NLL Insider

Daryl Veltman (Photo: Boston Blazers)

No offense to Daryl Veltman, who we had ranked #1 as the ‘08 draft class’s top prospect in pre-draft rankings, but few at this point last year woulda pegged him to crash the rookie scoring record with the expansion Boston Blazers in ‘09.

Although Veltman fell just short of Gavin Prout’s 82 rookie points (77 in 15 games), Rhys Duch later breaking Prout’s numbers, Veltman did put his stamp on the game like few first-year players before him, a crucial part of the Blazers’ breakout first year back in the bigs and undoubtedly a big piece of their future.

Even though Veltman’s 77-points ranked him behind just NLL MVP Dan Dawson on Boston’s leaderboard last year, also fitting him into the league’s top 15 point-getters, the one stat that doesn’t always get mentioned with Veltman is his equally impressive 92-looseballs, easily the best loosie numbers of any of the Blazers’ O specific guys, and also some of the better forward scoops digits in the entire league. He was 30th in league LB rankings, but seventh when looking at forwards (which also includes Mark Steenhuis and Jordan Hall, who also do some work at the other end of the floor too).

The above comes from pure hustle, but also cuz of bloodlines. Daryl’s uncle, Jim Veltman, was never the fastest guy on the court, but he was almost always the smartest, making him the greatest loosie vacuum the NLL has ever seen. The red headed younger Velts has the same smarts and that one step ahead of you mentality, and it showed last year both on the rug and the stat sheets.

Veltman was also leaned on heavily in the Blazers’ lone post-season game last year, a somewhat disappointing 11-8 loss to the Buffalo Bandits, factoring in with either a goal or a helper on seven of Boston’s eight goals.

In only ten WLA regular season games with the Coquitlam Adanacs, Veltman still finished second on team scoring with 47-points, in a pretty decent return to BC courts.

Fact: Veltman was a Jr. A scoring champ with the Orangeville Northmen after a great couple years playing for the Halton Hills Bulldogs. Players he finished ahead of on the scoring leaderboard in ‘05 when he topped the loop with 102-points? Shawn Evans, Ryan Benesch and Cody Jamieson all trailed Veltman that summer. Maybe we shouldn’t have been that surprised by his pro rookie 77 last year.

Check out Veltman’s rookie highlight reel courtesy of the Boston Blazers below.

# (last year)
33 (NR) Daryl Veltman, Boston Blazers
34 (NR) Ian Hawksbee, Edmonton Rush
35 (NR) Phil Sanderson, Toronto Rock
36 (11) Ryan Cousins, Minnesota Swarm
37 (NR) Tyler Codron, Toronto Rock
38 (33) Luke Wiles, Washington Stealth
39 (47) Steve Toll, Rochester Knighthawks
40 (19) Blaine Manning, Toronto Rock
41 (37) Sean Pollock, Minnesota Swarm
42 (NR) Mike Carnegie, Calgary Roughnecks
43 (NR) Scott Stewart, Edmonton Rush
44 (NR) Kaleb Toth, Calgary Roughnecks
45 (NR) Matt Disher, Edmonton Rush
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

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