2025 NLL Player Rankings: Our ROTY right now
Will Johansen, Albany FireWolves (Photo: Christian Bender)
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.
Dyson Williams, Albany FireWolves (Photo: Jonathan Tenca)
Although we’ll do our usual year-end Rookie of the Year rundown after the regular season is done, like we did last week with the MVP race, The Lax Mag is taking a slightly early look at who our NLL Player Rankings calculations say should win the 2025 ROTY if the season ended today.
We pulled the Top 5 rookie statistical producers in a variety of categories, confirm where they rank amongst one another, plus maybe more importantly, where they rank across the league.
Below are those rankings, as well as our Top 5 ranked rookies leading into Week 18, plus our weekly NLL TOP 30, which has had the same players ranked #1 since the start of the season… Dhane Smith.
CATEGORY
Rookie Rank (NLL Rank) Player, Team – Stat (Games Played)
GOALS
1. (T38) Dyson Williams, Albany – 22 (15)
2. (T45) Brennan O’Neill, Philadelphia – 20 (14)
3. (T53) Mike Robinson, Halifax – 17 (14)
4. (T58) Adm Poitras, Las Vegas – 16 (14)
5. (T68) Brock Haley, Saskatchewan – 14 (13)
Dyson Williams has a slight lead over Brennan O’Neill, who has seen a steady decline in his goal production after breaking out so brilliantly. Averaging 2 goals per game over his first seven games, O’Neill is outputting less than a goal per in his last seven, which not so shockingly has aligned with Philadelphia’s seven-game losing streak. This year’s rookie class has seen a dramatic drop in goal production in general. In comparison, last year’s ROTY Alex Simmons, was tied for 16th in league goals at the end of the regular season.
TURNOVERS
1. (28) Dyson Williams, Albany – 37 (15)
2. (T32) Adam Poitras, Las Vegas – 34 (14)
3. (T48) Mike Robinson, Halifax – 28 (14)
4. (T52) Brennan O’Neill, Philadelphia – 26 (14)
5. (T59) Jonathan Peshko, Albany – 25 (14)
Critics will often nit-pick turnover totals, and while ideally a player wants to keep this digit down, TO league leaders are also usually the players who have the ball in their stick the most while playing a high-end role on O. With that said, although O’Neill’s scoring has sunk in the second half as we reviewed above, he does have one of the more impressive shots-to-goals-to-turnover ratios. Brock Haley does too, scoring 14 and only giving away the ball 18 times. Again, the more a player shoots (FYI 1. Dyson Williams 122 shots and 2. Brennan O’Neill 88 shots - No rookie has shot anywhere close to Williams so far this season).
Brennan O’Neill, Philadelphia Wings (Photo: Caroline Sherman)
CLUTCH
1. (15) Dyson Williams, Albany – 19.00 (15)
2. (T39) Adam Poitras, Las Vegas – 10.50 (14)
3. (46) Brock Haley, Saskatchewan – 9.75 (13)
4. (T47) Brennan O’Neill, Philadelphia – 9.50 (14)
5. (T51) Mike Robinson, Halifax – 9.00 (14)
Williams leads here easily, and actually jumped onto our most recent Clutch Kings leaderboard earlier this week. He has scored the last two winning goals for Albany, a fourth quarter (14:00) finisher against Georgia and then of course last week’s OT icer against the mighty Buffalo Bandits. Adam Poitras, who had an OT winner against Williams’ FireWolves way back in Week 6, was a CK leader, but has since slipped well outside of our weekly Top 20 as the season has gone on.
ASSISTS
1. (T33) Dyson Williams, Albany – 32 (15)
2. (T48) Brennan O’Neill, Philadelphia – 25 (14)
3. (T53) Mike Robinson, Halifax – 22 (14)
4. (T56) Brock Haley, Saskatchewan – 21 (13)
5. (T65) Adam Poitras, Las Vegas – 17 (14)
An almost identical order to the goals category above, Williams has a slightly larger lead here, and ranks higher across the NLL entire too. Similar to goals, rookie assist production is behind what we’ve seen from first-year players in recent seasons. In comparison, Jonathan Donville’s 67 helpers in 2023 led rookies but was also ninth highest in the NLL.
Mike Robinson, Halifax Thunderbirds (Photo: Jack Dempsey)
POINTS
1. (T36) Dyson Williams, Albany – 54 (15)
2. (48) Brennan O’Neill, Philadelphia – 45 (14)
3. (T56) Mike Robinson, Halifax – 39 (14)
4. (T62) Brock Haley, Saskatchewan – 35 (13)
5. (T66) Adam Poitras, Las Vegas – 33 (14)
Again, no surprise here based on the above results – it’s same five forwards. Of note, both Calgary’s Brayden Mayea (3.1) and Georgia’s Toron Eccleston (2.9) have points/game averages that rank them third and fourth amongst rookies, but with eight GPs apiece, they don’t have full point totals high enough to rank amongst this year’s straight stats leaders.
LOOSE BALLS
1. (9) Will Johansen, Albany – 123 (15)
2. (13) Alec Stathakis, Vancouver – 111 (13)
T3. (T38) Adam Poitras, Las Vegas – 79 (14)
T3. (T38) Mike Robinson, Halifax – 79 (14)
5. (T41) Trent DiCicco, San Diego – 78 (14)
At his present pace, Albany FireWolves rookie Will Johansen should finish the year in the ballpark of 150 loose balls, which would be one of the highest rookie totals in NLL history. Johansen currently ranks 9th overall in the NLL and 6th among non-face-off takers. The only rookies over the past decade to crack the all-time rookie LB list are Jake Withers, Zach Currier, Trevor Baptiste, and Reid Bowering, who tied Brodie Merrill’s record three seasons ago. Vancouver rookie Alec Stathakis is also on pace to finish his first NLL season with 140+ loosies this year.
Brodie Merrill, Portland (2006) 214
Reid Bowering, Vancouver (2022) 214
Zach Currier, Calgary (2018) 200
Geoff Snider, Philadelphia (2007) 180
Trevor Baptiste, Philadelphia (2019) 179
Jordan MacIntosh, Minnesota (2012) 153
Bill Greer, Columbus (2002) 152
Jake Withers, Rochester (2018) 148
Kyle Rubisch, Boston (2011) 143
Derek Suddons, Columbus (2002) 138
Stephen Peyser, New York (2009) 137
Adam Poitras, Las Vegas Desert Dogs (Photo: Stephen Greathouse)
CAUSED TURNOVERS
1. (T17) Will Johansen, Albany – 16 (15)
2. (T21) Adam Poitras, Las Vegas – 14 (14)
3. (T52) Jack Follows, Calgary – 10 (14)
T4. (T67) Connor Cook, Colorado – 9 (13)
T4. (T67) Zac Masson, Albany – 9 (15)
Again, Johansen ranks really high here against the rest of the league. Poitras is up there too, which might be even more impressive considering he plays a front-door first role. Johansen could still finish in the all-time rookie CT Top 10, needing six more forced turnovers to catch TJ Comizio’s 22 registered in 2022 with the Swarm.
BLOCKS
1. (T86) Will Johansen, Albany – 5 (15)
T2. (T97) Jack Follows, Calgary – 4 (14)
T2. (T97) Zac Masson, Albany – 4 (15)
T2. (T97) Jake Stevens, Ottawa – 4 (14)
T5. (T113) Jacob Hickey, Georgia – 3 (5)
T5. (T113) Adam Poitras, Las Vegas – 3 (14)
Rookies were rarely relied on for blocking duty this year, although again, Johansen leads first-year players here too. Also, although he has just three blocks, Poitras pops up here and is the only rookie to land on every Top 5 list we pulled today.
So, how does our Player Rankings math order this year’s top rookies?
Will Johansen, Albany FireWolves (Photo: Micheline Veluvolu)
5. Brennan O’Neill, Philadelphia
For a lot of the first half of the season, O’Neill was our #1 ranked rookie, but similar to the Wings’ second-half slide in the standings, the Philly forward has faded fast in our Player Rankings.
4. Mike Robinson, Halifax
Robinson’s and O’Neill’s O ranks are fairly comparable, but the Thunderbirds rookie also provides his team some significant scoops, right not 50 loosies ahead of O’Neill. As he takes on a more prominent role with Halifax in future seasons, Robinson has huge 30/60/90 potential.
3. Adam Poitras, Las Vegas
A recent move to the Desert Dogs’ IR might end up costing Poitras ROTY votes, but as expected, Whitby’s Minto Cup-winning captain was this year’s hands down best overall (pound-for-pound) offensive rookie because of what he brings to the table no matter which team has the ball.
2. Dyson Williams, Albany
Sitting #1 in virtually every rookie O category, Williams is likely a lot of people’s #1 right now, and isn’t too far away from the name below in our Player Rankings calculations. If he continues putting on performances like we saw last week versus Buffalo, Williams could easily still finish as our ROTY frontrunner.
1. Will Johansen, Albany
Johansen is providing Albany with a similar if not greater impact than most modern-era ROTYs, but has two major things going against him…
Defensive players rarely win the NLL’s Rookie of the Year Award. In fact, since establishing the year-end honour in 1991, only three defensemen have ever been voted ROTY: Taylor Wray (’04 Calgary), Brodie Merrill (’06 Portland) and Jake Withers (’18 Rochester). That’s three out of 32 ROTYs, the rest all being primarily offensive players.
Plus, he’s not from Ontario. It’s been a decade since a player from British Columbia (Johansen is from Victoria, BC) has been vote the league’s ROTY. After over three decades of the award existing, only seven ROTY winners are from BC.
The Lax Mag’s Player Rankings do not take position or hometowns into account when ordering overall player impact. Between what he’s provided the FireWolves with and where he ranks defensively not only amongst rookies but also today’s top D-end players, with a month of regular season lacrosse left, Johansen is most definitely our ROTY leader right now.
Dhane Smith, Buffalo Bandits (Photo: Caroline Sherman)
NLL TOP 30: WEEK 18
TW. (LW) Player, Team (Pos.)
1. (1) Dhane Smith, Buffalo (F)
2. (2) Connor Fields, Rochester (F)
3. (4) Josh Byrne, Buffalo (F)
4. (3) Mitch Jones, Philadelphia (F)
5. (7) Zach Currier, San Diego (T)
6. (8) Ryan Lanchbury, Rochester (F)
7. (6) Joe Resetarits, Philadelphia (F)
8. (10) Zach Higgins, Ottawa (G)
9. (5) Curtis Dickson, Calgary (F)
10. (12) Matt Vinc, Buffalo (G)
11. (13) Lyle Thompson, Georgia (F)
12. (17) Jeff Teat, Ottawa (F)
13. (9) Robert Hope, Colorado (D)
14. (11) Jesse King, Calgary (F)
15. (16) Matt Hossack, Saskatchewan (D)
16. (14) Randy Staats, Halifax (F)
17. (15) Alex Simmons, Albany (F)
18. (19) Owen Grant, Vancouver (T)
19. (18) Jake Boudreau, Saskatchewan (T)
20. (20) Dillon Ward, Colorado (G)
21. (21) Mitch de Snoo, Philadelphia (D)
22. (22) Jake Withers, Halifax (T)
23. (26) Wes Berg, San Diego (F)
24. (28) Keegan Bal, Vancouver (F)
25. (23) Zach Manns, Saskatchewan (F)
26. (27) Ryan Terefenko, Halifax (T)
27. (25) Clarke Petterson, Halifax (F)
28. (29) Ryan Lee, Colorado (F)
29. (30) Nick Weiss, Buffalo (T)
30. (NR) Josh Dawick, Toronto (F)