2025 NLL Player Rankings: MVP status check
Dhane Smith, Buffalo Bandits
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: Jonathan Tenca)
With only five weeks of regular season lacrosse left, the National Lacrosse League’s MVP contender list is seemingly losing a few more names at the end of every weekend.
Based on how NLL MVP voters have used their collective voice over the past three decades, The Lax Mag has narrowed down the league’s most valuable race into five categories: points leader, goals leader, assists leader, a goalie, and a two-way talent.
Of the league’s 30 previous MVPs, all of them can easily fit into one of those five above categories, for the offensive leaders, usually more than one.
So, with most of the regular season behind us and only five weeks remaining (and as few as three more games for some), here’s who history tells us should contend for the NLL’s 2024-25 MVP.
Joe Resetarits & Mitch Jones, Philadelphia (Photo: Heather Barry)
Points Leader
While Rochester’s Connor Fields currently leads the league with 104 points, he also has played as many as three games more than some of today’s top point producers. While his averages could impressively sit him inside the Top 5 in goals, assists and points (we reviewed how rare an NLL Triple Crown is earlier this week on IG), based on points-per-game projections, at least right now, Fields is unlikely to top the NLL in PTS by year end.
Right now, Dhane Smith (7.6), Mitch Jones (7.4), Josh Byrne (7.3) and Joe Resetarits (7.1) own PTS averages that are amongst the highest ever, well, in comparison to other’s year-end numbers (we reviewed that on IG this week too). While Fields’ 6.9 is close to that foursome, to boost your average by much this late into the season, would take some massive point totals in multiple games. Doable, but difficult.
Out of the NLL’s 30 past MVPs, 21 have led the league in points.
Contenders: Dhane Smith, Mitch Jones, Josh Byrne and Joe Resetarits, plus maybe Connor Fields
Curtis Dickson, Calgary Roughnecks (Photo: Jenn Pierce)
Goals Leader
While points leaders are also often the league’s top goal getter, it’s obviously not always the case.
In 1996, John Tavares had a massive 16-point lead over second-place Gary Gait in points, a significant statistical margin that seems to have always been more than enough to garner an MVP nod. Not that year. Gait (43), who had just two more goals than Tavares (41), and far fewer loose balls, was the 1996 MILL MVP.
Gait did it again in 2003, winning MVP with only the third best point total (trailed Tavares and John Grant), but this time had a hefty lead in goals (61).
The only other oddity was in 2010, when Casey Powell finished second in goals and was way back in both points (14th) and assists (26th).
Wes Berg, San Diego Seals (Photo: Kalea Vizmanos)
Leading the league in both straight goals (39) and goals per game (2.79) right now is Calgary’s Curtis Dickson. Roughnecks’ teammate Dane Dobbie is averaging almost an identical amount of goals an outing as Dickson, but his two games missed this year will cost him the goal-scoring crown surely.
In third is Wes Berg, who is a bit behind Dickson (2.69), and also owns the 20th best points-per-game average (4.92). Usually, that wouldn’t be enough for MVP consideration, but does kinda match Powell’s 2010 run. Berg also ranks as one of our top Clutch Kings this year, even higher than Dickson, and has been one of the hottest players in the second half of the season, quickly rising in our weekly NLL TOP 30. In recent years, Berg has always been one of our highest ranking forwards, but took a while to crack our weekly rundown this year due to a league-high decline in his overall offensive output. He’s making up for it now.
Based on his current point-producing pace (6.36), it’s also fairly unlikely Dickson overtakes the previous mentioned foursome in the first category and win’s the point-scoring crown too. So…
Contender: Curtis Dickson (in the Gait spot), plus maybe Wes Berg (in the Powell position)
Josh Byrne and Dhane Smith, Buffalo (Photo: Jenn Pierce)
Assists Leader
There has only been one instance where the league’s assist leader did not also top the NLL in points but was still voted MVP. Dan Dawson pulled that off in 2009 with the Boston Blazers.
Right now no one fits Dawson’s statistical ranks, exactly, but Dhane Smith is averaging more assists than anyone, and more points too. Also worth noting, Smith is still on pace to set a new single-season assists record for the fourth consecutive season. He owns the record with 101 last year, and with six games to go this year, is on pace for 104.
Contender: Dhane Smith
Zach Higgins, Ottawa Black Bears (Photo: Alexis Goller)
Goalie
There have been just two goalies in NLL history to be voted MVP: Steve Dietrich (2006) and Christian Del Bianco (2023). Both backstops led the league in close to all stopper stats. Last year, Nick Rose led in more individual goalie stats than either Dietrich or Del Bianco did during those MVP-winning runs. Rose was up for MVP, but did not win the award.
As we noticed a few weeks back, this year’s goalie numbers are led by nearly a different netminder in every category. No one is dominating the data like either Dietrich or Del Bianco (or Rose as a finalist) did during their MVP seasons.
Zach Higgins has been our highest ranked goalie for a number of weeks now, but has seen a decline in wins and save percentage during an alarming losing-streak in Ottawa. He would need to have a heroic final five weeks, including getting the Black Bears into the playoffs (which right now is looking highly unlikely), to get back into the MVP conversation.
Contender: No one
Zach Currier, San Diego Seals (Photo: Kalea Vizmanos)
Two-way Talent
Forwards have over two-thirds of all the MVP awards going back to the first year the league handed them out in 1994. As just mentioned, two goalies have been voted MVP in Dietrich and Del Bianco. Also, two two-way players have been handed MVP hardware: Jim Veltman (2004) and Jeff Shattler (2011).
Although both players were labelled a Transition player, their seasons could not have been any different both in full-time role or statistical output. A defense-first transition player, the only stat Veltman led in that year was loose balls (which he always did back then), but was also considered a classy leader who was long overdue for such an honour. Shattler started his season as a D-first tranny, but right at about the halfway mark of the regular season, went to full-time forward (read all about it here).
Leading in loose balls right now is Jake Withers, who won the TPOTY last year, but is also on pace to be well behind the high-level numbers he finished with a season ago in both loosies and most face-off stats. Even at his best, Withers’ game or style isn’t really comparable to Veltman or Shattler anyways.
Zach Currier has been a bit of both Veltman and Shattler this season, seeing increased offensive time during his first year in San Diego (like Shattler in Calgary that year), but still proving to be an invaluable asset in the Seals’ own end too (like Veltman in Toronto that season, and Buffalo before that). He’s second behind Withers in LB (has taken just 12 faceoffs to Withers’ 328 too), and is on pace to put up by far his best offensive numbers to date.
Contender: Zach Currier
NLL TOP 30: WEEK 17
TW. (LW) Player, Team (Pos.)
1. (1) Dhane Smith, Buffalo (F)
2. (5) Connor Fields, Rochester (F)
3. (3) Mitch Jones, Philadelphia (F)
4. (4) Josh Byrne, Buffalo (F)
5. (2) Curtis Dickson, Calgary (F)
6. (7) Joe Resetarits, Philadelphia (F)
7. (8) Zach Currier, San Diego (T)
8. (10) Ryan Lanchbury, Rochester (F)
9. (9) Robert Hope, Colorado (D)
10. (6) Zach Higgins, Ottawa (G)
11. (11) Jesse King, Calgary (F)
12. (15) Matt Vinc, Buffalo (G)
13. (12) Lyle Thompson, Georgia (F)
14. (14) Randy Staats, Halifax (F)
15. (13) Alex Simmons, Albany (F)
16. (17) Matt Hossack, Saskatchewan (D)
17. (21) Jeff Teat, Ottawa (F)
18. (16) Jake Boudreau, Saskatchewan (T)
19. (18) Owen Grant, Vancouver (T)
20. (23) Dillon Ward, Colorado (G)
21. (20) Mitch de Snoo, Philadelphia (D)
22. (22) Jake Withers, Halifax (T)
23. (19) Zach Manns, Saskatchewan (F)
24. (27) Jack Hannah, Las Vegas (F)
25. (28) Clarke Petterson, Halifax (F)
26. (30) Wes Berg, San Diego (F)
27. (24) Ryan Terefenko, Halifax (T)
28. (NR) Keegan Bal, Vancouver (F)
29. (NR) Ryan Lee, Colorado (F)
30. (NR) Nick Weiss, Buffalo (T)