FireWolves make deals with Bandits & extremely active Riptide
Adam Bomberry (Photo: Michael Hetzel)
While Week 8 for the National Lacrosse League is a relatively quiet one with just four games on the schedule this weekend, the league’s transaction wire has been far from silent.
In less than 24 hours, the Albany Firewolves had flipped the switch on a pair of trades with the Buffalo Bandits and New York Riptide. The 0-4 Riptide have been extremely active over the past week and a bit, first firing GM Jim Veltman, immediately promoting Executive VP Rich Lisk as his replacement, and now making three trades total that have had a direct impact on their active roster.
To recap the two recent trades between those three New York-based teams:
Albany receives Thomas Vaesen
Buffalo receives Adam Bomberry
Albany receives Leo Stouros
New York receives Curtis Conley and Albany’s third-round selection in the 2025 Entry Draft
Earlier this week, New York traded Callum Crawford to the Panther City Lacrosse Club in exchange for goalie Kevin Orleman, prospects and picks, a week earlier sending forward Jake Fox to Fort Worth while acquiring Chad Cummings in that one-for-one deal. The team also signed free agent forward Brett Hickey, who had recently been released by the Calgary Roughnecks.
This many trades & transactions by one team so early in a season is rarely seen in the NLL or really any other professional sports league, even for franchises in similar 0-4 situations like the Riptide are right now. After dealing Taite Cattoni to the Philadelphia Wings this past Monday, the FireWolves have also made three deals in a relatively short amount of time, although the immediate shock to their lineup feels far less forceful than New York’s series of surprising swaps.
After last Sunday’s loss to the East-leading Rochester Knighthawks, New York Head Coach Dan Ladouceur said, “I have every faith in the group that we can spin this around. Not to say there won’t be adjustments, tweaks and changes, but I have every faith in the core of this group and the leadership group behind it.”
In today’s team announcement regarding the addition of Conley to the Riptide roster, Lisk said, “Curtis adds grit and depth to our backend but most importantly he represents the right type of player we want for our organization.”
The biggest pro-proven name dealt over the last 24 hours is Bomberry, who had yet to play for the FireWolves this season. Although he was only able to suit up in 11 games last year, Bomberry was regularly the team’s top defenseman in those starts, still managing to lead Albany in caused turnovers (25) while playing a little over half of the 2021-22 NLL season. Moved to Albany’s active roster (evaluation period) from their hold out list earlier this month, there was no official word from the FireWolves for Bomberry’s inactivity this year.
In exchange for Bomberry, Albany does acquire a promising pro prospect in Vaesen (University of Montevallo), who led the Nanaimo Timbermen and British Columbia Junior A Lacrosse League in goals (53) during his final season of junior lacrosse (2019), where he played with current FireWolves backup goalie, Justin Geddie. FireWolves Head Coach & GM Glenn Clark coaches the BC-based junior group during Canada’s summer season.
As many of their moves provided this past offseason, the Bomberry-for-Vaesen trade gets Albany younger while providing a talented up and comer even more opportunity to develop their pro game.
After stunning the Halifax Thunderbirds in OT last weekend, the FireWolves currently sit 2-2 in the standings, good enough for fourth in the East behind Rochester, Buffalo and the Toronto Rock.