NLL Player Rankings: Week 8
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.
Connor Fields, Rochester Knighthawks
Connor Fields takes back the top spot in The Lax Mag NLL Player Rankings after a commanding performance against the Buffalo Bandits and last week’s #1 Josh Byrne. The 15-12 result in favour of Fields and the Rochester Knighthawks kept the club undefeated and gave them an even comfier lead in the NLL’s East Conference.
When comparing our top-two talents right now, the difference in their per-game data is razor thin:
Goals
Josh Byrne 4.00
Connor Fields 3.80
Assists
Connor Fields 3.60
Josh Byrne 3.50
Loose Balls
Connor Fields 6.80
Josh Byrne 4.83
Turnovers
Josh Byrne 3.17
Connor Fields 4.80
Caused Turnovers
Josh Byrne 1.00
Connor Fields 0.20
Shooting %
Connor Fields 26%
Josh Byrne 24%
Josh Byrne, Buffalo Bandits (Photo: Isaiah Vazquez)
While we track several other individual per-game stats as part of the calculations for these ranking, including our Clutch Kings countdown, where Fields also has a slight lead (more on that tomorrow), the above are the more traditional totals from today’s available NLL numbers. The pair are also almost even in our star-rating system (more on that here), where we rank each game’s most impactful top-six players from both teams.
For a player that shoots (and scores) as much as Fields (he’s tied for second in points/game behind only Byrne), his nearly 7 loose balls/game really stand out. If you go down the list of this year’s top per-game point producers, the first players that better Fields’ 6.80 are the Georgia Swarm’s Andrew Kew (7.00 LB/game, ranks 24th in points/game) and Lyle Thompson (8.50 LB/game), who as usual is scooping up A LOT of loosies for a forward. Kew is averaging almost double the amount of LB/game versus his 2022 season in Albany (3.67).
Thompson, who jumped to #20 in this week’s Player Rankings, only owns the 30th best points/game average right now (really low for him), while his 7.50 turnovers/game is easily the worst in the NLL (again, way low for him).
Turnovers
Lyle Thompson 7.50
Joe Resetarits 6.40
Mark Matthews 6.00
Kieran McArdle 6.00
Callum Crawford 5.33
Latrell Harris and Nick Rose, Toronto Rock
Other meaningful movement after after Week 8:
Toronto Rock goalie Nick Rose inches up another few spots and sits just behind this week’s top two after another stingy outing this season. During the Rock’s 14-5 blowout over the Philadelphia Wings on Saturday afternoon, Rose was flirting with a record-setting-goals-against game until Philly found a few in the fourth quarter. Last year, The Lax Mag examined goalies who allowed the fewest goals in a single 60-minute (or more) start. See those stoppers here, plus add Panther City’s Nick Damude to that all-time list after he allowed just three against Last Vegas earlier this season.
The Rock’s Mitch de Snoo & Tom Schreiber, both extremely dominant this past weekend in that one-sided Rock result, move up this week as well, de Snoo right into the Top 10 even. Last week, we reviewed why de Snoo ranks so high.
Like Fields, Schreiber is also posting strong loose-ball totals in comparison to this year’s other top shooters (6.67), all while turning over the ball slightly less (2.83) than either Fields or Byrne.
Jeff Teat, New York Riptide (Photo: Evan Bernstein)
Another top scorer that excels in point production and regaining possession is the New York Riptide’s Jeff Teat, one of this week’s biggest chart climbers (+3). In fact, Teat’s 7.40 points per game is tied with Fields, but his shooting percentage (15%) and lack of star-rating points during a recent bad Riptide run keep him outside of the Top 10, for now. We reviewed Teat’s shooting and point production over his first five games in this week’s NLL Power Rankings.
The more-complete offensive players we mentioned today are also strong candidates to qualify for the NLL’s 30-60-90 Club, an exclusive single-season-statistical sum (G, A, LB) The Lax Mag started reviewing last year. Since 1987, only a handful of made it. We’ll take a deeper dive into that data after the pool of potential club members shrinks as the season progresses.
New names this week include the Las Vegas Desert Dogs’ Rob Hellyer, who’s quietly become one of this year’s top playmakers (tied for fourth with 4.80 assists/game), the Vancouver Warriors’ Mitch Jones, who has strong assists, points and LB averages during Vancouver’s down season, and the Calgary Roughnecks’ Tyler Pace, who’s been hovering around the Top 30 all season. Pace jumped both Kieran McArdle and Joe Resetarits, their league-wide turnover position (both giving the ball away 6 or more times/game this year, scroll up to see where they sit) sliding them just outside of our weekly best-of-regular-season ranking.
NLL Player Rankings: Week 8
TW. (LW) Player, Team, Position
1. (2) Connor Fields, Rochester, F
2. (1) Josh Byrne, Buffalo, F
3. (5) Nick Rose, Toronto, G
4. (3) Kyle Rubisch, Saskatchewan, D
5. (4) Curtis Dickson, Calgary, F
6. (6) Dhane Smith, Buffalo, F
7. (11) Mitch de Snoo, Toronto, D
8. (7) Robert Church, Saskatchewan, F
9. (10) Rylan Hartley, Rochester, G
10. (8) Randy Staats, Halifax, F
11. (9) Dillon Ward, Colorado, G
12. (12) Dane Dobbie, San Diego, F
13. (13) Christian Del Bianco, Calgary, G
14. (17) Tom Schreiber, Toronto, F
15. (18) Jeff Teat, New York, F
16. (14) Mark Matthews, Saskatchewan, F
17. (15) Wes Berg, San Diego, F
18. (19) Reid Bowering, Vancouver, T
19. (20) Zach Currier, Calgary, T
20. (21) Lyle Thompson, Georgia, F
21. (22) Graeme Hossack, Halifax, D
22. (16) Kiel Matisz, Philadelphia, T
23. (26) Brad Kri, Toronto, D
24. (28) Matt Gilray, Rochester, T
25. (23) Jake Withers, Halifax, D
26. (25) Jesse King, Calgary, F
27. (NR) Rob Hellyer, Las Vegas, F
28. (27) Will Malcom, Panther City, F
29. (NR) Mitch Jones, Vancouver, F
30. (NR) Tyler Pace, Calgary, F