2025 NLL Player Rankings: The Goalie Edition

Zach Higgins, Ottawa Black Bears

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.

Frank Scigliano, Saskatchewan Rush

This week, The Lax Mag goes between the pipes to take a closer look at this year’s goaltending leaders in the following statistical categories: goals against average (GAA), save percentage, wins, goals saved above average (GSAA), points and savers per 60 minutes. Who tops each stat column, will that number matter much when it comes to the NLL’s Goalie of the Year vote, plus our updated NLL TOP 30 leaderboard, all below…

Goals Against Average

During his previous dozen seasons in the league, Frank Scigliano only once ended a year with a GAA under ten (9.78 with San Diego in 2022) and this year is even below that previous best figure (9.45). The Saskatchewan Rush starting stopper was on the verge of making our Top 30 prior to missing a few weekends for the anticipated birth of his daughter, right now ranked #32 going into Week 15. Often considered more of a goalie + defensive-unit stat, GAA most definitely matters when it comes to the NLL’s GOTY vote, so say the league’s record books. Three of the last five Goalies of the Year had led the league in GAA. Rarely does a goalie that finishes outside of the Top 5 year-end GAA leaders win the award. The last time? In 2016, Evan Kirk was voted GOTY while allowing nearly 12 goals per game, a stat that ranked him seventh that season.

1. Frank Scigliano, Saskatchewan (9.45)
2. Aden Walsh, Vancouver (9.56)
3. Zach Higgins, Ottawa (10.08)
4. Matt Vinc, Buffalo (10.20)
5. Warren Hill, Halifax (10.40)

Zach Higgins, Ottawa Black Bears (Photo: Greg Mason)

Save Percentage

With the amount of shots he saw during his four seasons with the Philadelphia Wings, it was nearly impossible for Zach Higgins to rank high in many of these netminding metrics. Goalies that see the amount of rubber Higgins has since 2020 rarely have league-leading numbers in stats like GAA, save percentage and even wins. While that shot-gun style of lacrosse ruled the NLL during it’s first decade or so (the MILL era), today’s analytics show that teams that give up a shit ton of shots, rarely succeed in the standings. With that said, many still considered Higgins a top tendy in the league, even though a majority of data didn’t really back that statement up. After his first eleven starts in Canada’s capital this year, Higgins has shaved off nearly 2.5 goals from his GAA (vs. last year), and even though he had arguably his worst game of 2025 this past week, he still leads the league with a .798 SV%. Higgins has ranked as high as second in The Lax Mag’s weekly NLL TOP 30 this season. Will leading the league in SV% land Higgins (or whoever else ends up #1 in late April) his first GOTY? Recent voting history says yes. When was the last time a goalie who led the league in save percentage didn’t win the award? 2018, Christian Del Bianco popped the biggest save percent, but was pushed aside by Matt Vinc for GOTY. Vinc finished second in save percentage that year.

1. Zach Higgins, Ottawa (.798)
2. Dillon Ward, Colorado (.797)
3. Matt Vinc, Buffalo (.796)
4. Frank Scigliano, Saskatchewan (.793)
5. Riley Hutchcraft, Rochester (.792)

Matt Vinc, Buffalo Bandits

Wins

A team stat that means more to, well, teams than it does number crunchers, we still incorporate this long-standing stat in our Player Rankings calculations. Do wins and team success matter when it comes to GOTY voters? Apparently even more so than GAA. Below are the last 15 NLL Goalies of the Year, plus where their win total ranked at the end of the season.

2024 Nick Rose (1st)
2023 Christian Del Bianco (2nd)
2022 Matt Vinc (1st)
2020 Doug Jamieson (1st)
2019 Matt Vinc (1st)
2018 Matt Vinc (4th)
2017 Dillon Ward (3rd)
2016 Evan Kirk (2nd)
2015 Matt Vinc (2nd)
2014 Matt Vinc (2nd)
2013 Matt Vinc (3rd)
2012 Mike Poulin (1st)
2011 Matt Vinc (2nd)
2010 Matt Vinc (1st)
2009 Kenny Montour (3rd)

Kenny Montour, Buffalo Bandits

The whole, “Does an MVP need to play for a playoff qualifier,” question is held to an even higher standard here. In conclusion, if you play for a shitty team that allows a lot of shots, you can forget about being voted GOTY no matter how strong your shot-stopping game is.

1. Matt Vinc, Buffalo (9)
T2. Dillon Ward, Colorado (7)
T2. Brett Dobson, Georgia (7)
T2. Frank Scigliano, Sasakatchewan (7)
5. Cam MacLeod, Calgary (6)

Dillon Ward, Colorado Mammoth (Photo: Todd Caudle)

GSAA

Although we’ve explained in the past, with GSAA still being a newish number when it comes to analyzing box lacrosse goalies’ game, here’s what it calculates (courtesy of Dobber Hockey)…

Goals Saved Above Average (GSAA) is the metric that measures the difference between the number of goals a goaltender has allowed versus how many they were expected to allow, given the league average save percentage and the number of shots faced. In essence, it quantifies a goalie’s performance relative to the league norm. A positive GSAA indicates that a goaltender has saved more goals than the average goalie would have, given the same number of shots, signaling superior performance.

Higgins had led the league here for most of the season, but was recently passed by Dillon Ward, who as we saw above, has the second highest SV% right now, and as we see a few spots below, is making more saves per 60 minutes than almost anyone in the NLL after Week 14.

1. Dillon Ward, Colorado (12.69)
2. Zach Higgins, Ottawa (11.10)
3. Matt Vinc, Buffalo (9.52)
4. Frank Scigliano, Saskatchewan (7.40)
5. Riley Hutchcraft, Rochester (6.39)

Although GSAA leaders usually win GOTY, don’t tell Tye Belanger. Back in 2017, Belanger (Vancouver Stealth) led the NLL in both GSAA (18.82) and SV% (.796), but not only failed to be voted GOTY, he wasn’t even a fucking finalist. Why? Based on NLL voting trends, he and his team lacked standings success (which seems to matter more than it should here), and likely didn’t have the reputation to garner old guard and/or BFF votes.

Nick Rose (Photo: Christian Bender)

Points

With Christian Del Bianco and Calgary still sitting at a stalemate, the race for the goalie scoring lead is up for grabs. Del Bianco had led all goalies in points going back to 2018 (excluding the pandemic-squashed 2020 season), last year posting his second straight 19-point performance. Although a nice sidebar stat, it’s unlikely many are casting their GOTY pick based on points, but if they do, stop sending them a ballot, Brett.

1. Nick Rose, Calgary (6)
T2. Justin Geddie, Las Vegas (4)
T2. Warren Hill, Halifax (4)
T2. Dillon Ward, Colorado (4)
T5. Chris Origlieri, San Diego (3)
T5. Aden Walsh, Vancouver (3)

Nick Damude, Philadelphia Wings

Saves/60 Minutes

Last year, Nick Damude’s Panther City squad gave up the second-most shots during the NLL regular season (995), but impressively had the seventh lowest goals against team total (202).

Now with the Philadelphia Wings, Damude finds himself on a roster that has led the league in shots against for the previous three consecutive seasons, an unwanted repeating record that only one other team in league history has ever matched (Washington Stealth 2011-2013). Will Philly make it four in a row?

It looks likely.

Not only is Damude making the most saves over a 60-minute stretch, he’s seeing the most shots per 60 too (58.30). These numbers are obviously higher than what Damude dealt with in Fort Worth, and even more than the hellish heat Higgins had to handle during his final year in Philly.

Damude owns the worst GAA of any starting goalie (13.05) and his save percentage ranks just twelfth amongst those same starters (he was third last year). While it would be easy to look at that data and hand Damude a failing grade, based on the action (often high-quality looks) he gets versus any other goalie this year, that would be wildly unfair.

Will Damude get GOTY consideration based on his extremely high workload? See our Wins category for your answer.

1. Nick Damude, Philadelphia (45.25)
2. Doug Jamieson, Albany (43.69)
3. Riley Hutchcraft, Rochester (43.24)
4. Dillon Ward, Colorado (42.07)
5. Landon Kells, Las Vegas (40.34)

Aden Walsh, Vancouver Warriors (Photo: Jordan Leigh Creative)

Below is our updated NLL TOP 30, with Higgins, Vinc, Walsh and Ward listed, and as we mentioned previously, Scigliano sits just outside of this week’s updated Player Rankings.

Goalie Rank. Goalie, Team (NLL TOP 30 Rank - Week 15)

1. Zack Higgins, Ottawa (4)
2. Matt Vinc, Buffalo (10)
3. Aden Walsh, Vancouver (22)
4. Dillon Ward, Colorado (26)
5. Frank Scigliano, Saskatchewan (32)

NLL TOP 30: Week 15

TW (LW) Player, Team (Pos.)

1. (1) Dhane Smith, Buffalo (F)
2. (3) Mitch Jones, Philadelphia (F)
3. (4) Josh Byrne, Buffalo (F)
4. (2) Zach Higgins, Ottawa (G)
5. (5) Curtis Dickson, Calgary (F)
6. (6) Joe Resetarits, Philadelphia (F)
7. (7) Zach Currier, San Diego (T)
8. (10) Connor Fields, Rochester (F)
9. (8) Robert Hope, Colorado (D)
10. (11) Matt Vinc, Buffalo (G)
11. (13) Lyle Thompson, Georgia (F)
12. (9) Randy Staats, Halifax (F)
13. (16) Ryan Lanchbury, Rochester (F)
14. (12) Jesse King, Calgary (F)
15. (17) Zach Manns, Saskatchewan (F)
16. (14) Alex Simmons, Albany (F)
17. (15) Owen Grant, Vancouver (T)
18. (18) Jake Boudreau, Saskatchewan (T)
19. (19) Matt Hossack, Saskatchewan (D)
20. (24) Jeff Teat, Ottawa (F)
21. (20) Mitch de Snoo, Philadelphia (D)
22. (22) Aden Walsh, Vancouver (G)
23. (21) Jake Withers, Halifax (T)
24. (27) Ryan Terefenko, Halifax (T)
25. (23) Jack Hannah, Las Vegas (F)
26. (NR) Dillon Ward, Colorado (G)
27. (26) Dane Dobbie, Calgary (F)
28. (28) Robert Church, Saskatchewan (F)
29. (29) Ryan Dilks, Vancouver (D)
30. (NR) Keegan Bal, Vancouver (F)