NLL Insider Top 50: Ryan Ward #46

October 12th, 2009 by Paul Tutka

Ryan Ward (Photo: Dave Sanders)

At his best, Ryan Ward is easily one of the top floor generals in the game today.

Based on how things played out in Minnesota over the past 365 days, ultimately resulting in the Swarm dealing the former first round draft pick to the Edmonton Rush in a blockbuster move, Ward’s ‘09 definitely wasn’t one of his strongest seasons in the bigs, especially a year after arguably his best in ‘08, at times, an MVP contender that winter.

Now in Edmonton, a team looking for someone to take over their offense and lift it to new heights, will Ward be able to do what others have never really come close to since the Rush set-up shop in “The City of Champions”?

Ward was ranked 23rd overall in our Top 50 last year, surging in ‘08 with some almost unmatched clutch play, QB’ing Minny’s O and holding down a solid chemistry with dispersal draft pickup Andy Secore (now in Edmonton) and former rookie of the year Craig Point (now in Rochester), and sitting 16th in league scoring, all while leading the Swarm to a 10-6 record (started the year 6-0) and post-season berth.

Last year however, things appeared to go in reverse for both Ward and the Swarm, many feeling one had a lot to do with the other, although other pieces of the puzzle also struggled throughout ‘09 in Minnesota.

Ward dropped 15 points and 13 goals from ‘08 to ‘09, his shooting percentage mirroring those numbers, ending last winter at .119%. His 20 goals last year were his fewest since ‘06 and just two more than his rookie total of 18, his point total the smallest since his split season in Philly and Minny in ‘05.

With that said though, Ward is still definitely a Top 50 ball player in the pros, and like we mentioned above, at his best, he’s probably a Top 5 O leader and has shown previously in his career that he’s capable of taking his crew to the big show, like in ‘03 when he posted 88 points, was named WLA MVP and won a Mann Cup with the Victoria Shamrocks.

2010 will see Ward back with Secore, the two playing for Derek Keenan’s new-look Rush. Secore and Ward sat one-and-two atop the Swarm’s scoring charts in ‘08 respectively and combined for an impressive 45 power-play points. If the two can reignite that magic (Secore’s stats also dropped significantly last year by 13, and that’s with playing two additional games for Edmonton) that had Minny as the third highest scoring team in the league in ‘08 and the franchise’s best ever man-up unit, it could be on helluva season for a Rush team looking for a lot more than their league low 159 goals last year.

Fact: In Ward’s last full season of junior lacrosse, a year he led BC in scoring with 109 points, Ward played with two NLL Insiders. Who were they? You probably guessed Ted Jenner, a lifelong Shamrock and former pro first round draft pick, but you mighta missed the other, Steve Kojima, who fit into three games for the Shamrocks that summer as a call-up, two years later leading the Coquitlam Adanacs in scoring. Also, since Ward led the BCJALL in scoring in ‘00, there have been just two other Jr. Shamrocks to do the same, Lewis Ratlciff (‘02) and Scott Ranger (‘03).

Note: Ward is our first returnee from last year’s Top 50. Since we’ve had several emails asking… there will be 19 new names on this year’s list, which obviously means we dropped 19 too. And although we went over it in the first post this year, again, since we’ve been bombarded with emails, guys like John Grant or Scott Evans, who were injured for all of last year, will not be included on this year’s list. No player missing all of last year or expected to be out for all of this year will be included. If a player is anticipated to potentially play this year even though currently injured, they may still land a spot in this year’s Top 50.

# (last year)
46 (23) Ryan Ward, Edmonton Rush
47 (NR) Kyle Ross, Boston Blazers
48 (NR) Matt King, Calgary Roughnecks
49 (NR) Mac Allen, Rochester Knighthawks
50 (NR) Nick Inch, Minnesota Swarm