2024 NLL Player Rankings: Week 10

After the first several weeks of the 2023-24 National Lacrosse League season are complete, The Lax Mag will publish a weekly NLL Player Ranking, examining the league’s Top 30 players from Week 1 right up until the end of the regular season.

TLM’s Top 30 NLL Player Rankings have nothing to do with reputations, career resumes, success in past seasons, whether we know a player personally, recognizing deserving players who’ve previously been passed over, player popularity, the size of their social media following, whether you slide into their DMs, or who others around the league tell us should get hype.

Our rankings, which only take into consideration a player’s performance for the current regular season, will be calculated using both our star-rating system after each game, but also a player’s season-long statistical position (based on per-game average, not full-season totals) across the league. Only players who have played two-thirds of their team’s games will qualify.

Click here for an even more in-depth description of our scoring system.

Zach Manns, Saskatchewan Rush

This week, in addition to our updated weekly Top 30, we also examine which players have seen the biggest point-producing spikes in their stats versus last year, plus the players who’ve seen the biggest point drop offs in comparison to 2023’s year-end numbers.

Several plus players are ones that have found themselves on new teams in 2024, but a handful of club newbies also land on our negative numbers rundown. Others, like say Kiel Matisz in New York, have seen a positional change impact their stat line. Playing primarily an offensive role with the Riptide after being traded over the offseason by the Philadelphia Wings, Matisz has nearly matched his entire 2023 point total in just seven starts this year. And then others have played, well, just a hullva lot better than what we saw from them a season ago.

Below, see whose points-per-game number this year has seen the biggest increase, plus the averages that have taken the biggest statistical hits.

Adam Charalambides, Vancouver Warriors (Photo: Jordan Leigh)

Top 20 Points Per Game Increase

1. Zach Manns (Saskatchewan) +3.35
2. Ryan Lanchbury (Rochester) +3.00
3. Callum Crawford (Panther City) +2.69
4. Tre Leclaire (San Diego) +2.31
5. Kiel Matisz (New York) +2.13
6. Ethan Walker (Albany) +1.99
7. Jesse King (Calgary) +1.64
8. Sam Firth (Albany) +1.62
9. Ryan Smith (Rochester) +1.59
10. Kyle Waters (Rochester) +1.44
11. Sam LeClair (Philadelphia) +1.40
12. Adam Charalambides (Vancouver) +1.39
13. Ryan Martel (Vancouver) +1.36
14. Reilly O’Connor (New York) +1.32
15. Tanner Cook (Calgary) +1.30
16. Mathieu Gautier (Panther City) +1.21
17. Jake Boudreau (Saskatchewan) +1.08
18. Austin Staats (San Diego) +1.03
19. Haiden Dickson (Calgary) +1.01
20. Patrick Kaschalk (Albany) +0.98

Haiden Dickson, Calgary Roughnecks (Photo: John Harrison)

Top 20 Points Per Game Decrease

1. Andrew Kew (Georgia) -2.25
2. Charlie Bertrand (Las Vegas) -2.12
3. Blaze Riorden (Philadelphia) -1.81
T4. Mark Matthews (Toronto) -1.78
T4. Thomas Hoggarth (Calgary) -1.78
6. Kyle Killen (Vancouver) -1.60
7. Dane Dobbie (San Diego) -1.47
8. Brendan Bomberry (Georgia) -1.38
9. Zed Williams (Colorado) -1.34
10. Jeff Teat (New York) -1.27
11. Josh Medeiros (Panther City) -1.22
12. Curtis Dickson (San Diego) -1.13
13. Corey Small (Toronto) -1.11
14. Kyle Buchanan (Buffalo) -1.08
15. Josh Currier (Calgary) -1.01
16. Holden Cattoni (Philadelphia) -1.00
17. Joe Resetarits (Philadelphia) -0.94
18. Dalton Sulver (Buffalo) -0.91
T19. Bryan Cole (Georgia) -0.83
T19. Zach Currier (Calgary) -0.83

Josh Byrne, Buffalo Bandits (Photo: Christian Bender)

We’ve also got a new number on our weekly Top 30 leaderboard with Josh Byrne taking over the top spot. Byrne, one of only four players last year to sit #1 in our season-long player rankings (Dhane Smith, Jeff Teat and Connor Fields were the other three), registered his fifth 7+ point night in Buffalo’s 16-14 win over Toronto last week and also currently leads the NLL in overall points (47). At his current point-producing pace, Byrne would end the year in and around 120 points, which would be by far his highest single-season total yet.

Calgary’s Jesse King, whose Roughnecks have played just five games so far this season (Georgia already has eight GPs logged), comes in at #3 while leading the NLL in points per game (7.20). Also, Callum Crawford crashes the Top 10 after his incredible 14-point performance for Panther City last weekend. He jumped from 11th to second behind only King in average point production (7.00). Toronto goalie Nick Rose, who allowed double digits for just the second time all season in that previously mentioned L to Buffalo, still has season-long stats (9.61 GAA + .810 SV%, both tops in the league) and a star-rating average that keeps him super high on the list. Last week, Rose became the first goalie to ever lead our Top 30 over the past three seasons. Both Colorado’s Eli McLaughlin and Panther City’s Will Malcom crack the 30 for the first time this year.

NLL Top 30: Week 10

TW. (LW) Player, Team (Position)

1. (3) Josh Byrne, Buffalo (F)
2. (1) Nick Rose, Toronto (G)
3. (4) Jesse King, Calgary (F)
4. (2) Connor Fields, Rochester (F)
5. (5) Wes Berg, San Diego (F)
6. (8) Jeff Teat, New York (F)
7. (9) Dhane Smith, Buffalo (F)
8. (6) Ryan Smith, Rochester (F)
9. (14) Callum Crawford, Panther City (F)
10. (10) Jake Withers, Halifax (D)
11. (7) Mitch Jones, Philadelphia (F)
12. (13) Austin Staats, San Diego (F)
13. (11) Alex Simmons, Albany (F)
14. (12) Mitch de Snoo, Toronto (D)
15. (17) Matt Gilray, Rochester (T)
16. (16) Zach Manns, Saskatchewan (F)
17. (18) Randy Staats, Halifax (F)
18. (22) Chris Origlieri, San Diego (G)
19. (20) Christian Del Bianco, Calgary (G)
20. (15) Shayne Jackson, Georgia (F)
21. (21) Ethan Walker, Albany (F)
22. (25) Steve Priolo, Buffalo (D)
23. (26) Lyle Thompson, Georgia (F)
24. (29) Brad Kri, Toronto (D)
25. (24) Doug Jamieson, Albany (G)
26. (NR) Eli McLaughlin, Colorado (F)
27. (19) Brett Dobson, Georgia (G)
28. (28) Ryan Benesch, Halifax (F)
29. (23) Challen Rogers, Toronto (T)
30. (NR) Will Malcom, Panther City (F)