NLL Player Rankings: The Lax Mag’s Regular Season Awards Schedule
Dhane Smith, Buffalo Bandits (Photo: Caroline Sherman)
After the first several weeks of the 2023-24 National Lacrosse League season are complete, The Lax Mag will publish a weekly NLL Player Ranking, examining the league’s Top 30 players from Week 1 right up until the end of the regular season.
TLM’s Top 30 NLL Player Rankings have nothing to do with reputations, career resumes, success in past seasons, whether we know a player personally, recognizing deserving players who’ve previously been passed over, player popularity, the size of their social media following, whether you slide into their DMs, or who others around the league tell us should get hype.
Our rankings, which only take into consideration a player’s performance for the current regular season, will be calculated using both our star-rating system after each game, but also a player’s season-long statistical position (based on per-game averages) across the league (more on both breakdowns below). Only players who have played two-thirds of their team’s games or more will qualify.
Click here for an even more in-depth breakdown of our scoring system.
Connor Fields, Rochester Knighthawks (Photo: Greg Mason)
The Lax Mag started publishing our in-season NLL TOP 30 Player Rankings in Week 8. One player has owned the #1 spot for all 14 of those weeks…
Dhane Smith.
While we do typically have a limited number of names that rank number one during any previous season, Smith staying #1 all season long has most definitely been a first.
Last week, we took an in-depth look at Smith, Connor Fields and Josh Byrne, arguably our three highest rated players over the past three seasons (plus, usually Jeff Teat too), and why they have easily been this year’s most consistent high-producing talents, plus what they’d need to do in the final few weeks of the season to solidify MVP frontrunner status.
While Fields was on a bye last week, both Smith and Byrne had two of their biggest point hauls of the year, netting eleven and eight points respectively in Buffalo’s 15-12 win over the Halifax Thunderbirds.
Well, with one weekend left to lift your name on this list, it would take an all-time performance to pass Smith, Fields or Byrne, largely due to their league-leading consistency from start to almost finish.
This year’s second-to-last Top 30 can be found below, but before that, see when we’ll be announcing our year-end award winners, which are decided by our Top 30 player placements, plus links to our awards from the previous three seasons. The final Top 30 of the season will be published in our MVP article.
Josh Byrne, Buffalo Bandits (Photo: Caroline Sherman)
The Lax Mag’s Annual NLL Awards
Clutch King
To be announced April 23
2022 Eli McLaughlin, Colorado Mammoth
2023 Connor Robinson, Colorado Mammoth
2024 Josh Byrne, Buffalo Bandits
Rookie of the Year
To be announced April 29
2022 Jeff Teat, New York Riptide
2023 Jonathan Donville, Panther City Lacrosse Club
2024 Alex Simmons, Albany FireWolves
Transition Player of the Year
To be announced May 1
2022 Zach Currier, Calgary Roughnecks
2023 Zach Currier, Calgary Roughnecks
2024 Jake Withers, Halifax Thunderbirds
Defensive Player of the Year
To be announced May 6
2022 Mitch de Snoo, Toronto Rock
2023 Graeme Hossack, Halifax Thunderbirds
2024 Mitch de Snoo, Toronto Rock
Goalie of the Year
To be announced May 8
2022 Matt Vinc, Buffalo Bandits
2023 Christian Del Bianco, Calgary Roughnecks
2024 Nick Rose, Toronto Rock
Matt Vinc, Buffalo Bandits (Photo: Caroline Sherman)
Most Valuable Player + Final Top 30
To be announced May 14
2022 Dhane Smith, Buffalo Bandits
2023 Dhane Smith, Buffalo Bandits
2024 Josh Byrne, Buffalo Bandits
2022 Top 5 (of final 30)
1. Dhane Smith, Buffalo Bandits
2. Zach Currier, Calgary Roughnecks
3. Jeff Teat, New York Riptide
4. Joe Resetarits, Albany FireWolves
5. Ryan Lee, Colorado Mammoth
2023 Top 5 (of final 30)
1. Dhane Smith, Buffalo Bandits
2. Christian Del Bianco, Calgary Roughnecks
3. Jeff Teat, New York Riptide
4. Connor Fields, Rochester Knighthawks
5. Tom Schreiber, Toronto Rock
2024 Top 5 (of final 30)
1. Josh Byrne, Buffalo Bandits
2. Connor Fields, Rochester Knighthawks
3. Dhane Smith, Buffalo Bandits
4. Jeff Teat, New York Riptide
5. Nick Rose, Toronto Rock
Zach Currier, San Diego Seals (Photo: Kalea Vizmanos)
NLL TOP 30: Week 21
TW. (LW) Player, Team (Position)
1. (1) Dhane Smith, Buffalo (F)
2. (2) Connor Fields, Rochester (F)
3. (3) Josh Bryne, Buffalo (F)
4. (4) Zach Currier, San Diego (F/T)
5. (6) Joe Resetarits, Philadelphia (F)
6. (7) Zach Higgins, Ottawa (G)
7. (10) Jeff Teat, Ottawa (F)
8. (5) Ryan Lanchbury, Rochester (F)
9. (8) Curtis Dickson, Calgary (F)
10. (11) Matt Vinc, Buffalo (G)
11. (13) Keegan Bal, Vancouver (F)
12. (14) Randy Staats, Halifax (F)
13. (9) Mitch Jones, Philadelphia (F)
14. (16) Matt Hossack, Saskatchewan (D)
15. (17) Owen Grant, Vancouver (T)
16. (12) Lyle Thompson, Georgia (F)
17. (15) Jesse King, Calgary (F)
18. (20) Dillon Ward, Colorado (G)
19. (22) Ryan Terefenko, Halifax (T)
20. (23) Mitch de Snoo, Philadelphia (D)
21. (18) Alex Simmons, Albany (F)
22. (21) Jake Withers, Halifax (T)
23. (24) Clarke Petterson, Halifax (F)
24. (27) Jake Boudreau, Saskatchewan (T)
25. (29) Nick Weiss, Buffalo (T)
26. (19) Robert Hope, Colorado (D)
27. (NR) Doug Jamieson, Albany (G)
28. (25) Ryan Lee, Colorado (F)
29. (28) Ryan Smith, Rochester (F)
30. (NR) Ryan Dilks, Vancouver (D)