2025 NLL Player Rankings: Are today’s top professional players playing too much?
Ian MacKay, Buffalo Bandits (Photo: Greg Mason)
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 averages) across the league (more on both breakdowns below). Only players who have played two-thirds of their team’s games or more will qualify.
Click here for an even more in-depth breakdown of our scoring system.
Team Canada, 2024 WLBC (Photo: Candice Ward)
With the number of injuries we’ve seen to top NLL talent this year, The Lax Mag wondered, “Are today’s top professional players playing too much?”
These past two years especially have felt very full for players that competed in the 2023 World Lacrosse Championships in San Diego and then this past September the World Lacrosse Box Champions in Utica, all in addition to a full professional schedule that could include the National Lacrosse League and Premier Lacrosse League or NLL and various Senior A & B schedules.
Hell, Ian MacKay managed to play in all three levels last year after getting into a single game with the Six Nations Chiefs at the Mann Cup after his PLL season came to an end.
While North American indoor professional leagues like the National Hockey League and National Basketball Association play significantly more regular season and playoff games than an NLLer would (82 regular season and as many as 28 playoff games depending on series length for both pro hockey & basketball), an elite professional lacrosse player’s season stretches far longer through a full calendar year, leaving them little to any offseason to allow their bodies to fully rest and recoup. The league’s max lengths for players that go all the way…
NHL: Early October to Late July (Approx. 10 months)
NBA: Late October to Mid-June (Approx. 8.5 months)
Unlike lacrosse, who now has three versions of the sport played at the international level (field, box and sixes), hockey & basketball have just the one (we’re not counting field hockey for obvious reasons, but an NHLer playing on turf would be incredible), meaning less world championships for their pros (if permitted) to play in.
Steve Priolo, Dhane Smith and Ian MacKay (Photo: Ontario Lacrosse Association)
If you were a player like, let’s use MacKay again, that as a pro played in pretty much every possible level of lacrosse you could over the past year, his 12-month calendar would look like this…
NLL 2024: Early Dec. to Mid-May (Approx. 6.5 months)
PLL 2024: Early June to Early September (Approx. 4 months)
Mann Cup 2024: Mid-September (1 GP)
WLBC 2024: Mid-September to Late September (Approx. 1.5 weeks)
Bandits Training Camp: Mid-October to Late November (Approx. 5 weeks)
NLL 2025: Early Dec to TBD…
The above breakdown gave MacKay just a handful of weeks to rest between competition (if there was a between available), and that’s competition at the absolute highest level of the sport.
Do you think the 6-0 Buffalo Bandits mind the multitude of “bye” weekends that’ve already had to start this year’s season? Their brains may say, “No way”, but trust, their bodies in many cases are saying, “Shit, yes.”
With all that said, although MacKay played in the most leagues and/or events by a pro last year, he’s far from played in the most games.
Justin Martin, Toronto Rock (Photo: Christian Bender)
That honour belongs to the Toronto Rock’s Justin Martin. After playing a full season and pretty full playoffs for the Rock, then playing a full regular season and playoffs for the Six Nations Chiefs (MSL), which also included a Mann Cup series, Martin also then played the max number of games a Division A-level team could compete in at the WLBC in Utica, getting six GPs in for the bronze medal-winning Haudenosaunee.
That brought his total GP tally to 61 since the start of the 2024 NLL season and right up until last week with the Rock. Like MacKay, Martin has had minimal weeks to allow his body to bounce back, but continues to compete at a high level while regularly playing for top-ranked teams.
Below are the Top 50 games played since the start of the 2024 NLL regular season to today, and includes all those previously mentioned leagues and events (regular seasons + playoffs + national finals) that have taken place between the two NLL seasons. With many top NLLers having played in the 2023 World (Field) Lacrosse Championships, it’s likely the same data pull a year earlier would have looked very similar. Of note, Martin played in that 2023 international tournament too.
1. Justin Martin (Toronto) 61
T2. Matt Gilray (Rochester) 58
T2. Steve Priolo (Buffalo) 58
T2. Lyle Thompson (Georgia) 58
T5. Brendan Bomberry (Georgia) 57
T5. Tim Edwards (Colorado) 57
7. Dhane Smith (Buffalo) 56
T8. Bryan Cole (Georgia) 55
T8. Eli McLaughlin (Colorado) 55
T8. Jeremy Thompson (Georgia) 55
T11. Will Malcom (Colorado) 54
T11. Joe Resetarits (Philadelphia) 54
13. Jackson Suboch (Vancouver) 53
T14. Mathieu Gauthier (Calgary) 52
T14. Jesse King (Calgary) 52
T16. Shayne Jackson (Georgia) 51
T16. Cody Jamieson (Halifax) 51
T16. Adam Jay (Saskatchewan) 51
T16. Tyler Pace (Calgary) 51
T16. Jake Withers (Halifax) 51
T21. Colton Armstrong (Halifax) 49
T21. Haiden Dickson (Calgary) 49
T21. Travis Longboat (Albany) 49
T24. Mike Byrne (Albany) 48
T24. Thomas Hoggarth (Halifax) 48
T24. Joe Nardella (Albany) 48
T24. Clarke Petterson (Halifax) 48
T24. Kyle Rubisch (San Diego) 48
T29. Nick Chaykowsky (Albany) 47
T29. Larson Sundown (Ottawa) 47
T31. Tyson Bell (Halifax) 46
T31. Robert Hope (Colorado) 46
T31. Alex Pace (Philadelphia) 46
T34. Wes Berg (San Diego) 45
T34. Josh Byrne (Buffalo) 45
T34. Robert Church (Saskatchewan) 45
T34. Joey Cupido (Colorado) 45
T34. Patrick Dodds (Saskatchewan – H/O) 45
T34. Ian MacKay (Buffalo) 45
T40. Tyler Biles (Rochester) 44
T40. Tayler Jensen (Rochester) 44
T40. Chris Wardle (Free Agent) 44
T40. Chris Weier (Toronto) 44
T44. Mitch Jones (Philadelphia) 43
T44. Ryan Lanchbury (Rochester) 43
T44. Josh Medeiros (Rochester) 43
T44. Jeff Teat (Ottawa) 43
T44. Ryan Terefenko (Halifax) 43
T44. Zed Williams (Colorado) 43
50. Several tied at 42
Our list excluded goalies because the tracking of GPs across the various leagues were far too inconsistent to provide a proper breakdown - some leagues crediting an unused backup with a game played, others not. We also included as many Senior B NLLers as possible, but some league’s stats were clearly incomplete, inaccurate or even unavailable.
Chris Origlieri, San Diego Seals (Photo: Victoria Adkins)
With that said, it appears San Diego Seals stopper Chris Origlieri played the most games (and likely minutes) by a pro goalie since the start of the 2024 NLL season. He played virtually all of the SD’s minutes last year during the regular season and playoffs, split time with Victoria Shamrocks teammate Cam Dunkerley during the WLA regular season, but then took over the starting spot once the playoffs hit, which included a Mann Cup appearance. His stat line from both of those teams have him at 60 GPs, just one behind the list’s leader.
This year, it feels like more top-level pros are being moved to their NLL team’s injured reserve and/or physically unable to perform lists, and maybe after the slammed schedule so many of these players have experienced over the past two years, that shouldn’t come as much of a shock.
Many of the players who’ve gone through gruelling similar schedules in recent years aren’t on our GP countdown above because, well, they’ve sustained serious injuries and have missed games. While it doesn’t apply to all (like most of the Bandits), statistically speaking, many have seen drops in their per-game offensive & defensive averages this year. Ditto for Origlieri when comparing his 2024 to 2025 shot-stopping stats so far this season.
At one time not that long ago, NLL teams had attempted to (unsuccessfully) press players to limit or even give up their Canadian Senior seasons to avoid unavoidable wear & tear and worse yet, significant injuries – it’s usually a more physical game, and includes more GPs than a pro field lacrosse season. With lacrosse far from a full-time gig for most, and some players receiving a sweet summer-season payday for their Canadian club commitments, the NLL still can’t dictate what a player can or can’t do once their season has concluded. Neither can the PLL, who did, however, prevent their pros from playing Senior lacrosse during their own season of play for those exact same reasons.
So, are today’s top professional players playing too much? Follow TLM on Instagram @thelaxmag and let us know.
Below is this week’s updated NLL TOP 30, still led by Buffalo Dhane Smith, who over the past 14ish months, has played in the seventh most games amongst current NLLers.
Dhane Smith, Buffalo Bandits (Photo: Caroline Sherman)
NLL TOP 30: Week 11
TW. (LW) Player, Team (Pos.)
1. (1) Dhane Smith, Buffalo (F)
2. (2) Josh Byrne, Buffalo (F)
3. (3) Joe Resetarits, Philadelphia (F)
4. (4) Mitch Jones, Philadelphia (F)
5. (5) Zach Higgins, Ottawa (G)
6. (6) Matt Vinc, Buffalo (G)
7. (7) Robert Hope, Colorado (D)
8. (8) Jesse King, Calgary (F)
9. (9) Zach Currier, San Diego (T)
10. (14) Alex Simmons, Albany (F)
11. (10) Curtis Dickson, Calgary (F)
12. (17) Connor Fields, Rochester (F)
13. (11) Kyle Rubisch, San Diego (D)
14. (12) Holden Cattoni, Philadelphia (F)
15. (13) Randy Staats, Halifax (F)
16. (16) Aden Walsh, Vancouver (G)
17. (15) Clarke Petterson, Halifax (F)
18. (18) Connor Kelly, Colorado (F)
19. (19) Owen Grant, Vancouver (T)
20. (20) Lyle Thompson, Georgia (F)
21. (22) Zach Manns, Saskatchewan (F)
22. (23) Ryan Lanchbury, Rochester (F)
23. (24) Jake Boudreau, Saskatchewan (T)
24. (27) Matt Hossack, Saskatchewan (D)
25. (29) Jack Hannah, Las Vegas (F)
26. (NR) Ian MacKay, Buffalo (T)
27. (28) Mitch de Snoo, Toronto (D)
28. (NR) Jake Withers, Halifax (D)
29. (NR) Dillon Ward, Colorado (G)
30. (NR) Nick Weiss, Buffalo (T)