National Junior Rankings: Week 7
During the 2022 Canadian junior seasons, The Lax Mag will publish our National Junior Rankings, a weekly rundown of all 23 A-level teams across the country. Week 1 will begin on June 1 with future editions published every Wednesday (Friday this week, sorry for the delay!) until the start of the Minto Cup.
The rankings will include the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League (OJLL), British Columbia Junior A Lacrosse League (BCJALL) and Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (RMLL).
The Lax Mag’s rankings will position teams based not only by overall record, but also the strength of their opposition and the quality of their results, win or lose.
With the New Westminster Salmonbellies dropping out and the Burnaby Lakers eliminated last night, we’re down to 16 teams across the country still vying for the 2022 Minto Cup.
We sank the Salmonbellies to last in this week’s rankings after the team shockingly forfeited their final game due to a lack of players - seemingly the bare minimum you’d even need to register in any sort of rankings. Their inability to show up for Game 2 of their series against the Langley Thunder has received significant criticism on social media since it was announced last week.
How Junior A Teams Score
As part of this week’s National Junior Rankings, we’ve examined what specific segment of a roster still-playing teams rely on the most for their overall goal production. As we saw in this past season’s National Lacrosse League playoffs, silencing a team’s top talent(s) and forcing them to rely on secondary scoring to secure success was an on going theme, right up until the Colorado Mammoth won the Cup.
In Ontario especially, point production was extremely high during the 2022 regular season. We witnessed four players crack the 100-point barrier: Finlay Thomson (Mimico), Brock Haley (Whitby), Willem Firth (Toronto) and Adam Poitrus (Whitby). It’s the first time in over a decade that many players plowed past 100 points during the OJLL regular season.
In Alberta & Saskatchewan, Jake Bowen (St. Albert) was just an assist shy of becoming the RMLL’s first triple-crown winner (to lead the league in goals, assists and points) since current Calgary Roughnecks forward Dan Taylor did it in 2013.
And while the BCJALL played fewer regular season games than they normally would, Thomas Vella (Burnaby), Kyle Brunsch (Langley), Ben Mcdonald (Delta), Jacob Dunbar (Nanaimo) and Silas Richmond (Delta) all impressively topped 30 goals during their regular season.
Below, we looked at every team still playing in their province’s playoffs, and determined what percentage of goals they got from their leading goal getter, how much of their overall goal production came from their next three top goal scorers (high-end producers, not necessarily secondary though), and then what the rest of the team did too (essentially their secondary scoring).
Teams like Whitby (Haley) and Oakville (Will Sheehan) relied heavily on their leader, while clubs like Victoria, Toronto, Orangeville and Peterborough got 50% or more of their goal scoring from their secondary scoring sources.
Will it matter now that we’re in the playoffs? Probably, unless like the Mammoth, a team is able to adapt and expand their offensive arsenal at the flip of a switch, which rarely happens.
In case of ties, we selected the player with the higher point total when classifying their Leader, Next 3 and Rest of Roster groups.
And finally, order below reflects this week’s updated Top 23, so consider that your spoiler alert.
Mimico Mountaineers
Mimico Mountaineers: 270
Finlay Thomson, Leader: 52 (19%)
Carson Moyer, Isiah Moran-Weekes and Justin Sykes, Next 3: 97 (36%)
Rest of Roster: 121 (45%)
Victoria Shamrocks
Victoria Shamrocks: 168
Patrick Dodds, Leader: 28 (17%)
Noah Manning, Kyle Pepper and Casey Wilson, Next 3: 56 (33%)
Rest of Roster: 84 (50%)
Nanaimo Timbermen
Nanaimo Timbermen: 158
Jacob Dunbar, Leader: 31 (19%)
Ryan Sheridan, Andrew Bowman and Arthur Miller, Next 3: 58 (37%)
Rest of Roster: 69 (44%)
Toronto Beaches
Toronto Beaches: 237
Willem Firth, Leader: 50 (21%)
Matthew Collison, Jakson Raposo and Jacob Hickey, Next 3: 69 (29%)
Rest of Roster: 118 (50%)
Whitby Warriors
Whitby Warriors: 249
Brock Haley, Leader: 74 (30%)
Adam Poitras, Parker Pipher and Gabriel Sorichetti, Next 3: 94 (38%)
Rest of Roster: 81 (32%)
Orangeville Northmen
Orangeville Northmen: 200
Liam Matthews, Leader: 33 (17%)
Jameson Bucktooth, Jeremy Searle and Trey Deere, Next 3: 63 (32%)
Rest of Roster: 104 (52%)
Oakville Buzz
Oakville Buzz: 168
Will Sheehan, Leader: 43 (26%)
Eddie Qu, Brian Jackman and Eric McDonald, Next 3: 49 (29%)
Rest of Roster: 76 (45%)
St. Albert Miners
St. Albert Miners: 198
Jake Bowen, Leader: 31 (16%)
Jack Royer, Mathieu Gautier and Luke Bowen, Next 3: 75 (38%)
Rest of Roster: 92 (46%)
Coquitlam Adanacs
Coquitlam Adanacs: 148
Adam Noakes, Leader: 26 (17%)
Jack Charboneau, Nathan Chalmers and Max Semple, Next 3: 50 (34%)
Rest of Roster: 72 (49%)
Langley Thunder
Langley Thunder: 161
Kyle Brunsch, Leader: 34 (21%)
Stuart Phillips, Drew Kask and Cody Malawsky, Next 3: 63 (39%)
Rest of Roster: 64 (40%)
Note: The Thunder’s totals above are accurate, but also a bit deceiving. The team picked up three high-end players in the now infamous trade with the New Westminster Salmonbellies before the BCJALL trade deadline. They acquired Benjamin Stewart, Drew Andre and Noah Armitage, the trio scoring 60 between the three of them, mostly with New West, but a bit with Langley too. The trade significantly amplified the Thunder’s secondary-scoring presence, which isn’t reflective in the above parts of the pie.
Calgary Mountaineers
Calgary Mountaineers: 185
Davis Dame, Leader: 33 (18%)
Kyle Playstead, Lukas Olsson and Riley Isaacs, Next 3: 73 (39%)
Rest of Roster: 79 (43%)
Peterborough Lakers
Peterborough Lakers: 205
Zach Thompson, Leader: 31 (15%)
Daniel Clark, Owen Hiltz and Carter Page, Next 3: 70 (34%)
Rest of Roster: 104 (51%)
Burlington Chiefs
Burlington Chiefs: 206
Coltrane Tyson, Leader: 33 (16%)
Braedon Saris, Will MacLeaod and Greg Elijah-Brown, Next 3: 81 (39%)
Rest of Roster: 92 (45%)
St. Catharines Athletics
St. Catharines Athletics: 185
Jackson Webster, Leader: 30 (16%)
Keaton Zavtiz, Tye Steenhuis and Clay Scanlon, Next 3: 77 (42%)
Rest of Roster: 78 (42%)
Okotoks Raiders
Okotoks Raiders: 130
Kean Moon, Leader: 23 (18%)
Hayden Moffat, Connor Murphy and Alexander Zarsky, Next 3: 49 (38%)
Rest of Roster: 58 (44%)
Saskatchewan SWAT
Saskatchewan SWAT: 87
Jeremy Wudrick, Leader: 22 (25%)
Mathew Wist, Tyler Merilees and Dagan Carlson, Next 3: 40 (46%)
Rest of Roster: 25 (29%)
National Junior Rankings: Week 7
TW. (LW) Team (League) Regular Season (Playoffs)
*Eliminated
1. (1) Mimico Mountaineers (OJLL) 16-4
2. (2) Victoria Shamrocks (BCJALL) 11-3
3. (3) Nanaimo Timbermen (BCJALL) 10-4
4. (4) Toronto Beaches (OJLL) 15-5
5. (5) Whitby Warriors (OJLL) 14-6
6. (7) Orangeville Northmen (OJLL) 13-7
7. (6) Oakville Buzz (OJLL) 13-7
8. (8) St. Albert Miners (RMLL) 12-3
9. (11) Coquitlam Adanacs (BCJALL) 9-5 (2-1)
10. (12) Langley Thunder (BCJALL) 10-4 (2-0)
11. (10) Calgary Mountaineers (RMLL) 12-3
12. (9) Peterborough Lakers (OJLL) 10-10
13. (13) Burlington Chiefs (OJLL) 10-10
14. (15) St. Catharines Athletics (OJLL) 10-10
15. (14) Burnaby Lakers (BCJALL) 7-7 (1-2)*
16. (16) Six Nations Arrows (OJLL) 5-15*
17. (18) Okotoks Raiders (RMLL) 5-10
18. (17) Delta Islanders (BCJALL) 4-10*
19. (19) Brampton Excelsiors (OJLL) 3-17*
20. (21) KW Lacrosse Club (OJLL) 1-19*
21. (22) Port Coquitlam Saints 1-13*
22. (23) Saskatchewan SWAT (RMLL) 1-14
23. (20) New Westminster Salmonbellies (BCJALL) 4-10 (0-2)*