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.

Austin Staats (San Diego Seals) still leads our Clutch Kings leaderboard, but his grip on first place a shrunk a smidge with Josh Byrne (Buffalo Bandits) and Andrew Kew (Georgia Swarm) continuing to score timely and tremendously important goals the last few weeks.

Staats, who leads the league with four game winners, has scored a quarter (well a bit more, 26%) of all of San Diego’s goals this year. Only Jeff Teat (New York Riptide) has a higher percentage of team goals scored (27%), but he’s also faded right off our leaderboard, while Staats of course tops it. Also significant, 36% of goals scored by Staats this year have either tied, given San Diego the lead, or won the Seals the game.

There is no one in the league right now scoring both in quantity and quality at the pace Staats has over the last 16 weeks, but…

Who else is thriving in other scoring situations so far this season?

The Lax Mag looked at players who have scored ten times this year (the average goals scored for a player so far this season), and determined who is doing most of their scoring even strength, on the power play, short-handed, as well as what percentage of a player’s goals are of the tying, go-ahead or game-winning variety.

Even-Strength Goals

Ryan Sheridan (Panther City) 100%
Zach Miller (Georgia) 100%
Riley Loewen (Vancouver) 100%
Mike Triolo (Saskatchewan) 100%
Josh Dawick (Toronto) 100%
Nathan Grenon (Albany) 100%

Using our cut-off criteria, 13 players this year have scored 90% or more of their goals in an even-strength situation - and yes, we know some see little to no special-teams time. In addition to Dawick above, the Toronto Rock also have Dan Craig (94.74%), Tom Schreiber (92.86%) and Dan Lintner (92.31%) firing over 90% of their goals when teams have equal bodies on the turf. While that may lead you to believe that the Rock’s power play is problematic, which it has been in recent seasons, that isn’t the case in 2024. Toronto already has more PPGs this year (32) than all of last year (26), and have the league’s third best power-play efficiency at nearly 24% (Source: Ty Merrow). More on that below. Also, Teat currently leads the league with 35 ESG, which amounts for 81.40% of his goals.

Corey Small, Toronto Rock (Photo: Ryan McCullough)

Power-Play Goals

Holden Cattoni (Philadelphia) 50.00%
Kiel Matisz (New York) 42.11%
Cody Jamieson (Halfiax) 40.00%
Keegan Bal (Vancouver) 40.00%
Dane Dobbie (San Diego) 36.84%

At total of 14 players have scored more than a third of their goals this year in power-play situations, and although they fall just outside of our Top 5 above, the Rock again see players place high here. Chris Boushy (36.00%), Mark Matthews (34.78%) and Corey Small (33.33% - Small also leads the league with 11 PPGs presently) are all above 30% here, giving the Rock an offensive balance they hadn’t had to these heights in recent seasons. All three are also recent Rock off-season additions - Small has signed single-season deals the last two years, Boushy & Matthews traded for this past summer. PP problem solved.

Cattoni (41.67%), who has played just seven games this season (HO & IR stays have subtracted GPs) with 12 goals total, is one of two players this year (that meet our goal-scoring criteria) to have under 50% of their goals scored even strength. The other is…

Short-Handed Goals

Clark Walter (Saskatchewan) 18.18%
Ian MacKay (Buffalo) 18.18%
Aaron Woods (Halifax) 18.18%
Thomas Hoggarth (Calgary)16.67%
Stephen Keogh (New York) 16.67%

…Clark Walter, who owns one of this year’s most unique goal-scoring stat lines - 5 ESG, 4 PPG, 2 SHG. Admittedly, with shorties being so rare, this category breakdown doesn’t reveal too much about a player’s goal-scoring abilities in a specific situation. Rock rookie Justin Martin currently leads the league with 3 SHGs. It’s unlikely anyone this year will come close to the nine Curtis Dickson had a season ago. There have been just three players to score a short-handed winner this year: Jordan MacIntosh (Georgia Swarm), Seth Oakes (Georgia Swarm), and or course. Clark Walter.

Chris Cloutier, Buffalo Bandits (Photo: Michael Hetzel)

Game-Tying Goals

Chris Cloutier (Buffalo) 39.13%
Tre Leclaire (San Diego) 37.50%
Ben McIntosh (Philadelphia) 35.00%
Rob Hellyer (Las Vegas) 33.33%
Kyle Buchanan (Buffalo) 31.25%

The above five are the only players in the league (again, that meet our goal-scoring criteria today) whose goals account for a third or more of their total goal count this year. Chris Cloutier, a regular in the Clutch Kings the previous two seasons, actually also leads the league with 9 GTGs. Of Cloutier’s 11 goals that have qualified as clutch this year (GTG, GAG or GWG), four have happened in the fourth quarter, including a critical tying goal against Toronto last weekend.

Go-Ahead Goals

Ryan Keenan (Saskatchewan) 28.57%
Shayne Jackson (Georgia) 28.00%
Will Malcom (Panther City) 25.93%
Callum Crawford (Panther City) 25.81%
Ryan Sheridan (Panther City) 25.00%
Thomas Hoggarth (Calgary) 25.00%

Callum Crawford, who has been on the IR since March 10 and missed Panther City’s last two games, has led the NLL in go-ahead goals for most of the season (8). Like Staats, he’s scoring both quantity and quality this year.

In 17 games with Rochester last year, Thomas Hoggarth had a career-high 126 shots, which also led to a single-season best 30 goals too. This year in Calgary, Hoggarth has had just 37 shots in 13 games with the Roughnecks, which is nearly five shots fewer per game. With only 12 goals so far this year, five have either been game-tying, go-ahead or game-winning goals. Hoggarth has placed high on our Clutch Kings leaderboard in the past.

Jeff Teat, New York Riptide (Photo: John Harrison)

Team Goals

Jeff Teat (New York) 27.22%
Austin Staats (San Diego) 25.93%
Casey Jackson (Las Vegas) 25.76%
Connor Fields (Rochester) 23.75%
Eli McLaughlin (Colorado) 23.53%

While Las Vegas leaned on him heavily last weekend during his 8-goal performance, Casey Jackson’s goal scoring has already been pretty critical to any success the team has had in 2024. With 34 goals, Jackson already has more goals than any Desert Dog from last year (their expansion season leaders Jack Hannah & Zack Greer had 33 each) and is on pace for single-season statistical highs across the board.

NLL Clutch Kings: Week 16

CKs Rank. Player (NLL Gs Rank), Team, Clutch Points (GTG / GAG / GWG)

1. Austin Staats (2), San Diego, 30.00(4/7/4)
2. Josh Byrne (T4), Buffalo, 26.00 (7/4/3)
3. Andrew Kew (T17), Georgia, 23.75 (4/3/3)
4. Callum Crawford (13), Panther City, 20.50 (3/8/2)
T5. Robert Church (15), Saskatchewan, 20.00 (8/4/1)
T5. Will Malcom (T17), Panther City, 20.00 (4/7/0)
7. Connor Fields (3), Rochester, 19.75 (4/7/2)
T8. Ryan Smith (T4), Rochester, 19.25 (4/6/2)
T8. Wes Berg (T11), San Diego, 19.25 (5/2/3)
10. Seth Oakes (T33), Georgia, 19.00 (5/2/2)
11. Jonathan Donville (T37), Panther City, 18.50 (5/4/2)
T12. Chris Cloutier (T33), Buffalo, 17.00 (9/1/1)
T12. Casey Jackson (8), Las Vegas, 17.00 (4/3/1)
T14. Shayne Jackson (T22), Georgia, 16.50 (1/7/1)
T14. Corey Small (T9), Toronto, 16.50 (4/3/2)
16. Adam Charalambides (16), Vancouver, 16.25 (5/4/1)
17. Alex Simmons (14), Albany, 16.00 (5/3/1)
18. Ethan Walker (T17), Albany, 15.50 (3/3/2)
19. Tye Kurtz (T20), Albany (T20), 15.25 (2/5/1)
T20. Ryan Benesch (6), Halifax, 15.00 (5/3/1)
T20. Keegan Bal (T22). Vancouver, 15.00 (2/5/2)

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