NLL Player Rankings: Week 19
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.
Christian Del Bianco, Calgary Roughnecks (Photo: Jaclyn McKee)
There wasn’t much movement at the top of the charts, outside of Calgary’s Christian Del Bianco creeping closer to #1. The Roughnecks’ starting stopper allowed just five goals against in a pivotal match against the Panther City Lacrosse Club (12-5W). In fact, it’s the seventh time this season Del Bianco has allowed single digits against on the scoresheet, including three times over the team’s last three wins.
Coming out of Week 19, there have been 115 games played across the league. In 59 of those games, the winning team (and of course goalie) has allowed under ten goals in those victories. In another five of those games, the losing team’s goalie also avoided hitting double digits in the GA column.
Toronto’s Nick Rose is the only goalie this year to better Del Bianco’s seven singles with nine of his own, while the Buffalo’s Matt Vinc have had seven starts with singles against.
Nick Rose, Toronto Rock
Del Bianco, Rose and Vinc are the only starters to rank within the league’s Top 5 for for save %, GAA, saves and minutes played (Del Bianco is actually Top 3). Although we typically break stats down per game and in some cases per minute for goalies when calculating our weekly Top 30, here’s the league’s current leaderboard for those four most mentioned goalie stats:
Save %
1. Christian Del Bianco, .813
2. Nick Rose, .802
3. Matt Vinc, .799
T4. Nick Damude, .788
T4. Dillon Ward, .788
GAA
1. Nick Rose, 9.03
2. Christian Del Bianco, 9.25
3. Nick Damude, 10.29
4. Matt Vinc, 10.58
5. Brett Dobson, 10.60
Total Saves
1. Rylan Hartley, 654
2. Christian Del Bianco, 645
3. Matt Vinc, 611
4. Zach Higgins, 574
5. Nick Rose, 571
Minutes Played
1. Rylan Hartley, 962:36
2. Christian Del Bianco, 960:19
3. Nick Rose, 936:46
4. Matt Vinc, 873:00
5. Nick Damude, 851:38
Nick Damude, Panther City Lacrosse Club (Photo: Jaclyn McKee)
A few other goalies that jump out.
Panther City’s Nick Damude, who has made our Top 30 multiple times earlier this year and sits at #37 right now, appears on three of the four Top 5s above.
Rookie Brett Dobson owns the fifth best GAA amongst this season’s starters, and although often thought of more as a goalie + defensive unit stat, if you’ve watched the Georgia Swarm’s stopper play over the last several weeks, you’d agree he’s been a big reason why their team GAA hass gotten so low.
Last year, New York’s Steve Orleman became just the seventh backstop in NLL history to be voted to the league’s All-Rookie Team. See Orleman’s year-end 2002 totals versus Dobson’s almost done 2023 numbers:
Save %/GAA/Saves/Minutes Played
Steve Orleman (2022): .767/12.10/656/986:56
Brett Dobson (2023): .786/10.60/458/707:14
Dobson, who still has as many as three games to go starting for the red hot Swarm, also has the postseason push storyline to go along with his strong stats. Will he make this year’s All-Rookie Team? He better.
Brett Dobson, Georgia Swarm (Photo: Kyle Hess)
While we lost a goalie from last week’s list, we’ve added two others in Colorado’s Dillon Ward and Albany’s Doug Jamieson. While their teams are headed in two different directions (the Mammoth looking to defend the Cup and FireWolves fighting to not finish last), the former GOTY winners have played pivotal roles in keeping their teams competitive. While neither is posting career-best numbers, both Ward & Jamieson are regularly selected as one of their team’s top performing players in our star-rating calculations (not that you’ll click, but more on that here).
With all that said, it would be shocking if either Del Bianco or Rose were not named this year’s top netminder. While Rose has been nominated for the NLL’s GOTY Award three times before, and Del Biacno twice, neither of this year’s top two tendies has been voted the league’s best backstop.
Ryland Hartley, Rochester Knighthawks
Who’ll be the third finalist?
Well, Vinc is the next highest on our weekly watch, and although Rylan Hartley slipped off of our Top 30 for the first time (he’s #31 right now) this season during Rochester’s shocking second-half slide, he’ll most certainly get some love for the quantity (see his league-leading numbers above) & quality (like this or this or this) of the stops he’s made this year. Damude might get in there too. While they’ve been leaned on heavily by their teams and made it into the Top 30 this week, it’s unlikely either Ward, Jamieson or Zach Higgins would be a finalist this year, although three brilliant games by Ward (vs. San Diego, at Saskatchewan and at San Diego) and a Colorado playoff clinch could change that over the next three weeks. Ditto for Higgins while Philadelphia fights for fourth or fifth (potential wild card) in the East.
NLL Player Rankings: Week 19
TW. (LW) Player, Team, Pos.
1. (1) Jeff Teat, New York, F
2. (2) Connor Fields, Rochester, F
3. (5) Christian Del Bianco, Calgary, G
4. (3) Dhane Smith, Buffalo, F
5. (4) Tom Schreiber, Toronto, F
6. (6) Zach Currier, Calgary, T
7. (7) Reid Bowering, Vancouver, D
8. (8) Nick Rose, Toronto, G
9. (9) Josh Byrne, Buffalo, F
10. (10) Mitch Jones, Philadelphia, F
11. (13) Lyle Thompson, Georgia, F
12. (14) Curtis Dickson, Calgary, F
13. (12) Dane Dobbie, San Diego, F
14. (10) Will Maclom, Panther City, F
15. (16) Robert Church, Saskatchewan, F
16. (17) Andrew Kew, Georgia, F
17. (19) Wes Berg, San Diego, F
18. (15) Graeme Hossack, Halifax, D
19. (18) Joe Resetarits, Philadelphia, F
20. (21) Kyle Rubisch, Saskatchewan, D
21. (23) Jesse King, Calgary, F
22. (20) Matt Vinc, Buffalo, G
23. (22) Brad Kri, Toronto, D
24. (25) Steve Priolo, Buffalo, D
25. (29) Eli McLaughlin, Colorado, F
26. (30) Latrell Harris, Toronto, D
27. (NR) Eli Salama, Calgary, D
28. (NR) Dillon Ward, Colorado, G
29. (27) Rob Hellyer, Las Vegas, F
30. (NR) Doug Jamieson, Albany, G