Road to the Minto Cup: Let's get offensive
David Anderson, Toronto Beaches (Photo: Ontario Lacrosse Association)
One of the biggest storylines coming out of this past season’s NLL Cup Finals was the elevated, inspiring and super-charged play of Colorado Mammoth power forward Zed Williams.
With high-scoring duo Ryan Lee & Eli McLaughlin sidelined for a significant stretch, Williams was given the opportunity to step up and fill their very noticeable void on the Mammoth roster.
As The Lax Mag reviewed just prior to Game 3 of the Finals, Williams had a significant offensive statistical spike that not only looked spicy as hell on his stat line, it was a major reason why the Colorado Mammoth were crowned kings in 2022.
Zed Williams, Colorado Mammoth (Photo: Jack Dempsey)
We’re about three weeks into Junior A playoffs across the country, and The Lax Mag wants to know, who is playing the role of Zed Williams on the Road to the Minto Cup?
We compared every Ontario Junior Lacrosse League and BC Junior A Lacrosse League players’ offensive totals (goals, assists and points) from the regular season versus their post-season production (so far) to see who has seen a statistical surge similar to Williams. Unfortunately, the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League post-season stats were far too incomplete (only four of their eight games have been marked as final, player stats only 50% confirmed) to utilize. We had the RMLL regular-season stats pulled and ready, but were bummed to see the state of the playoff digits. We tried!
Below, we analyzed the Top 10 players that saw the biggest increases in their post-season goals, assists and points in comparison to what they registered during the regular season, but also listed the Top 30 players producing at a higher rate during the playoffs in those same three offensive categories.
Who will be the Zed Williams of this year’s Junior A playoffs? He’s likely one of the names high on the following lists, if his team is still alive.
Note: All stats calculated per game. Players with multiple player profiles in their respective season had their stats accumulated. All positions were included. No minimums were set for any of the three categories.
Goals: Reg. Season vs. Playoffs
Top 30
David Anderson, Toronto 1.27/3.40/+2.13
Trent DiCicco, Victoria 0.33/2.25/+1.92
Marcus Klarich, Burnaby 1.79/3.00/+1.21
Stuart Phillips, Langley 1.64/2.80/+1.16
Andrew Bowman, Nanaimo 1.29/2.25/+0.96
Clay Scanlon, St. Catharines 1.38/2.33/+0.96
Ty Banks, Coquitlam 0.50/1.43/+0.93
David Charney, Coquitlam 0.54/1.43/+0.89
Graysen Balatti, Langley 0.15/1.00/+0.85
Cody Malawsky, Langley 1.21/2.00/+0.79
Kyle Brunsch, Langley 2.43/3.20/+0.77
Ryan Sheridan, Nanaimo 2.00/2.75/+0.75
Curtis Goddard, Oakville 0.26/1.00/+0.74
Easton Ong, Nanaimo 0.31/1.00/+0.69
Daniel Battisti, Burnaby 0.33/1.00/+0.67
Curtis Bukta, Mimico 0.90/1.50/+0.60
Noah Armitage, Langley 1.80/2.33/+0.53
Jack Budway, Whitby 0.50/1.00/+0.50
Nolan Byrne, Peterborough 0.00/0.50/+0.50
Mitchell Armstrong, St. Catharines 0.17/0.67/+0.50
Jack Charboneau, Coquitlam 1.36/1.86/+0.50
Sam La Roue, Burnaby 2.20/2.67/+0.47
Zach Thompson, Peterborough 1.55/2.00/+0.45
Efrain Barreto, St. Catharines 0.23/0.67/+0.44
Carter Schott, Whitby 0.00/0.40/+0.40
Amos Whitcomb, Oakville 1.00/1.40/+0.40
Chuck Rawson, Burlington 0.64/1.00/+0.36
Declan Fitzpatrick, Langley 0.85/1.20/+0.35
Michael Grace, Burlington 0.07/0.40/+0.33
Parker Pipher, Whitby 1.85/2.17/+0.32
Assists: Reg. Season vs. Playoffs
Top 30
Jaxon Smart, Coquitlam 0.25/3.00/+2.75
Carter Begley, Mimico 1.25/4.00/+2.75
Trent DiCicco, Victoria 0.67/2.75/+2.08
Lucas Dudemaine, Mimico 1.42/3.00/+1.58
Jackson Webster, St. Catharines 2.56/4.00/+1.44
Xavier Taylor, St. Catharines 0.64/2.00/+1.36
Brooks English, Burlington 2.36/3.60/+1.24
Tristen Dempers, Whitby 0.63/1.83/+1.20
Coltrane Tyson, Burlington 2.35/3.50/+1.15
Greg Palmer, Toronto 0.86/2.00/+1.14
Justin Lee, Mimico 1.25/2.33/+1.08
Ben Kromer, Whitby 0.00/1.00/+1.00
Nick Dilauro Peterborough 0.75/1.75/+1.00
Daniel Clark, Peterborough 2.53/3.50/+0.97
Evan Soucy, Nanaimo 0.33/1.25/+0.92
Keaton Zavitz, St. Catharines 2.55/3.33/+0.78
Patrick Dodds, Victoria 3.00/3.75/+0.75
Jonathon Boyd, Victoria 1.29/2.00/+0.71
Drew Kask, Langley 1.31/2.00/+0.69
Brendan Boyle, Burlington 0.00/0.67/+0.67
Greg Elijah-Brown, Burlington 1.74/2.40/+0.66
Aidan Collery, Nanaimo 0.36/1.00/+0.64
Isiah Moran-Weekes, Mimico 1.38/2.00/+0.62
Zach Miller, Toronto 1.40/2.00/+0.60
David Anderson, Toronto 1.60/2.20/+0.60
Tristan Kirkham, Langley 1.91/2.50/+0.59
Spencer Ma, Coquitlam 0.15/0.71/+0.56
Shane Halliwell, Victoria 1.00/1.50/+0.50
Rowan Birrell, Burnaby 1.21/1.67/+0.45
Curtis Goode, Langley 0.15/0.60/+0.45
Points: Reg. Season vs. Playoffs
Top 30
Trent Dicicco, Victoria 1.00/5.00/+4.00
David Anderson, Toronto 2.87/5.60/+2.73
Carter Begley, Mimico 1.63/4.00/+2.38
Jaxon Smart, Coquitlam 1.75/4.00/+2.25
Lucas Dudemaine, Mimico 2.47/4.33/+1.86
Marcus Klarich, Burnaby 3.86/5.33/+1.48
Stuart Phillips, Langley 4.14/5.60/+1.46
Greg Palmer, Toronto 1.71/3.00/+1.29
Tristen Dempers, Whitby 0.89/2.17/+1.27
Brooks English, Burlington 2.93/4.20/+1.27
Coltrane Tyson, Burlington 4.29/5.50/+1.21
David Charney, Coquitlam 2.38/3.57/+1.19
Justin Lee, Mimico 2.50/3.67/+1.17
Curtis Goddard, Oakville 0.84/2.00/+1.16
Ben Kromer, Whitby 0.00/1.00/+1.00
Keaton Zavitz, St. Catharines 4.00/5.00/+1.00
Easton Ong, Nanaimo 0.54/1.50/+0.96
Xavier Taylor, St. Catharines 2.09/3.00/+0.91
Ty Banks, Coquitlam 0.88/1.71/+0.84
Nick Dilauro, Peterborough 1.44/2.25/+0.81
Graysen Balatti, Langley 0.23/1.00/+0.77
Kyle Brunsch, Langley 3.86/4.60/+0.74
Brendan Boyle, Burlington 0.00/0.67/+0.67
Cody Malawsky, Langley 3.79/4.40/+0.61
Sam La Roue, Burnaby 3.40/4.00/+0.60
Tristan Kirkham, Langley 2.91/3.50/+0.59
Ryan Sheridan, Nanaimo 3.67/4.25/+0.58
Evan Soucy, Nanaimo 0.67/1.25/+0.58
Aidan Collery , Nanaimo 0.45/1.00/+0.55
Carter Schott, Whitby 0.08/0.60/+0.52