Rookie Report: More Goals, More Debuts

Six weeks into the NLL season and the outstanding rookie performances just keep coming. 

Since the last NLL rookie report, well… a lot has happened. 

Since December 17th, six more players have made their NLL debut. Congratulations to Jackson Webster and Nick Preston (LV), Mike Sisselberger (ROC), Richie Connell and Liam McGrath (GEO) and Josh Zawada (SAS) who all played since the first rookie report was published. 

Unchanged since last time is the leader in rookie scoring. Brennan O’Neill (PHI) has gotten out to an incredible start to his young career, with 9 goals and 12 assists for the Wings in four games. Most importantly for Philly fans, the team is 3-1 and sitting in great shape in the standings. 

For reference, last year’s Rookie of the Year Alex Simmons had 27 points in his first four games, while 2023 ROY Jon Donville had 15 and 2022 ROY Jeff Teat had 31 (Teat had 3 goals and 9 assists against Buffalo in his fourth career game). In other words, O’Neill is doing very well. 

Here is the top ten rookie scorers as of this morning. 

Albany’s Dyson Williams is second on the list after a hat-trick against his dad on the weekend, in a game that honoured his brother Tucker. That starts a string of Whitby Warriors in the rookie race. 

Minto Cup Champions Brock Haley (SAS) and Adam Poitras (LV) sit next in the scoring race with 15 and 12 points respectively. Poitras is coming off scoring the Overtime winner for the Desert Dogs in their first victory of the young season, and also leads all first years in loose balls with 32. 

Speaking of the Dogs, the rookies dominated the weekend for Shawn Williams’ team, as Webster scored 3 goals and 3 assists in his NLL debut. He was the 22nd rookie to score a goal this season, while Matt Wright added one in the night-cap for the Seals. 

Since the last report, Clay Scanlan (BUF) scored his first two goals, as did Owen Rahn (COL), Hogg, Zawada and Payton Cormier (VAN). Jake Naso (SAS) added one as well along with Kaleb Benedict (GEO). 

On the defensive side of things, Poitras leads the way with 7 CTO’s on the season, followed by Jake Darlison (TOR) and Conner Cook (COL) who have 4 each. Zac Masson (ALB) has three CTO’s to his name. 

Caelen Mander (CAL) and Alec Stathakis (VAN) are the only rookies with multiple blocked shots. 

Check out the full list below, and be sure to be on the right tab. We have added date tabs to the spreadsheet to show trends over time!

And stay tuned for the NLL Rookie Report for the rest of the season!