A flurry of signings and trades continued this past week in the offseason of the National Lacrosse League. Here are some of the moves that highlighted the week:
The Buffalo Bandits made the biggest move by re-signing forward John Tavares to a one-year contract. Tavares is the NLL’s all-time leading scorer with 1,627 points in 268 career games. The 43-year-old is back for his 22nd season in the league.
The defending champion Rochester Knighthawks re-signed defensemen Kyle Laverty and Jamie Batson. Laverty enters his fifth season with the team after agreeing to a one-year contract. Batson’s deal was for two years.
The Toronto Rock also re-signed three players, the biggest name on that list being goaltender Nick Rose. Rose came to the Rock in a mid-season trade in 2012 and finished the season in goal for Toronto, helping the team to a 5-1 record down the stretch. Toronto also re-signed goalkeeper Zak Boychuk and defenseman Damon Edwards.
The Rock also stayed busy by sending Glen Bryan and Jamie Rooney to the Buffalo Bandits in exchange for the Bandits 14th overall selection in the 2012 entry draft and their fourth round selection in 2014.
Six teams also placed franchise tags on key layers who qualified to be unrestricted free agents, ensuring those players will return to their teams. The Bandits placed franchise tags on forward Tracey Kelusky and goaltender Anthony Cosmo, the Rochester Knighthawks placed a franchise tag on forward Casey Powell, who missed the 2012 season recovering from knee surgery, Colorado franchised John Grant Jr. and Gavin Prout, the Rock franchised Colin Doyle and Josh Sanderson, the Edmonton Rush franchised forwards Aaron Wilson and Ryan Ward and the Philadelphia Wings placed a franchise tag on goalkeeper Brandon Miller.
Minnesota, Calgary and Washington declined to place franchise tags on any of its players.
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