The 2024 NLL trade deadline: Dissecting the deals that got done
Paul Dawson (Photo: Michael Hetzel)
There have been a few National Lacrosse League trade deadlines that provided plenty of eye-popping entertainment. Enough to use these đź‘€ even.
We highlighted one of them yesterday.
This year’s deadline day was certainly not one of those. In fact, as far as trade deadlines go, 2024’s had to be one of the league’s quietest on record - like crickets quiet.
With that said, four two-team transactions got done. Three that felt very much like deadline-day deals, and one that definitely didn’t.
The Lax Mag takes a closer look at all of Tuesday’s trades to determine what exactly each team got.
Chris Wardle (Photo: Michel Hetzel)
San Diego receives: Chris Wardle
Colorado receives: Conditional third-round selection in 2025 NLL Entry Draft
Wardle has singed one-year deals the last few summers, the 31-year-old forward currently playing in his ninth NLL season. While Wardle’s regular-season stats have always been kinda mid, his off-ball play is where he is most valuable, an area San Diego’s star forwards will appreciate they beefed up in. Wardle, who leaves a Mammoth team that has eliminated the Seals from the playoffs the previous two seasons, has seen his post-season stats spike during Colorado’s recent Cup runs in 2022 and 2023. In 14 playoff games over the past two years, Wardle has 11 goals and an even more impressive 25 assists. That’s solid secondary production from a guy also working his ass off to create space for offensive success.
Whether a one-year rental or San Diego secures him for longer, the Seals didn’t have to give up all that much for a potential post-season difference maker in Wardle.
Bryce Sweeting, Buffalo Bandits (Photo: Michael Hetzel)
Buffalo receives: Paul Dawson and a third-round selection in the 2024 NLL Entry Draft
Colorado receives: Second-round selection in the 2024 NLL Entry Draft and second-round selection in the 2025 NLL Entry Draft
In our preseason team rankings, we had the Bandits at #1, and said, “They lost Ethan O’Connor in free agency and it sounds like they’ll be without both Bryce Sweeting and Adam Bomberry for most if not the entire season due to injury. That’s three full-time defenders gone. The same sorta thing happened up front last year. Players stepped up. They won the Cup.”
Well, the Cup Finals are far from starting, but those defensive losses are proving much more difficult to overcome than the offensive ones a year earlier.
Another expiring one-year contract in Colorado, Dawson gives the Bandits size, toughness, Cup-winning experience, and a vet body that can help fill in for those MIA defenders.
Matt Vinc, Buffalo Bandits (Photo: Michael Hetzel)
Buffalo is giving up 2.1 more goals per game this year versus their regular season last year. Four of their six losses this year have been by either a one or two GD. Even most their wins in 2024 have been tremendously tight.
GOAT goalie Matt Vinc, who returned to action this past weekend (a win) after missing Buffalo’s previous two due to injury (both losses), would clearly benefit from seeing a lower percentage of quality looks on cage the rest of the way.
Can their deadline-day addition help here?
Dawson’s 12 blocked shots this year in Denver would sit him second on Buffalo’s roster behind only Steve Priolo (16). They’ll need that and more from him while they continue to iron out those own-end creases that have clearly negatively impacted them in the standings.
Rochester Knighthawks, 2014 NLL Champions (Photo: Ward Laforme Jr.)
Vinc and Dawson also did pretty well playing together in Rochester, winning a couple of NLL Cups there, and also recently taking a Mann Cup title as Peterborough Lakers teammates too. Dawson was a late season add that summer too.
Two future seconds for a player that is creeping closer to retirement, might have not re-signed anyways, and a third rounder is a good overall get back for the Mammoth, who aren’t waving a white flag just yet, but must realize it’ll take a miracle to make it to a third straight Finals.
Albany receives: John Wagner and a fourth-round selection in the 2024 NLL Entry Draft
Las Vegas receives: Cam Badour and a first-round selection in the 2024 NLL Entry Draft
Many were surprised to see Wagner, one of the Desert Dog’s better defenders with a year to go on last August’s two-year contract, get moved yesterday.
A first rounder for Wagner is a decent return. Badour, taken 49th overall in the 2022’s third round, cost Albany a fourth-round pick in this year’s draft in an earlier move with the Saskatchewan Rush, so a fourth going back makes sense.
Albany, who already sports one of the most athletic defensive units in the league and an O press that can connect consistently, gets a player in Wagner who kinda fits their mold pretty perfectly. While Glenn Clark didn’t go on a spending spree yesterday, a buyer’s move like this one still tells the league that they aren’t satisfied with simply a much (maybe most) improved regular season. For a team that was almost record-breaking bad in 2023, that’s quite a statement a season later.
It's likely that the first Vegas got will be late in the round based on Albany’s ridiculously good record. It should still get them an everyday asset though, hopefully one as dependable as Wagner had been.
Taggart Clark (Photo: Christian Bender)
New York receives: Taggart Clark and a second-round selection in the 2024 NLL Entry Draft
Philadelphia receives: First round selection in the 2024 NLL Entry Draft and a third-round selection in the 2025 NLL Entry Draft.
This is the deal that definitely didn’t have a deadline-day vibe, but as NLL.com points out, the Riptide have wanted Clark for a while now.
You never know, because one of them is still two drafts away, but the second and third selections swapped, probably won’t be massively different in value. From last year’s third round; Zack Kearney (Toronto), Nick Rowlett (drafted by Georgia, now with Philadelphia), Sean Kriwokon (Colorado), Elijah Gash (Panther City) and Minto Cup-winning captain Andrew Vradenburg (Halifax) have all been rostered and most have already played in the league this year. While some are still at school, that’s more 2023 third rounders in the NLL right now versus the second so far. Again, you never know.
The talk from everyone The Lax Mag spoke to after this trade was that a first was a lot to lose here. That’s no knock on Clark, who performed well for the Wings in most of the seven starts he saw, and is still most certainly considered a high-quality prospect. And yes, Clark is technically a former first-round pick, but a first rounder in that laughably long 2022 opening round that had 23 total picks due to compensatory selections. Clark was taken at 23.
Tyson Gibson, Colorado Mammoth (Photo: Jack Dempsey)
What’s also important to note is that first is not New York’s own (which they had previously pretty much traded for Brent Noseworthy), but rather Colorado’s (via the Tyson Gibson trade), and with the way the Mammoth are playing, that will likely be a sky-high selection as far as draft order. Right now, Colorado is in 14th place, just half a game ahead of last-place Vancouver.
So, why does this move make sense for New York, outside of their brass being big Taggart Clark fans?
Well, as we pointed out this week on Instagram, New York’s roster is one of the smallest teams in the NLL, especially up front. Clark is now their second tallest forward (behind only Kiel Matisz) and has above-average size in comparison to the rest of their offense (Clark is 6’3”, 195 lbs.).
Clark was never projected to be an NLL team’s offensive leader, but rather a good depth forward, maybe more of a complimentary piece. In order for New York’s offense to perform at a higher level than they are now (their 11 goals per game is 11th best in the NLL right now, which feels super low considering who sits at the tippy top of their O depth charts) they desperately need complimentary players that can perform consistently alongside always MVP convo starter, Jeff Teat. They’ve found a few, but need more. Could Clark be their next one? Maybe.
And as far as the Wings go, what could end up being the first overall pick in this year’s draft is a damn fine return.
Philly made significant changes to their roster last summer, including getting younger (they had previously been the oldest team in the league during both the 2022 and 2023 seasons). While playoffs were obviously the goal in 2024, at 4-7, they’d need a helluva run here to jump a handful of teams in order to qualify. Again, no knock on Clark, but dealing him does not negatively impact this year’s playoff push. They lose a promising prospect, but have positioned themselves to get a better one in September.
But where will that first rounder land?
The Mammoth still see Rochester (March 23), Buffalo (April 5), Las Vegas (April 13), Halifax (April 20), and…
Philadelphia (April 12) to close out this year’s campaign.