2024 NLL Player Rankings: Defensive Player of the Year

While The Lax Mag’s National Lacrosse League Player Rankings typically orders the league’s Top 30 players from #1 to #30 since soon after the league’s opening weekend and right up to the end of the regular season, now that we’re in playoff mode, we’re shifting focus to our NLL year-end awards.

Specifically, who our rankings system (more on that here) says should win all of the NLL’s most important end-of-season honours (our award-winning history here), although expect an extra one from the league this year.

Latrell Harris, Toronto Rock (Photo: Ryan McCullough)

Defensive Player of the Year

Since 2012, only six different players have been voted the NLL’s Defensive Player of the Year: Kyle Rubisch (2012-2015), Ryan Dilks (2016), Jason Noble (2017), Graeme Hossack (2018-2020), Mitch de Snoo (2022) and Latrell Harris (2023). Three of those past winners find themselves in our Top 5 today, while the two others have been very recent finalists themselves.

Not all that surprisingly, all competed for clubs who allowed better than average shots against in 2024, including a former Cup-winning captain few if anyone has included in DPOTY talk this season. Hell, his own team didn’t pick him as their top-performing defender this year. Our year-long analytics say otherwise.

Robert Hope, Colorado Mammoth (Photo: John Harrison)

5. Robert Hope

Age: 32
Team: Colorado Mammoth
Seasons: 9
From: Peterborough, ON

Look, going from being 2x Cup Finalists and a recent Cup winner to the dead-ass-last place team in the league doesn’t leave a lot to be too positive about, but not so fast. Team captain Robert Hope is coming off his eighth straight 100+ loose ball season (133), his sixth 20+ caused turnover campaign (24), and he also led the league with a career-high 28 blocks, a singular stat that has been dictating success in this year’s playoffs. He was one of only four Colorado Mammoth players to play in all 18 of the team’s games and is easily one of the most relied on defenders in the league today. Never really recognized as one of this season’s top defenders likely due to the Mammoth’s underwhelming and injury-hindered results, Hope clearly has to be in 2024’s DPOTY conversation.

Ryan Dilks, Vancouver Warriors (Photo: Jordan Leigh)

4. Ryan Dilks

Age: 33
Team: Vancouver Warriors
Seasons: 12
From: Hamilton, ON

For those wondering how Ryan Dilks would do with the Vancouver Warriors after a decade defending for the Edmonton/Saskatchewan Rush, well, he did just fine. In fact, Dilks had arguably his most defensively dominant season since winning the NLL’s DPOTY award eight years ago. This year, Dilks set a new career high for loose balls (102) and blocked shots (14), plus had his highest caused turnover count (46) since that remarkable 2016 season in Saskatoon (51). His 46 CTOs led the league, by a lot (Mitch de Snoo was second with 38) and his combined 60 caused turnovers + blocks was the highest combo total of any player in the NLL. Maybe more importantly, he served as an irreplaceable leader for a Warriors locker room that has had much upheaval in recent years. “As a team, we feel that Ryan has been better than advertised,” said Vancouver Head Coach & GM Curt Malawsky. ‘We knew he was a great teammate and an even better leader. But he has exceeded all expectations. Being a good teammate first is something this organization really prides itself on. No better person exemplifies that than Dilksy.”

Graeme Hossack, Halifax Thunderbirds (Photo: Trevor MacMillan)

3. Graeme Hossack

Age: 31
Team: Halifax Thunderbirds
Seasons: 8
From: Port Perry, ON

His offensive efficiency saw a bit of a bump back to what we’re used to seeing from Graeme Hossack (his 17 points this year were the third highest of his career), but it’s obviously what he does defensively that sets Hossack apart from most others across the league. We see far fewer full-on body checks like was the norm through the 90s and early 00s, but the league office musta missed sending that memo to Hossack, who again had some of the season’s most hellacious hits. Entering our season-long weekly Top 30 in Week 13, Hossack stayed on our countdown for the rest of the year, one of just a handful of defensive specialists whose player rankings point total had him that high for that long. While he shares the team’s defensive leadership role with Jake Withers, our pick for 2024’s TOPTY, the entire Halifax defensive unit doesn’t get nearly enough credit for the work they do. Why? Below are the number of shots each team saw this year, Halifax third behind only the San Diego Seals and Vancouver Warriors. Hossack led Halifax with 19 blocks this year, just a single CTO away (27) from matching Withers for the team lead too.

It’s also worth noting that San Diego’s Kyle Rubisch and Georgia’s Adam Wiedemann ranked sixth and eighth in our DPOTY rankings respectively, their defensive units not so coincidently sitting in the top third of the league in shots allowed. Buffalo’s Steve Priolo finished seventh.

Vancouver 847
San Diego 856
Halifax 861
Toronto 876
Georgia 901
Saskatchewan 909
Colorado 912
Rochester 913
New York 921
Albany 931
Calgary 939
Las Vegas 940
Buffalo 954
Panther City 995
Philadelphia 1,024

Source: NLLStats.com

Brad Kri, Toronto Rock (Photo: Ryan McCullough)

2. Brad Kri

Age: 31
Team: Toronto Rock
Seasons: 10
From: Acton, ON

This is the third straight season we’ve ranked Brad Kri within our Top 3 end-of-season DPOTY ranking. He’s the only defenseman to pull that off. Last year, Mitch de Snoo missed a big chunk of Toronto’s season. This year, Latrell Harris was out all year long due to injury. Next to maybe only goalie Nick Rose (has started nearly every minute for the Rock since 2017), Kri is by far the team’s most consistent and called upon player, answering the bell every time. His LBs (132), CTOs (36) and career-best BLKs (17) were all sky high, again, this season. Like Graeme Hossack, Kri delivers one of today’s most menacing and memorable body checks, resulting in his fifth straight (full season) 30+ caused turnover campaign. The only DPOTY in NLL history to better that lengthy forced-turnover streak is future Hall of Famer Kyle Rubisch. Kri has yet to be voted the NLL’s DPOTY, but is a finalist for the award for the second straight year, and could very well win it.

Mitch de Snoo, Toronto Rock (Photo: Ryan McCullough)

1. Mitch de Snoo

Age: 31
Team: Toronto Rock
Seasons: 8
From: Oshawa, ON

From a pure defensive standpoint, it’s difficult to determine who provides the Toronto Rock more own-end value between Brad Kri and Mitch de Snoo. Statistically, they’re very similar in production (de Snoo: 164LB, 38CTO, 16BLK and Kri:132LB, 36CTO, 17BLK), both getting high-end assignments nightly while leading the team to the league’s lowest goals-against total (169 – their third straight sub 170 season, no other team coming close to that three-year average). de Snoo also adds some extra offensive kick (8G, 13A), which could honestly put him in the TPOTY debate, the two awards difficult to differentiate at times. If the NLL voters agree with us, de Snoo would become the fourth defenseman to win Defensive Player of the Year multiple times: Ryan Cousins (2007-2008), Kyle Rubisch (2012-2015) and Graeme Hossack (2018-2020). A de Snoo award win here would also give the Rock their third straight DPOTY nod, Toronto dominating with six finalist mentions over the past three years as well.