Cosmo does playing behind an expansion D in Boston this year.

Without taking anything away from his game, it’s no secret that the former Missy Tomahawk has always had pretty stellar D’s playing in front of him in recent years, in both Toronto and San Jose in the NLL and then in Victoria and Brampton in the MSL. In Boston, Cosmo will likely find himself in an environment he hasn’t seen since his days playing for some weak St. Catharines Athletics’ teams several seasons back.

What will be a huge positive playing in Boston however, will be the commute. The NLL has less fly-in players than ever in today’s game, but Cosmo was putting in some serious mileage making a weekly trip from Toronto to Cali every weekend while with the Stealth. It doesn’t sound like much, but for an athlete in any sport, not having to fly across the country for a home game makes a massive difference in your pre-game prep.

On rep alone, Cosmo is considered the best pound-for-pound goalie out there, but will need to get back to winning games almost single handedly and carrying the Blazers when things aren’t clicking elsewhere on the court, like Bob Watson did for Toronto last year, to get that Keeper of the Year nod back.

Can the above be done playing for an expansion team? If anyone can do it, it’ll likely be Cosmo.

Interesting fact: The NLL has only once given the Keeper of the Year award to a goalie whose team had a sub .500 record and didn’t make the playoffs, that being Watson last year in Toronto. The last two Keeper of the Years, Cosmo and Watson, had by far the two lowest (team) winning percentages of any previous award winner. The NLL has also never awarded an expansion team keeper the honour either. Check out the past winners below, with their team’s record in brackets…

2001 Bob Watson, Toronto Rock (11-3)
2002 Bob Watson, Toronto Rock (11-5)
2003 Pat O’Toole, Rochester Knighthawks (12-4)
2004 Gee Nash, Colorado Mammoth (13-3)
2005 Steve Dietrich, Buffalo Bandits (11-5)
2006 Steve Dietrich, Buffalo Bandits (11-5)
2007 Anthony Cosmo, San Jose Stealth (9-7)
2008 Bob Watson, Toronto Rock (7-9)

Does Cosmo belong in the NLL Insider Top 50? Hit the boards and let us know what your Top 50 looks like heading into the 2009 NLL season…

#50 Matt Roik, San Jose Stealth
#49 Jon Sullivan, Minnesota Swarm
#48 Billy Dee Smith, Buffalo Bandits
#47 Steve Toll, Rochester Knighthawks
#46 Jarett Park, New York Titans
#45 Bruce Murray, Colorado Mammoth
#44 Shawn Evans, Rochester Knighthawks
#43 Peter Lough, Toronto Rock
#42 Matt Vinc, New York Titans
#41 Jeff Shattler, Calgary Roughnecks
#40 Craig Point, Minnesota Swarm
#39 Scott Ranger, Calgary Roughnecks
#38 Brian Langtry, Colorado Mammoth
#37 Sean Pollock, Minnesota Swarm
#36 Jake Bergey, Boston Blazers
#35 Pat O’Toole, Rochester Knighthawks
#34 Kyle Sweeney, Philadelphia Wings
#33 Luke Wiles, Toronto Rock
#32 Ryan Boyle, New York Titans
#31 Chris White, Buffalo Bandits
#30 Jordan Hall, New York Titans
#29 Shawn Nadelen, Philadelphia Wings
#28 Cam Woods, Toronto Rock
#27 Mike Accursi, Buffalo Bandits
#26 Dan Carey, Colorado Mammoth
#25 Pat Maddalena, New York Titans
#24 Andy Secore, Edmonton Rush
#23 Ryan Ward, Minnesota Swarm
#22 Tracey Kelusky, Calgary Roughnecks
#21 Josh Sanderson, Calgary Roughnecks
#20 Shawn Williams, Rochester Knighthawks
#19 Blaine Manning, Toronto Rock
#18 Nick Patterson, Minnesota Swarm
#17 Eric Martin, San Jose Stealth
#16 Scott Evans, Rochester Knighthawks
#15 Scott Self, Edmonton Rush
#14 Anthony Cosmo, Boston Blazers

Hit this link for NLL Insider’s Top 50 archive and keep checkin’ back every week as we countdown the top 50 best in the pro game, with #1 being named just before the NLL season kicks off.

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