National League Lacrosse 2022 Season Preview

by Bailey Kennedy Nov 30, 2021

The National Lacrosse League is officially back and their 2022 season kicks off this Friday, December 3rd when the Vancouver Warriors travel to San Diego, to take on the Seals.

The 1st game of the season will be the league’s first game in 663 days, and the first since the 2020 season ended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The league was unable to have a 2021 season either also due to the global pandemic. But this time nothing is stopping the NLL from kicking off their 35th season.

A lot has happened since the last NLL game was played. The New England Blackwolves are no longer called the New England Blackwolves; they are now the Albany Firewolves after the team moved to Albany. The league also added an expansion team for this upcoming season as well in the Fort Worth, Texas franchise Panther City Lacrosse Club. With the addition of Panther City, the team will now have 14 franchises competing for the championship this season.

With a long time gap between the last NLL season-ending and the start of the next one, a lot of people might be curious who the favorite should be to walk away NLL champions this season. No odds have officially been listed in the United States yet but a Canadian Sportsbook Coolbet Canada has released its future odds for this upcoming season.

The team Coolbet has as its favorite to win the championship it’s a tie between two teams in the Saskatchewan Rush, and the Halifax Thunderbirds at +550.

Both the Thunderbirds and the Rush were atop their conferences when the 2020 NLL Season was shut down. Halifax finished the year at 8-4, while Saskatchewan finished the year at 7-3.

Neither of those teams finished the season with the best record that was held by the now Albany Firewolves as they finished the year 8-3 and with a winning percentage of 72.7% the highest winning percentage in the entire league. Even with how successful the Firewolves finished their last season Coolbet doesn’t think too highly of their chances to walk away champions at season's end as they are currently +2200 to win it all. A big factor in the low odds is the loss of their leading scorer from that year in Callum Crawford who now calls New York home as a member of the Riptide.

If you think the Firewolves are getting no respect from what they did in the 2020 season a lot of other teams may feel some disrespect with the odds they have been given to walk away champions. The 2020 league MVP Shayne Jackson and his Georgia Swarm team are currently sitting at +1500.

But possibly the most shocking long-shot team is the one that is currently still the defending NLL Champions in the Calgary Roughnecks. The team that has been defending champions for 923 days when the season begins currently sits at +3500 to win it all. And while the team is aging they have stars in Curtis Dickson and Zach Currier who are with them so they always have a shot in my book with those two on their roster.

Here are all the odds for every team this upcoming season:

Saskatchewan Rush +550

Halifax Thunderbirds +550

Toronto Rock +650

San Diego Seals +700

Philadelphia Wings +800

Buffalo Bandits +900

Georgia Swarm +1500

Colorado Mammoth +2100

Albany Firewolves +2200

Vancouver Warriors +2500

Calgary Roughnecks +3500

Rochester Knighthawks +7500

New York Riptide +10000

Panther City Lacrosse Club +17500