NLL Insider

How many scoring records will Colin Doyle break during the 2009 NLL season?

A month into the season, we took a quick look at some of the major individual single season stats records and who during the 2009 season was on pace to match, or in some cases, shatter those numbers.

Ball players like Casey Powell, Mark Steenhuis, Dan Dawson, Brodie Merrill and Colin Doyle came outta the blocks with some pretty intense digits to start the year.

We’re only three weeks outside of the regular season coming to an end, so where do those guys and others stand almost two months later?

GOALS

Current Single Season Record Holder: Athan Iannucci 71 (2008)
2009’s Contender: Mark Steenhuis 41G after 12 games

Back at the end of January, it was Powell who was most likely to break Iannucci’s one year old record, although he was still lookin’ to be in the ballpark of ten short at the time. Since then, it’s Steenhuis who blew by Powell while the Syracuse legend was on the sidelines, but like CP, it definitely looks like Steenhuis will fall short as well. With four games left, Steenhuis is on pace to hit an impressive 55 goals this winter, 16 goals shy of what Nooch threw down in ‘08. Even if Powell had played every game this year, his present goals per game average woulda ‘only’ had him at 52. Outside of Steenhuis having another couple single game scoring records, AI’s record from last year looks very much safe.

ASSISTS

Current Single Season Record Holder: Josh Sanderson 71 (2005)
2009’s Contender: Dan Dawson 56A after 12 games

Doyle and Dawson were both neck-and-neck almost two months back, and still are. Dawson is on pace to break Shooter’s 71 with a projected 75 in his future, while Doyle too is lookin’ good to potentialy touch Sanderson’s helper mark, on pace for a very close 70. Either way, good money is on one of the two Excels teammates to make history this year.

POINTS

Current Single Season Record Holder: John Tavares 115 (2001)
2009’s Contender: Colin Doyle 86Pts after 13 games

Back in late January, Powell was on pace to completely smash Tavares’ single season record for points, but unfortunately, CP was forced outta the lineup for a bit. Right now, Doyle is on pace to hit 105Pts this year, which would leave him a pretty sizeable ten points shy of JT. Doable? Yeah, most definitely, especially with the huge one night showings we’ve seen around the year this year. Likely? Probably not. Either way though, 105Pts would be the second highest single point total Doyle has posted over his storied career, already just two points shy of matching his highest total in a Stealth sweater. And one last thing, Doyle is also on pace and just a couple points shy of setting a single season point total record for the Stealth franchise, currently owned by Jeff Zywicki, set last year with 90.

LOOSEBALLS

Current Single Season Record Holder: Geoff Snider 244 (2008)
2009’s Contender: Brodie Merrill 161LB after 11 games

Although Snider currently leads the league with 161 loosies, with only four possible games left for him to play, Merrill’s LB per outing average actually has him on pace to finish ahead of Snider, with the Jax still needing to play five more times. And based on his current average, you would have to think, had it not been for that nasty windpipe fracture, Snider woulda likely broke his own LB record, set only last year. Had Snider fit into all 16 games this year, his current LB average would have seen him at around 265LB. However, Merrill is on pace to hit 234 ground balls this year, which definitely gives him enough room to touch Snider’s total from last winter. Should be an interesting one to track.

PENALTY MINUTES

Current Single Season Record Holder: Geoff Snider 103 (2008)
2009’s Contender: Eric Martin 79PIM after 11 games

Penalty minutes is a hard one to figure out early in the season. Rich Catton led the league in sin bin sit downs a month in, but since then has only picked up 12 minutes in the box. Right now, Meat leads the league with almost 80 minutes in the bin, but you’d have to think it’s pretty unlikely he’ll get another, almost 25, the rest of the way. Snider’s record is probably safe unless Martin listens to the voices in his head. Prove us wrong though Eric… prove us wrong.  

SAVES

Current Single Season Record Holder: Rob Blasdell 644 (2002)
2009’s Contender: Matt Disher 443SV after 5 games

Dish may not lead the league in minutes played anymore, that honour goes to Matt Vinc with 676Min, but the potential keeper of the year does still lead the NLL in stops with 443 saves. In fact, at his current pace, Disher is set to tie Blazer’s 644 from 2002 in Albany. With Portland still having to play the high scoring Roughnecks twice before the season closes up, this record is definitely up for grabs.

ROOKIE SCORING

Current Single Season Record Holder: Gavin Prout 82 (2002)
2009’s Contender: Rhys Duch 70Pts after 13 games

Although we didn’t look at this rook number back in January, both Duch and Blazers’ rookie phenom Daryl Veltman’s chances of breaking Prout’s 82 is a stat we’ve mentioned several times throughout 2009. Currently, Duch is just 12 points away from matching history and on pace to etch 86Pts over top of Prout’s 82 in the books. Veltman is on pace to hit an impressive 77 himself. The crazy thing from that 2002 season… although Prout set the rookie standard that year, the league gave Toronto Rock rookie Blaine Manning the Rookie of the Year Award. That’s not the crazy part though, cuz Manning did have an outstanding season in TO, but the crazy part is that Prout was named to the All-Pro Second Team while Manning was left off both First and Second teams. Make sense? Last year, the highest scoring rookie, Jordan Hall, was also passed over in place of Craig Point. If Duch breaks the record, does it make him a lock for ROY honours? Not in this league.

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