College lacrosse is back. And you know what that means: It’s also draft season.
Before the games even start, we are already fast-forwarding to late in the season to take a look at some players that will fill PLL rosters this upcoming season. While there will certainly be some shuffling of rankings, new additions and guys who slide out entirely throughout the spring, this initial list is a good snapshot of the new names we will be talking about this summer.
One thing jumps off the page immediately: This draft lacks the top-end offensive starpower of the 2024 and 2025 drafts. Sure, there’s a lot to like with guys like Eric Spanos, Joey Spallina and Mikey Weisshaar, but they’re not MVP-candidate talents like Brennan O’Neill and Connor Shellenberger in 2024 or CJ Kirst in 2025.
Is there a guy who can break through as the clear top offensive player in the draft? After all, an offensive player has been selected at No. 1 overall in the last six out of seven drafts. But the one defensive player who was taken first in the last seven years? None other than Gavin Adler, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year. Could we see another top defensive prospect claim the spot at the top of the draft? Could someone like Will Schaller, the first-team All-American from Maryland, be the top pick? Or maybe Duke’s Aidan Maguire, the physically imposing SSDM, is the choice.
However you slice it, the point is this: Right now, it’s a guessing game as to who will be picked first overall, let alone in the first round.
That highlights much of the excitement about this draft. It feels very much like a draft in which coaches and general managers will target their guys, regardless of where those players fall on other people’s boards. Again, there aren’t a ton of offensive prospects who definitively project as All-Pros — but there are still plenty of prospects in this draft class who will help PLL clubs in 2026.
After a few draft classes that infused the league with young offensive talent, it feels like it’s the defense’s turn to have a say this year. Along with Schaller and Maguire, Will Donovan (Notre Dame), Alex Ross (Penn State), Bobby Van Buren (Ohio State) and Billy Dwan (Syracuse) are talented and experienced defenders who could be immediate starters in a league that only had a handful of new defensive starters in 2025.
It’s very much a meat-and-potatoes draft. I still like this class as a whole, but there’s no denying it doesn’t feel as flashy as past years.
Click the link below to see the top 50 prospects in the 2026 College Draft, with updates sure to follow in the coming months as yet another wide-open season in college lacrosse opens on Saturday:
