2019 NLL season

The 2019 National Lacrosse League season, formally known as the 2018–2019 season, is the 33rd in the history of the NLL. It was originally scheduled to begin on December 1, 2018 and ending with the NLL final in late spring of 2019. This season is the inaugural season for the expansion teams San Diego Seals and Philadelphia Wings. This is also the final season for the Rochester Knighthawks under owner Curt Styres, as the team's operations are being relocated to Halifax for the 2019–20 season while Pegula Sports and Entertainment takes over the Knighthawks moniker with a new expansion team.

2019 NLL season
League	National Lacrosse League
Sport	Indoor lacrosse (box lacrosse)
Duration	December 15, 2018 — May 25, 2019
Number of games	18
Number of teams	11
TV partner(s)	B/R Live[1]
Draft
Top draft pick	Tyson Gibson
Picked by	New York Riptide
Regular Season
Top seed	Buffalo Bandits
Season MVP	Dane Dobbie (Calgary Roughnecks)
Top scorer	Dane Dobbie (Calgary Roughnecks)
Playoffs
Finals champions	Calgary Roughnecks (3rd title)
Runners-up	Buffalo Bandits
Finals MVP	Dane Dobbie (Roughnecks)

The Professional Lacrosse Players Association, who represents the NLL players, opted out of their seven-year collective bargaining agreement after the fifth season (2017–18) seeking a new deal. On November 15, 2018 the league announced that a counter-proposal submitted by the Professional Lacrosse Players Association was rejected. This came after the league suspended their Wednesday November 14 deadline to review the counter-proposal after the PLPA rejected the league's offer; the PLPA advised its members not to attend training camp and thus effectively went on strike. Subsequent to this the league announced that all games to be played in the first two weeks of the season (encompassing December 1 and 8 weekends) were cancelled.^[2] On November 24 the NLL and the PLPA came to an agreement on the CBA for 5 years, ending the labor dispute.^[3]

Teams

Bandits

Swarm

Wolves

Wings

Hawks

Rock

Rough
necks

Mammoth

Rush

Seals

Warriors

East Division West Division

2019 National Lacrosse League
Division	Team	City	Arena	Capacity
East	Buffalo Bandits	Buffalo, New York	KeyBank Center	19,070
	Georgia Swarm	Duluth, Georgia	Infinite Energy Arena	10,500
	New England Black Wolves	Uncasville, Connecticut	Mohegan Sun Arena	7,074
	Philadelphia Wings	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Wells Fargo Center	19,306
	Rochester Knighthawks	Rochester, New York	Blue Cross Arena	10,662
	Toronto Rock	Toronto, Ontario	Scotiabank Arena	18,800
West	Calgary Roughnecks	Calgary, Alberta	Scotiabank Saddledome	19,289
	Colorado Mammoth	Denver, Colorado	Pepsi Center	18,007
	San Diego Seals	San Diego, California	Pechanga Arena	12,920
	Saskatchewan Rush	Saskatoon, Saskatchewan	SaskTel Centre	15,195
	Vancouver Warriors	Vancouver, British Columbia	Rogers Arena	18,910

Regular season

Reference: ^[4]

East Division

P	Team	GP	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	GF	GA	Diff	GF/GP	GA/GP
1	Buffalo Bandits – xyz	18	14	4	.778	0.0	7–2	7–2	244	186	+58	13.56	10.33
2	Georgia Swarm – x	18	12	6	.667	2.0	7–2	5–4	230	210	+20	12.78	11.67
3	Toronto Rock – x	18	12	6	.667	2.0	8–1	4–5	213	207	+6	11.83	11.50
4	New England Black Wolves – x	18	9	9	.500	5.0	7–2	2–7	213	223	−10	11.83	12.39
5	Rochester Knighthawks	18	6	12	.333	8.0	4–5	2–7	212	226	−14	11.78	12.56
6	Philadelphia Wings	18	4	14	.222	10.0	3–6	1–8	218	246	−28	12.11	13.67

West Division

P	Team	GP	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	GF	GA	Diff	GF/GP	GA/GP
1	Saskatchewan Rush – xy	18	11	7	.611	0.0	7–2	4–5	222	202	+20	12.33	11.22
2	San Diego Seals – x	18	10	8	.556	1.0	6–3	4–5	208	217	−9	11.56	12.06
3	Calgary Roughnecks – x	18	10	8	.556	1.0	5–4	5–4	212	201	+11	11.78	11.17
4	Colorado Mammoth – x	18	6	12	.333	5.0	3–6	3–6	181	193	−12	10.06	10.72
5	Vancouver Warriors	18	5	13	.278	6.0	3–6	2–7	179	221	−42	9.94	12.28

x: Clinched playoff berth; c: Clinched playoff berth by crossing over to another division; y: Clinched division; z: Clinched best regular season record; GP: Games Played
W: Wins; L: Losses; GB: Games back; PCT: Win percentage; Home: Record at Home; Road: Record on the Road; GF: Goals scored; GA: Goals allowed
Differential: Difference between goals scored and allowed; GF/GP: Average number of goals scored per game; GA/GP: Average number of goals allowed per game

^[5]

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; LB = Loose Balls

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	LB
Dane Dobbie	Calgary Roughnecks	18	47	68	115	12	69
Callum Crawford	New England Black Wolves	16	48	61	109	33	78
Mark Matthews	Saskatchewan Rush	18	41	64	105	8	70
Lyle Thompson	Georgia Swarm	18	43	62	105	6	94
Dhane Smith	Buffalo Bandits	16	32	70	102	8	72
Randy Staats	Georgia Swarm	17	37	59	96	12	45
Shawn Evans	Buffalo Bandits	17	28	66	94	17	69
Tom Schreiber	Toronto Rock	18	29	65	94	2	61
Stephan Leblanc	New England Black Wolves	18	27	66	93	13	58
Dan Dawson	San Diego Seals	18	29	59	88	8	49

Leading goaltenders

Note: GP = Games played; Mins = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses: GA = Goals Allowed; SV% = Save Percentage; GAA = Goals against average

Player	Team	GP	Mins	W	L	GA	SV%	GAA
Matt Vinc	Buffalo Bandits	18	1036	14	2	173	0.802	10.02
Nick Rose	Toronto Rock	18	1028	12	6	201	0.770	11.73
Mike Poulin	Georgia Swarm	17	899	11	4	164	0.791	10.94
Frankie Scigliano	San Diego Seals	18	997	10	7	200	0.779	12.03
Christian Del Bianco	Calgary Roughnecks	18	1074	10	8	200	0.781	11.17

Playoffs

Divisional Semifinal

Divisional Final

NLL Final (best of 3)

E1

Buffalo

13

E4

New England

6

E1

Buffalo

12

Eastern Division

E3

Toronto

8

E2

Georgia

14

E3

Toronto

16

E1

Buffalo

7

13

—

W3

Calgary

10

14*

—

W1

Saskatchewan

10

W4

Colorado

11*

W4

Colorado

4

Western Division

W3

Calgary

8

W2

San Diego

11

W3

Calgary

12

*Overtime

Conference Semifinal

Eastern Division

(E1) Buffalo Bandits vs. (E4) New England Black Wolves

May 7, 2019

Buffalo Bandits

13–6 (4–1, 3–2, 2–2, 4–1)

New England Black Wolves

KeyBank Center Attendance: 11,776

Game reference
	Matt Vinc Zach Higgins	Goalies	Doug Jamieson Alex Buque
	MacKay – 00:45 1–0 Smith (Small, Cloutier) – 01:16 2–0 Evans (Cloutier, Smith) – 02:31 3–0 3–1 09:16 – Crawford (Leblanc, Brock) (PP) Fraser (Smith) – 13:36 4–1 4–2 18:57 – Digby (O'Connor, Crawford) 4–3 20:14 – Crawford (Nishimura) Cloutier (Weiss, Vinc) – 22:45 5–3 Smith (Byrne, Small) (PP) – 25:57 6–3 Evans (Smith, Byrne) (PP) 7–3 Small (Cloutier, Byrne) (PP) – 36:48 8–3 8–4 41:05 – O'Connor (Crawford, Fournier) Priolo (Brownwell) (SH) – 43:23 9–4 9–5 43:49 – Crawford (Leblanc, Digby) (PP) Evans (Smith, Durtson) (PP) – 47:10 10–5 10–6 49:52 – Crawford (Downing) (SH) Small (Smith, Evans) (PP) – 50:40 11–6 Weiss (de Snoo) (ENG) – 55:55 12–6 Priolo (Spanger) (ENG) – 56:35 13–6
	18 min	Penalties	27 min
	59	Shots	54

(E2) Georgia Swarm vs. (E3) Toronto Rock

May 6, 2019

Georgia Swarm

14–16 (5–4, 2–6, 1–3, 6–3)

Toronto Rock

Infinite Energy Arena Attendance: 8,862

Game reference
	Mike Poulin	Goalies	Nick Rose
	L. Thompson (Jackson, Cattoni) – 00:21 1–0 Staats (L. Thompson, Jackson) – 02:25 2–0 2–1 03:12 – Jones (Hellyer, Harris) 2–2 05:45 – Schreiber (Jones, Hellyer) 2–3 09:03 – Powless (McArdle, Craig) 2–4 10:03 – Craig (McArdle, Jones) Williams (Cole, Jackson) – 13:04 3–4 Staats (Wiedemann, Poulin) – 13:46 4–4 Bomberry (Stouros, MacIntosh) – 13:55 5–4 5–5 15:59 – Hellyer (Jones) 5–6 16:57 – Sorensen (Craig) 5–7 21:07 – Craig (Jones, Hellyer) 5–8 22:26 – Jones (Schreiber, Rogers) (PP) 5–9 23:16 – Schreiber (Jones, Hellyer) M. Thompson (Jackson, Cattoni) (PP) – 26:16 6–9 6–10 27:38 – McArdle (Jones) Cattoni (Jackson, MacIntosh) – 28:26 7–10 7–11 30:26 – Schreiber (Craig, McArdle) 7–12 41:16 – McArdle (Craig, Kri) (SH) 7–13 43:21 – Hellyer (Lintner, Kri) MacIntosh – 43:30 8–13 Jackson (M. Thompson) – 46:45 9–13 L. Thompson (Jackson, Cole) – 53:28 10–13 10–14 54:17 – Slade 10–15 56:10 – Schreiber (Slade, Jay) Cattoni (L. Thompson, Staats) – 56:33 11–15 11–16 57:25 – Jones (Schreiber, Sorensen) (ENG) Staats (L. Thompson, Cattoni) (PP) – 57:45 12–16 L. Thompson (Staats) – 58:00 13–16 Jackson (L. Thompson, Staats) – 58:26 14–16
	6 min	Penalties	10 min
	49	Shots	49

Western Division

(W1) Saskatchewan Rush vs. (W4) Colorado Mammoth

May 3, 2019

Saskatchewan Rush

10–11 OT (2–3, 2–1, 3–0, 3–6, 0–1)

Colorado Mammoth

SaskTel Centre Attendance: 11,658

Game reference
	Evan Kirk	Goalies	Dillon Ward
	Shattler (Keenan) – 06:05 1–0 1–1 06:20 – Ruest (Cupido) 1–2 06:46 – Wardle 1–3 09:30 – Lee (Ruest) Knight (Matthews, Campbell) – 12:53 2–3 Matthews (Shattler, Dinsdale) – 17:13 3–3 3–4 17:39 – Noble (Vitarelli) Church (McIntosh) (SH) – 27:22 4–4 McIntosh (Knight, Shattler) – 32:22 5–4 Knight – 41:34 6–4 Church (Shattler, Matthews) (PP) – 44:06 7–4 7–5 46:03 – McLaughlin (Lee, Ruest) Shattler (Corbeil, Kirk) – 48:01 8–5 8–6 48:17 – Ruest (Stuart, Hope) 8–7 50:01 – Lee (McLaughlin) 8–8 53:03 – McLaughlin (Lee) 8–9 53:20 – Ruest (Wardle, Stuart) McIntosh (Matthews, Keenan) – 53:55 9–9 9–10 57:04 – Lee (McLaughlin) McIntosh – 59:19 10–10 10–11 64:04 – Cupido
	6 min	Penalties	8 min
	54	Shots	41

(W2) San Diego Seals vs. (W3) Calgary Roughnecks

May 6, 2019

San Diego Seals

11–12 (3–2, 3–4, 4–2, 1–4)

Calgary Roughnecks

Pechanga Arena Attendance: 5,005

Game reference
	Frankie Scigliano	Goalies	Christian Del Bianco
	0–1 00:25 – Dickson (Dobbie, King) Jackson (Billings, Dawson) – 01:14 1–1 Fields (Buchanan) – 04:40 2–1 Evans (Buchanan, Holding) – 07:57 3–1 3–2 14:59 – Dickson (King, Dobbie) (PP) Kearnan (Buchanan, Holding) (SH) – 16:59 4–2 Evans (Dawson, Jackson) – 17:29 5–2 5–3 20:32 – Dobbie (Dickson) (PP) 5–4 24:15 – King (Dickson, Simpson (PP) 5–5 26:53 – Dobbie (Dickson) (PP) Dawson (Billings, Evans) – 27:51 6–5 6–6 28:45 – Dickson (Callies, Del Bianco) Clelland – 32:16 7–6 Buchanan (Dawson) – 32:50 8–6 8–7 34:42 – Wilde (Dobbie) Reinholdt – 39:19 9–7 Buchanan (Kearnan, Dawson) – 40:12 10–7 10–8 41:26 – Dobbie (Duch, Loewen) 10–9 47:34 – King (Dobbie, Bell) 10–10 47:42 – Burton 10–11 49:33 – Loewen (Harnett) Evans (Jackson, Buchanan) – 49:14 11–11 11–12 52:04 – Dickson (Wilde)
	16 min	Penalties	8 min
	54	Shots	43

Divisional Final

Eastern Division

(E1) Buffalo Bandits vs. (E3) Toronto Rock

May 11, 2019

Buffalo Bandits

12–8 (2–2, 4–1, 2–3, 4–2)

Toronto Rock

KeyBank Center Attendance: 11,635

Game reference
	Matt Vinc	Goalies	Nick Rose
	Smith (Martin, Vinc) – 02:27 1–0 1–1 04:08 – Jones (Rogers) (PP) Byrne (Hoggarth, Priolo) – 04:30 2–1 2–2 04:47 – Sorensen (Edwards, Kri) 2–3 23:49 – Rogers (Jones) (PP) Small (Evans, Priolo) – 24:04 3–3 Sweeting (Smith, Gilray) – 25:29 4–3 Small (Smith, Hoggarth) – 26:30 5–3 Evans (Priolo, Sweeting) – 29:16 6–3 Spanger (Gilray) – 32:05 7–3 Small (Smith, Durston) (PP) – 38:23 8–3 8–4 39:11 – McArdle (Schreiber, Jones) 8–5 40:35 – Rogers (Jones, Schreiber) (PP) 8–6 43:26 – Jones (Schreiber, Hellyer) 8–7 48:00 – Jones (Schreiber, Hellyer) Fraser (Priolo) – 50:25 9–7 Evans (Hoggarth, Byrne) – 51:56 10–7 Fraser (Evans, Smith) (PP) – 56:26 11–7 Brownell (O'Connor) (ENG) – 57:58 12–7 12–8 58:30 – Jones (Hellyer)
	12 min	Penalties	4 min
	57	Shots	51

Western Division

(W3) Calgary Roughnecks vs. (W4) Colorado Mammoth

May 11, 2019

Calgary Roughnecks

8–4 (0–0, 2–0, 4–3, 2–1)

Colorado Mammoth

Scotiabank Saddledome Attendance: 8,900

Game reference
	Christian Del Bianco	Goalies	Dillon Ward
	Pace (Dickson, Dobbie) (PP) – 20:47 1–0 Dickson (Duch) – 29:51 2–0 King (Dickson, Duch) (PP) – 31:05 3–0 3–1 32:54 – Lee (Wardle, Edwards) Dobbie (Duch, Pace) – 35:44 4–1 King (Dobbie) (PP) – 37:14 5–1 Dobbie (Currier) (PP) – 37:30 6–1 6–2 38:22 – McLaughlin (Vitarelli, Wardle) 6–3 39:30 – Vitarelli (McLaughlin, Wardle) Dickson (Dobbie, King) (PP) – 46:43 7–3 7–4 51:55 – Lee (McLaughlin) (PP) Callies (Dobbie) – 55:39 8–4
	21 min	Penalties	19 min
	54	Shots	51

NLL Final (best of three)

(E1) Buffalo Bandits vs. (W3) Calgary Roughnecks

May 18, 2019

Buffalo Bandits

7–10 (1–1, 1–1, 1–3, 4–5)

Calgary Roughnecks

KeyBank Center Attendance: 15,747

Game reference
	Matt Vinc	Goalies	Christian Del Bianco
	0–1 08:35 – Duch (Loewen) Small (Evans, Smith) – 13:37 1–1 Smith (Evans, Byrne) – 24:39 2–1 2–2 27:53 – Duch (Dobbie, Loewen) Evans (Small) – 34:16 3–2 3–3 34:58 – MacRae (Callies, Del Bianco) 3–4 40:44 – Dickson (Dobbie, King) 3–5 44:50 – Dobbie (King, Duch) 3–6 45:34 – Dobbie (Dickson, Bell) Small (Evans, Byrne) (PP) – 46:35 4–6 4–7 47:22 – Dobbie (King) 4–8 49:02 – King (Dobbie, Duch) 4–9 49:47 – Taylor (Loewen) Byrne (Priolo, MacKay) – 50:39 5–9 Byrne (Evans, Priolo) 6–9 Fraser – 54:25 7–9 7–10 57:34 – Wilde (MacRae) (ENG)
	11 min	Penalties	8 min
	55	Shots	44

May 25, 2019

Calgary Roughnecks

14–13 OT (3–4, 6–2, 1–4, 3–3, 1–0)

Buffalo Bandits

Scotiabank Saddledome Attendance: 17,038

Game reference
	Christian Del Bianco	Goalies	Matt Vinc
	Dobbie (King, Duch) (PP) – 02:32 1–0 1–1 05:11 – Evans (Smith) Loewen (Pace, Currier) – 08:39 2–1 2–2 09:12 – Cloutier (Evans, Small) 2–3 10:01 – Fraser (Smith) 2–4 10:48 – Small (Byrne, Evans) (PP) Dickson (MacRae, Del Bianco) – 12:05 3–4 3–5 16:49 – Evans (Smith, Durston) King (Loewen) (PP) – 19:56 4–5 Currier (Wilde) – 20:11 5–5 Burton – 21:38 6–5 Pace (Harnett) (PP) – 24:49 7–5 Loewen (Dobbie, King) (PP) – 26:31 8–5 8–6 29:52 – Fraser (Cloutier, Small) (PP) Dobbie (Dickson) – 29:59 9–6 9–7 39:05 – Fraser (Cloutier) (PP) 9–8 39:28 – Durtson (Evans, Priolo) 9–9 41:26 – Spanger (Priolo) Dobbie (King, Dickson) (PP) – 43:57 10–9 10–10 44:24 – Durston (Evans, Smith) Duch (Dobbie, King) – 45:18 11–10 Dickson (Dobbie, Taylor) – 46:06 12–10 12–11 52:49 – Durtson (Smith) (PP) 12–12 56:07 – Smith (Evans) Dobbie (Del Bianco) – 59:05 13–12 13–13 59:32 – Small (Smith, Cloutier) Duch (Loewen, King) – 61:12 14–13
	10 min	Penalties	10 min
	51	Shots	56

Roughnecks win series 2–0.

Awards

Annual awards

References: Nominees^[6] and Winners^[7]

Award	Winner	Other Finalists
Most Valuable Player	Dane Dobbie, Calgary Roughnecks	Lyle Thompson, Georgia Swarm Matt Vinc, Buffalo Bandits
Goaltender of the Year	Matt Vinc, Buffalo Bandits	Christian Del Bianco, Calgary Roughnecks Dillon Ward, Colorado Mammoth
Defensive Player of the Year	Graeme Hossack, Rochester Knighthawks	Steve Priolo, Buffalo Bandits Kyle Rubisch, Saskatchewan Rush
Transition Player of the Year	Challen Rogers, Toronto Rock	Zach Currier, Calgary Roughnecks Kiel Matisz, Philadelphia Wings
Rookie of the Year	Austin Staats, San Diego Seals	Ian MacKay, Buffalo Bandits Matt Rambo, Philadelphia Wings
Sportsmanship Award	Lyle Thompson, Georgia Swarm	Dan Dawson, San Diego Seals Tom Schreiber, Toronto Rock
GM of the Year	Steve Dietrich, Buffalo Bandits[8]	Mike Board, Calgary Roughnecks Patrick Merrill, San Diego Seals
Les Bartley Award	John Tavares/Rich Kilgour, Buffalo Bandits[9]	Curt Malawsky, Calgary Roughnecks Matt Sawyer, Toronto Rock
Executive of the Year Award	Terri Giberson, Toronto Rock	Lindsey Masciangelo, Philadelphia Wings Dave Zygaj, Buffalo Bandits
Teammate of the Year Award	John Ranagan, Georgia Swarm	Kyle Buchanan, San Diego Seals Chad Cummings, Calgary Roughnecks
Tom Borrelli Award	Tyson Geick, Lacrosse Flash	Bob Chavez, IL Indoor Barstool Jordie, Barstool Sports

Stadiums and locations

Buffalo Bandits	Georgia Swarm	New England Black Wolves	Philadelphia Wings	Rochester Knighthawks	Toronto Rock
KeyBank Center	Infinite Energy Arena	Mohegan Sun Arena	Wells Fargo Center	Blue Cross Arena	Scotiabank Arena
Capacity: 19,070	Capacity: 11,355	Capacity: 7,700	Capacity: 19,543	Capacity: 11,200	Capacity: 18,819

Calgary Roughnecks	Colorado Mammoth	San Diego Seals	Saskatchewan Rush	Vancouver Warriors
Scotiabank Saddledome	Pepsi Center	Valley View Casino Center	SaskTel Centre	Rogers Arena
Capacity: 19,289	Capacity: 18,007	Capacity: 12,920	Capacity: 15,190	Capacity: 18,910

Attendance

Regular Season

Home Team	Home Games	Average Attendance	Total Attendance[10]
Saskatchewan Rush	9	13,459	121,131
Buffalo Bandits	9	13,046	117,415
Colorado Mammoth	9	12,815	115,342
Calgary Roughnecks	9	12,593	113,345
Philadelphia Wings	9	10,905	98,147
Toronto Rock	9	9,476	85,289
San Diego Seals	9	7,769	69,921
Vancouver Warriors	9	6,833	61,501
Georgia Swarm	9	6,698	60,287
Rochester Knighthawks	9	6,440	57,964
New England Black Wolves	9	5,526	49,741
League	99	9,596	950,083

Playoffs

Home Team	Home Games	Average Attendance	Total Attendance[11]
Buffalo Bandits	3	13,052	39,158
Calgary Roughnecks	2	12,969	25,938
Saskatchewan Rush	1	11,658	11,658
Georgia Swarm	1	8,862	8,862
San Diego Seals	1	5,005	5,005
League	12	10,509	126,110

See also

• 2019 in sports