NLL Player Rankings: Week 18

After the first six weeks of the 2022-23 National Lacrosse League season are complete, The Lax Mag will publish our weekly NLL Player Rankings, examining the league’s Top 30 players from Week 1 right up until the end of the regular season.

The rankings are based on our star-rating system (individual game analysis) and overall statistical positioning (full season analysis). For a full breakdown of how both areas are ordered, click here.

Jeff Teat, New York Riptide

Yes, Jeff Teat remains our #1 coming out of Week 18, which likely upsets some after the league’s still-leading goal (49) and point (115) producer registered just two assists in the New York Riptide’s 7-12L to the surging Georgia Swarm last Friday night.

Those lonely two assists matched Teat’s lowest single-game point total of his young 31-game NLL career. The first time he had just two assists happened in Week 5 earlier this year against the Toronto Rock, another game the Riptide managed to score just seven goals total (7-15L). Seven goals for is also a 2023 low for the East’s second-to-last place team right now. Like we’ve pointed out previously, the Riptide

Unlike say our Power Rankings, which puts a greater emphasis on more recent matches, as mentioned many times since the site launched, The Lax Mag’s NLL Player Rankings are also about right now, but take into account an entire season’s worth of stats and game-star ratings (more on how we rank players using those two scoring systems here). We also include our Clutch Kings analysis, which rates goals based on if they were go-ahead, game-tying or game-winning goals, plus when in a game they were scored and in what on-floor situation (more on our Clutch Kings calculations here).

Casey Powell, Orlando Titans 2010 (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

The Lax Mag also examines stats at a per-game average, which allows us to grade & order players more evenly during a season when some teams have played four or more games than others, if a player misses a game or two, etc.

When Casey Powell was deservedly voted NLL MVP in 2010, he missed two games due to injury, and was tied for 14th on the point-scoring charts. He did however own the best goals-per-game average and the fourth best points-per-game average. His remarkable season with the Orlando Titans that season was not adequately reflected in the league’s scoring charts. Buffalo’s Josh Byrne, who missed a number of games due to injury this year but has played in 12 of 15 games for the Bandits and has strong statistical averages (including a ridiculously low turnover ratio), remains in our Top 10 due to his impressive per-game totals. We only include players who’ve played in two-thirds of their team’s games, which nixes Colorado’s Ryan Lee, who actually has the third-best PPG right now (6.75), but he’s only played four times, again, due to injury.

Ryan Lee, Colorado Mammoth (Photo: Jaclyn McKee)

With all that said, Teat leads the league in both total goals & points, plus ranks first in average points per game (7.67) and second in goals per (3.27) – Connor Fields took over the GPG category (3.29) this past weekend (and has been Top 5 in Clutch Kings all year), his season looking very much like fellow-American Powell’s most-valuable campaign. Teat’s loose balls numbers are well above average for a forward and he does better than most in our money-scoring math too. Plus, while he wasn’t their #1 this past weekend, Teat has received more first-star votes with the New York Riptide than any other player on any other team this year.

Below, outside of those 2-point outings, see how consistently stacked the rest of Teat’s season has been so far. It’s also worth noting that Teat only broke into our Top 10 after Week 9, bouncing back from an early three-game stretch (HFX-TOR-ROC) that only saw him tickle twine twice. Other stuff happened around that time too.

Jeff Teat Stats Per Game

Philadelphia’s Mitch Jones cracks our Top 10 for the first time this year. Third in overall points presently (105), why did it take Jones so long to be listed so high? Well, let’s take a look at the same chart we crafted for Teat above now for Jones below.

Mitch Jones Stats Per Game

It’s no secret that Jones’ overall offensive production has spiked significantly since being dealt by the Vancouver Warriors to the Wings. Although you can probably guess when he switched sides, his last game with Vancouver was against Panther City (PCLC), his second of two 1-point outings with the Warriors this year. Like we already mentioned, The Lax Mag’s NLL Player Rankings take into account the entire season, not just when a player excels at his highest level. Below are Jones’ averages with the Warriors and the Wings, including how much those stats have gone up since switching sweaters.

Vancouver Warriors: 7GP

Goals: 1.57
Assists: 3.43
Points: 5.00
Loose Balls: 6.99

Philadelphia Wings: 9GP

Goals: 2.67 (+1.10)
Assists: 5.11 (+1.68)
Points: 7.78 (+2.78)
Loose Balls: 7.11 (+1.11)

If Jones owned his Vancouver points-per-game average over an 18-game season, he’d finish with a respectable 90 points. If he was able to maintain his nearly 8-point Philadelphia average over those same 18 games… 140!

Unless he gets injured (knock on wood) or is a healthy scratch (get real), Jones will play 19 times (which would put him at 125 points at his current full-season pace) this year thanks to an extra game acquired through that mid-season swap. No matter, Jones has already registered 30-60-90 Club numbers (30 goals, 60 assists and 90 loose balls), as has Toronto’s Tom Schreiber, both of whom have already played 16 games. Others are a few goals, apples or loosies away from also getting to that rare single-season stats level this year too. There has never been more than three players to reach that statistical status in a single season (2016: Shawn Evans, Dhane Smith and Cody Jamieson). Right now more than ten might do it in 2023, including Teat.

Mitch Jones, Philadelphia Wings

So, while simply looking at the scoring charts tells a very broad stats-based story of a player's full-season success, The Lax Mag’s NLL Player Rankings statistically slice & dice those totals even further (per game), in addition to allocating a value to every singe game’s top players on either side of the floor.

Yes, Teat’s second two-point outing is a negative when evaluating his season, but his game-by-game performances also show that he has easily been one of this year’s most consistent (stats-scoring system) & impactful (star-rating system) players, doing it at what is still a record-breaking pace too (Teat is on track for 138 points, which would better Smith’s 2016 record by one).

Both Teat & Jones are obscene talents with similar sums on the straight-up scoring charts. The difference in how they collected those numbers are why Teat has been in our Top 10 for so long and Jones just got in.

With a month of regular season lacrosse to go, a lot can still happen.

Connor Fields, Rochester Knighthawks

NLL Player Rankings: Week 18

1. (1) Jeff Teat, New York, F
2. (3) Connor Fields, Rochester, F
3. (4) Dhane Smith, Buffalo, F
4. (6) Tom Schreiber, Toronto, F
5. (2) Christian Del Bianco, Calgary, G
6. (7) Zach Currier, Calgary, T
7. (8) Reid Bowering, Vancouver, D
8. (10) Nick Rose, Toronto, G
9. (6) Josh Byrne, Buffalo, F
10. (13) Mitch Jones, Philadelphia, F
11. (9) Will Malcom, Panther City, F
12. (14) Dane Dobbie, San Diego, F
13. (16) Lyle Thompson, Georgia, F
14. (15) Curtis Dickson, San Diego, F
15. (11) Graeme Hossack, Halifax, D
16. (17) Robert Church, Saskatchewan, F
17. (21) Andrew Kew, Georgia, F
18. (22) Joe Resetarits, Philadelphia, F
19. (19) Wes Berg, San Diego, F
20. (12) Matt Vinc, Buffalo, G
21. (18) Kyle Rubisch, Saskatchewan, D
22. (25) Brad Kri, Toronto, D
23. (20) Jesse King, Calgary, F
24. (23) Rylan Hartley, Rochester, G
25. (24) Steve Priolo, Buffalo, D
26. (NR) Mark Matthews, Saskatchewan, F
27. (27) Rob Hellyer, Las Vegas, F
28. (29) Tyler Pace, Calgary, F
29. (NR) Eli McLaughlin, Colorado, F
30. (NR) Latrell Harris, Toronto, D