We have just three weeks remaining in the 2024-25 NLL Regular Season. Teams are gearing up to leave everything on the floor and give it everything they’ve got to have their teams get much-needed victories.Â
Now, more than at any other point of this season, it is imperative that everyone is putting their best effort forward, including statistical nugget hunters like myself. Here is this week’s edition of By The Numbers.
2 – # Of Face-Off Wins Trevor Baptiste Needs To Pass Tyler Burton for 9th All-Time In NLL Regular Season History
The San Diego Seals Trevor Baptiste is looking like his old self again after missing all but one game of the 2024-25 season before March 22nd. He went 19 of 30 at the face-off dot on the 22nd against the Calgary Roughnecks. On March 29th, he followed that up by winning 18 of 31 draws against the Rochester Knighthawks.
Those 37 face-off wins over the last 2 weeks pushed Baptiste (1,582 career face-off wins) past Bob Snider, who finished his NLL career with 1,577 career face-off wins. Baptiste is now within reaching distance of moving up the all-time regular season face-off wins list again. This weekend, Baptiste needs to win only 2 draws against Jake Withers and the Halifax Thunderbirds in order to pass Tyler Burton (1,583 career face-off wins) to move into 9th all-time.
If you’re wondering if it’s a lock for Baptiste to win at least 2 draws in a game (even if he’ll be facing Withers), the answer is: yes. Over his 6-year NLL career, Baptiste has only been held to under 10 face-off wins in a game 3 times. The fewest he’s won in a game was against when he faced Withers back on February 13th, 2022, but even that was 3x as many face-off wins as he needs to move up the ranks.
Withers will be trying to make some face-off history of his own this weekend as he needs 18 face-off wins to pass Jamie Hanford with 5th all-time in regular season assists.
71 – # Of Matchups Between the Rush & Calgary Roughnecks In NLL History After Week 19
Between their 10 seasons in Edmonton and 9 seasons in Saskatoon, the Rush have faced the Calgary Roughnecks 59 times in franchise history – in the playoffs, they’ve played each other another 11 times. This weekend, the Calgary Roughnecks are visiting the SaskTel Centre to battle the Rush for the 71st time in franchise history in a game that holds a lot of weight for both teams.
The Rush clinched an opening-round playoff match in Week 18, but now they have a chance to secure the #1 overall spot in the standings, which would earn them a home-floor advantage throughout the playoffs.
While attendance has been trending downward for nearly a decade in Saskatoon, their Week 18 home game against the Colorado Mammoth saw a season-high 8,051 fans in attendance. With the team playing their best ball in over half of a decade, could this be the week the Rush surpasses 10,000+ fans for the first time since April 22nd, 2023, against the Mammoth?
For the Roughnecks, this is essentially a must-win game. If the Roughnecks lose this weekend, they will not be eliminated from the playoffs, but they’ll need plenty of outside help to even have a chance to clinch a playoff spot. According to Graeme Perrow of NLLstats.com, before this weekend’s game, the Roughnecks only have a 38% chance of making the playoffs. When you’re playing games in April, you don’t want to be walking on a tightrope, but that’s where the Rush is now.
Since the start of 2016 season, of the 26 times these teams have squared off, 10 of those matchups have been decided by 2 goals or less, including 3 that went to overtime (the Rush won all 3 of those games). So, I think it’s safe to say we should be in store for another great matchup between these two rivals.
9 – # Of Wins Vancouver Warriors Could Have After Week 19
9 wins? Why should I care about 9 wins? Let me tell you why.
The last decade of Vancouver lacrosse, be it the Warriors or Stealth, has been very dark. Wins have been very hard to come by. Since 2014, the Warriors/Stealth have had a combined regular season record of 60-130. In many of those seasons, the Warriors/Stealth finished at or near the bottom of the standings.
If the Warriors can win this weekend (or at least grab a single win over their last three games), they will secure their 9th win of the season. This would be the first time since the 2017 season that this franchise (they were the Stealth that year) has notched 9 or more wins during a single regular season.
The Vancouver Warriors have now reached 8 wins in back-to-back years.
— Adam Levi (@AdamLeviLAX) April 2, 2025
The last time this franchise had back-to-back seasons with at least 8 regular season wins was 2010 & 2011, when they were the Washington Stealth.
Since Curt Malawsky and his staff took over as coaches, they…
Times have changed under the leadership of Curt Malawsky and his staff. The Warriors are a team that can compete with the best of the best. Just use last weekend as a prime example, when they beat Buffalo in their own building.
The Warriors has the Albany FireWolves on Friday night.
2 – # Of Assists Randy Staats Needs To Reach 60 This Season
Randy Staats has been an excellent facilitator throughout his NLL career, but this season (at least statistically) is panning out to be his best year yet.
Other than last season where Staats accumulated only 24 because he played in half of his Halifax Thunderbird’s games, Staats has tallied 39 or more assists in every season. His single-season career-high is 59 assists.Â
For whatever reason, Staats has never reached 60 assists, although he’s come remarkably close on a few occasions. In his rookie season, he posted 59 assists with the Georgia Swarm. In 2019, he again posted 59 assists with the Swarm. Believe it or not, in 2023, he also had 59 assists.
Finally, in his 8th season in the league, it seems all but certain that he’ll reach 60 assists this season. Not only is he averaging 4.1 assists per game, but he’s tallied 2 or more assists in 13 of the 14 games he’s played this season. Considering Staats and the Thunderbirds have three games remaining this regular season, it would be remarkable if Staats didn’t finally reach that mark.
31 – Josh Dawick’s Goal Total This Season
I know the Toronto Rock have had a disappointing season (they are 5-9 heading into Week 19), but Josh Dawick has not slowed down one bit.
The 24-year-old 3rd-year player is having a career year in so many ways. He is on pace to reach a career-high 40 goals. If he reaches that mark, he will be the only 7th player in Toronto Rock history to score 40 or more goals in a single season.
Injuries to the likes of Mark Matthews and Tom Schrieber on the offensive side of the ball earlier this season opened the door for Dawick to take more of a leading goalscoring role. He’s delivered. In his first couple of seasons in the league, Dawick combined for 18 goals, with 14 of those coming last season. He has now more than doubled his single-season career-high for goals scored.
What makes this such a welcoming sight for the Rock is that, as it stands heading into Week 19, the Rock would hold the first three draft picks in the 2025 NLL Entry Draft. If they can draft other young offensive studs, like CJ Kirst, Alex Mariner, Braedon Saris or others, to join a rising Dawick, this next-generation offence could be a serious problem for the opposition for years to come.