Clutch Kings: Rock, Seals, Staats and Swarm
Austin Staats, San Diego Seals (Photo: Kalea Vizmanos)
The Clutch Kings tracks an individual National Lacrosse League player’s game-tying, go-ahead, and game-winning goals, then weighs them based on when they’re scored (first, second, third or fourth quarter, plus OT), but also in what on-floor situation they’re finished (even-strength, power-play or short-handed goals). The deeper into a game you go, the more a goal is worth. We break the data down into three distinctive segments: first-to-third quarter, fourth quarter, and then of course overtime. Our weekly leaderboard and scoring system can be found at the bottom of this article.
Last weekend, we witnessed what might have been the game of the year so far this season when the Toronto Rock and the San Diego Seals squared off in a battle of two of this year’s top teams.
We mention it in this week’s Clutch Kings because virtually every goal scored in the game was either a game-tying, go-ahead or of course game-winning goal.
Is that a lot?
Well, in the nine other games played this past weekend, there were 15 ties total. The Rock vs. Seals game had eleven on its own.
While the Seals held the lead the longest (33:29), largely due to their ability to respond to the Rock’s game-tying efforts, Toronto came alive late in the fourth quarter to tie, take the lead, give it away, tie it again, and finally go ahead for good. They got five goals from five different players in the fourth, but…
The most clutch that night: Tom Schreiber.
Tom Schreiber, Toronto Rock (Photo: Jake Whiting)
While Schreiber doesn’t rank on our updated leaderboard below due to missing the first five games of Toronto’s season with an injury, his quantity & quality scoring on Saturday night was easily his best offensive effort of the year. In the Rock’s 15-13 win, Schreiber had a solo game-tying goal and a game-leading three go-ahead goals, one of which was also the game winner, happening with just over a minute left on the game clock.
While dealing with injuries to key players all season long, Toronto has had several different names play goal-scoring hero this year (eight different players have scored their ten game winners. It’s the same forward formula Toronto had during their heyday seasons (Doyle, Squire, Stroup, Gill, Toth and later Sanderson, Manning, Wilson and others) when they had tremendous depth up front and weren’t relying on too few for too much (as reviewed in last week’s NLL Player Rankings post).
Since our last Clutch Kings check in, San Diego’s Austin Staats has not only taken over the top spot, he’s also opened up a massive lead at the top of our leaderboard.
Austin Staats, San Diego Seals (Photo: Kalea Vizmanos)
Both Staats and Panther City’s Callum Crawford have the most combined game-tying, go-ahead and game-winning goals right now (13), but Staats has amassed more even-strength scoring late (which we put a higher point value on - again, see our money-scoring math below), including a fourth quarter and overtime game winner. Staats is also tied with Andrew Kew (Georgia Swarm), Connor Kearnan (New York Riptide), and Seals teammate Wes Berg with the most game winners so far this season (3).
Is Staats’ clutch-scoring success a fluke?
In 62 regular season games during his career so far, Staats has already collected twelve GWing goals. Since his rookie year in 2019, Staats is scoring San Diego’s game winner approximately one in every three victories. Those twelve GWGs are the top individual player total in franchise history too.
So, fluke? Clearly not.
Andrew Kew, Georgia Swarm (Photo: James Bennett)
Kew, who drops from first to second since our last clutch-scoring report, is one of three Swarm scorers really high up on this week’s updated leaderboard (Seth Oakes & Shayne Jackson are the other two). It’s a role the Colorado Mammoth played the previous two seasons where the likes of Eli McLaughlin (2022 Clutch King regular season leader), Connor Robinson (2023 Clutch King regular season leader) and Zed Williams (see 2022 playoffs) would regularly produce score-swinging goals en route to two finals appearances.
The same isn’t really happening for the Mammoth this year, but most certainly is for the Swarm.
A total of eight of Georgia’s 13 games this year have been decided by two or fewer goals, including their last five games. As the Mammoth have showed the past two years, back-and-forth ball & crazy-close conclusions are good prep for the playoffs.
No matter where they get seeded when all is said and done, the Swarm are not a side most teams will want to see in the playoffs based largely on their ability to battle back and stay competitive.
NLL Clutch Kings: Week 15
CKs Rank. Player (NLL Gs Rank), Team, Clutch Points (GTG, GAG, GWG)
1. Austin Staats (2), San Diego, 28.25 (4/6/3)
2. Andrew Kew (T15), Georgia, 21.75 (3/3/3)
3. Callum Crawford (T5), Panther City, 20.50 (3/8/2)
4. Wes Berg (T9), San Diego, 19.25 (5/2/3)
5. Seth Oakes (T22), Georgia, 19.00 (5/2/2)
T6. Shayne Jackson (T22), Georgia, 16.50 (1/7/1)
T6. Ryan Smith (T5), Rochester, 16.50 (3/5/1)
T8. Connor Fields (T9), Rochester, 16.00 (3/6/1)
T8. Josh Byrne (T5), Buffalo, 16.00 (5/2/2)
T8 Jonathan Donville (T42), Panther City, 16.00 (4/3/2)
T11. Will Malcom (T15), Panther City, 15.50 (4/5/0)
T11. Corey Small (T9), Toronto, 15.50 (3/3/2)
13. Ryan Benesch (3), Halifax, 15.00 (5/3/1)
14. Ethan Walker (T18), Albany, 14.50 (2/3/2)
15. Mark Matthews (T28), Toronto, 13.50 (6/2/1)
16. Connor Kearnan (T22), New York, 13.25 (1/2/3)
T17. Alex Simmons (T13), Albany, 13.00 (3/3/1)
T17. Keegan Bal (T38). Vancouver, 13.00 (1/4/2)
T17. Casey Jackson (T22), Las Vegas, 13.00 (2/3/1)
20. Mitch Jones (T45), Philadelphia, 12.50 (5/1/1)
21. Jack Hannah (T35), Las Vegas, 12.50 (2/1/2)
Scoring System
First 3 Quarters (GTG/GAG/GWG)
Even-Strength Goal: 1.00/1.50/2.00
Power-Play Goal: 0.50/0.75/1.00
Short-Handed Goal: 2.00/3.00/4.00
Fourth Quarter (GTG/GAG/GWG)
Even-Strength Goal: 2.00/3.00/4.00
Power-Play Goal: 1.00/1.50/2.00
Short-Handed Goal: 4.00/6.00/8.00
Overtime (GWG)
Even-Strength Goal: 6.00
Power-Play Goal: 3.00
Short-Handed Goal: 12.00