NLL Insider

Past NLL All-Rookie Teams

Insider Bob Chavez provided you the official 2008 NLL Rookie of the Year and All-Rookie Team selections, yesterday. Craig Point of Minnesota took home the ROTY hardware. Chavez says it wasn’t much of a suprise, but he was the only Insider who had earlier picked Point to take the award with the rest of the votes going to New York’s Jordan Hall. I asked the league if it was a close vote, but they wouldn’t disclose. Congrats to Craig Point.

The rest of your 2008 NLL All-Rookie Team selections include, in no particular order, Jordan Hall (New York), Tyler Codron (Portland), Bobby McBride (Chicago), Jamie Rooney (Philadelphia) and Merrick Thompson (Philadelphia).

There are some very good players in that line-up. Will they be stars for years to come? After a 2007 NLL All-Rookie Team selection, Athan Iannucci was the obvious sophomore standout this year. You may have heard, he broke Gary Gait’s single season goal scoring record.

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NLL Rookies in the Playoffs

So the NLL Divisional Finals are already upon us! The New York Titans will travel to the Buffalo Bandits and the Portland Lumberjax visit the Calgary Roughnecks. Both Divisional Finals are on Saturday night.

That also means there are only a handful of NLL rookies still playing in the post-season. Earlier today we took a look back at all the rookies that will be watching these games on B2, now let’s take a quick peek at the rookies we’re going to see in action this weekend.

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NLL Year-end Rookie Report

Rookies created a big impact on the 2008 National Lacrosse League (NLL) season. You’ve got some players among the top of their teams in points, and others playing outstanding defense. This post takes a look back at the play of your rookies over the 08 season, for those guys already at the links.

Chicago

Bobby McBride (13gp, 8g, 21points, 73gbs) is being considered for an NLL All-Rookie Team selection. One of the older rookies this season with prior MSL experience, McBride was clutch for the ‘Rox during their playoff run, and he did it while dealing with an injury. The speedy transition player dressed Games 13 and 14 with a broken thumb and missed the team’s last two games due to injury.

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Insider’s NLL All-Rookie Team

Last week I dropped some names for possible NLL All-Rookie Team. This week I’ve included the feedback of other Insiders and together, by default, we’ve come up with an All-Rookie squad.

Your official NLL All-Rookie team will be comprised of the top 6 Rookie of the Year vote getters, 1 goaltender maximum. There is no required breakdown but there’s usually a good cross-section of positions.

Official NLL balloting is conducted this week and closed before the first playoff game. All awards will be announced shortly, leading up to the championship game.

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NLL Insider picks for Rookie of the Year

We dropped an NLL All-Rookie team selection on you today so, of course, we also had to provide a vote for a Rookie of the Year (ROTY).

Overwhelmingly, but not unanimously, the Insider vote for the 2008 ROTY went to the No. 1 overall selection of the 2007 NLL Entry Draft, Jordan Hall.

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Rookies looking forward to playoff-like game

“I’m loving the league,” said National Lacrosse League (NLL) rookie star Jordan Hall, of the New York Titans. “I love playing in this league. It’s a lot of fun and I get excited for it every weekend.”

“It’s fast. I think it’s a lot faster than (WLA) ball back home.”

“There’s that pretty funny story you guys did on Mitch Belisle going ‘this is awesome’, but I kind of feel the same way,” added Hall.

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2008 NLL All-Rookie Team Fight

There’s just one week left in the NLL 2008 regular season before the playoffs hit.

Later I’ll bring you a breakdown of every rook this season, kind of like our intense NLL Rookie Preview that had a look at each team’s rookie roster. We’ll see which draft picks performed and call-out those that didn’t live up to expectations.

This week, the important spot to be is on our Top 10 Rookie Rankings (or this week’s variation of the Top 10), because all of those guys are still in contention for an All-Rookie team award. And with it - with the right agent - a year-end bonus.

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Top 10 NLL Rookies: Week 16

Crazy action in the NLL all season, and thought it would make sense to add some new blood to the Top 10 NLL Rookie Rankings this week, with only two more weekends to go before the post-season hits.

In Week 16, three new players crack your Top 10 in the 8-10 spots.

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Top 10 NLL Rookies: Week 15

Providing a quick rookie rankings this week as not much changed over the weekend, despite some crazy lacrosse where as Tutka noted yesterday, nine of the twelve teams posted wins.

Just one new addition to our Top 10. The No. 1 seed? It’s still Jordan Hall.

It is interesting to note as well, Hall is Top 20 in the league in points and loose balls. Only four other players are in that category: Jeff Zywicki, John Grant Jr, Athan Iannucci and Mark Steenhuis.

Anyway, here are your Top 10 Rookies after Week 15 in the NLL.

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NLL Rookie Rankings: Week 14

Last week when we polled the Insiders and players, the consensus prediction for Rookie of the Year was New York’s Jordan Hall, the No. 1 overall selection in last season’s NLL Entry Draft. And although the Titans didn’t play last weekend, Hall did further strengthen his position as the best rookie in this year’s rookie crop after contenders Craig Point, Merrick Thomson and Frank Resetarits again had sub-par performances.

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Belisle says scoring is ‘awesome’

When NLL Insider interviewed New York Titan rookie Mitch Belisle last week, he told us guys still bug him about one of his first NLL shifts when he decided to jump the boards, look around and shout out in excitement ’this is awesome’.

Needless to say, Mitch thought picking up his first two career NLL goals in another Titans’ victory last week was also ‘awesome’.

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NLL Rookie Rankings: Week 13

Some rocky play from NLL rookies the past couple of weeks, but Jordan Hall continued to shine and keeps his position at the top of our Rookie Rankings.

Again, a rookie also contributed big in a one-goal game as Peter Jacobs scored the game winner in a 16-15 victory over the Western Division’s top team, Colorado. Though Insider Bob Chavez may have been able to score that one with Dan Dawson breaking down the D and feeding Jacobs who was alone on the crease with loads of time. Still, the league’s youngest player finished and now has eight points in six games played.

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NLL Rookie Rankings: Week 12

Like Paul Tutka noted earlier this week in his ranking of top players at each position, Jordan Hall and Craig Point may be the front two runners for Rookie of the Year this year. But selecting the All Rookie team will be tough as there are a lot of good ballers in this year’s rookie crop.

That said, here are your Top 10 NLL Rookies after Week 12.

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Rookies playing crucial roles

Colin Doyle noted in his mid-season thoughts last week, that 2008 in the NLL is featuring a great rookie crop. He’s right. And this weekend rookies could again determine outcomes of games, as they have all season.

A good game by a rookie this year can help elevate his team to victory. Here’s a quick look at some NLL rooks who need to play well if their teams are to win this weekend.

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Rookie Rankings: Week 10

Earlier this week in his Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down post, Tutka noted how Duke’s Matt Danowski scored a sweet goal over the weekend. Well, the goal made Sportscenter’s Top 10 and IL TV has the clip.

Go to about the :50 mark of the video highlights to check it out.

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NLL Rookie Rankings: Top 20

The Rookie of the Week award has to go out to Buffalo Bandits’ goaltender Daniel Sams. The third string back-up put up a franchise record 60 saves in the Bandits’ 13-8 victory over Chicago.

Despite being outshot 68-39, the Bandits put together another win. Buffalo now sits tied for third in the Eastern Division with Toronto, half-a-game up on New York and one game ahead of Rochester. The Bandits are expected to finally get their No. 1 starter Mike Thompson back in their next game versus Philly. Thompson’s missed the last few games due to a concussion. Back-up Ken Montour was also injured with a concussion, forcing Sams into action.

It was Sams’ first start in the NLL. 60 saves… Not a bad way to start.

Other rookie tenders this year include Joel Weber in Portland and Kevin Croswell in Minnesota.

Weber has yet to see any action as a third-string goalie behind Matt King and Dallas Eliuk. Croswell is Minny’s back-up. He’s played in two games this season to relieve all-star starter Nick Patterson. Combined, Croswell’s played about a quarter (13:45 to be exact) and stopped 13 of 18 shots.

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NLL Rookie of the Year Fight

All season we’ve been closely tracking the top rookies, but after eight weeks, there’s still debate as to who is this year’s best.

Love the talk on the NLL Forums lately on rookies in general, and who you’re predicting to be this year’s Rookie of the Year (ROTY). This week we’ve taken a closer look at the top candidates for ROTY and predicted who’ll take the award at season’s end.

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Q&A with Rochester Rookie, Matt Lyons

Matt Lyons was the No. 11 overall pick in the 2007 NLL Entry Draft by Boston, and then selected No. 13 overall by Rochester in the dispersal draft.

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NLL Rookie Rankings

Through the first-quarter of the season we’ve rotated rookies in and out of the Top-10 Rookie Rankings. This week (Week 7 review) shakes things up a bit. Four new players are featured within the Top-10.

That’s in large part to guys formerly in the Top-10 sitting recently, and new guys getting an opportunity to perform.

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NLL Rookie Report

Most NLL rookies have cracked into their team’s respective line-ups by now.

Highly touted Frank Resetarits, Steve Hutchins and Dylan Llord all got into their first NLL game two weekends ago. Cory Conway also got his first taste of NLL action just this past weekend.

So, who are the Top Rookies after six weeks?

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