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Redwoods GM Joe Spallina’s five best draft picks

By Phil Shore | Apr 10, 2025

Soon, California Redwoods general manager Joe Spallina will be back on the clock. It will be six years since he last participated in the draft, choosing the talent for one team. As the general manager of the New York Lizards, his last pick was Brendan Kearns, out of Providence, in the sixth round of the 2019 Major League Lacrosse draft.

Rob Pannell may be the most talented player drafted by Spallina, but as Spallina said, anybody and everybody would have taken Pannell with the first overall pick. A similar sentiment could be expressed about taking defender Joe Fletcher with the third pick in the 2014 draft, one that was loaded with talent, particularly in the first round.

What separated Spallina from his peers — and what helped the Lizards become a perennial playoff team during his tenure – was the ability to find talent late in drafts.

These are the best picks in Spallina’s tenure as general manager, where he unearthed some valuable talent late in drafts.

5. Ryan Ambler (2016, fifth round, No. 39)

Though he’s never been one to put up big statistics, and he’s never made an All-Star team, Ambler has been one of the best leaders in the PLL, winning the 2024 Teammate of the Year award. He’s a solid contributor at midfield, tallying double-digits in points each of the past four seasons and seven out of eight total, and the two-time league champion hasn’t missed a game since 2021.

The only reason this pick isn’t higher on the ranking is that Ambler never actually played for New York; the Lizards' star-studded roster, fresh off a championship the year prior, featured established talent like Paul Rabil, JoJo Marasco and Dave Lawson at midfield, making it a difficult task for a rookie to break in. Selecting Ambler in the draft still showed Spallina’s ability to identify players who could make an impact at the professional level.

4. Troy Reh (2018, third round, No. 27)

A two-time All-Star who won a championship with the Chaos, Reh was impactful from the beginning of his career. He’s an aggressive slide who knocks the ball out or down and can pick it up off the turf smoothly. Reh’s career high in ground balls is still the 27 he picked up during his rookie season with New York. Over time, he’s also added to his caused turnover totals, many from intercepting passes. Not only is he a two-time All-Star, but he’s also been named one of the PLL’s Top 50 Players each of the past two seasons.  

He’s also not afraid to get involved on the offense end of the field (11G, 4T).

3. Jake Richard (2016, fourth round, No. 35)

The 2016 Lizards roster already featured two of the top defensive midfielders in the league in Steve DeNapoli and Kevin Unterstein, and the roster as a whole was a difficult one to break into. Richard played in nine games as a rookie, however (his four points that season are still a career high) and by 2018, he was playing for the United States national team. He’s grown into one of the most reliable defensive midfielders in the PLL; in six PLL seasons with the Atlas and Waterdogs, he has missed only two regular-season games.

2. JoJo Marasco (2013, fifth round, No. 37)

Going into the 2013 MLL Draft, ESPN broadcaster Quint Kessenich predicted Marasco would be selected in the second round, pointing out his strong passing ability from the midfield. Somehow, the two-time USILA All-American, two-time team captain and Syracuse No. 22 was still sitting undrafted in the fifth round. 

That worked out for Spallina, however, who clearly has an affinity for players from New York and Syracuse University. Marasco played seven seasons of professional lacrosse and was an All-Star selection in three of them. He finished in the top four on the team in points in both 2014 and 2015. He posted career highs in goals, assists and points in the team’s 2015 championship season (22G, 6A); he scored a goal and added two assists in the 2015 championship game against the Rochester Rattlers.

1. Tommy Palasek: 2012, fourth round, No. 28

The Lizards were in a challenging spot in 2012; many of their star players (John Grant Jr., Matt Danowski and Brian Spallina) left the team, leaving a squad that finished in the penultimate spot in the standings with even more holes to fill. Having the top pick in the draft didn’t help for that season, as Pannell stayed an extra year at Cornell to finish his remaining eligibility awarded after suffering a season-ending injury in 2012. 

Ten attackmen were selected before Palasek was drafted in the fourth round, including three in the first round: Pannell, Steele Stanwick and Mark Matthews. Additionally, 15 USILA All-Americans were drafted before Palasek; despite finishing third on Syracuse in points in 2011 and leading the program in points in 2012, Palasek was not even selected as an honorable mention.

Despite low expectations, Long Island finished the regular season with an 8-6 record and as the fourth seed in the playoffs. A big reason for that was the contribution they received from Palasek in his rookie season. He finished third on the team in goals (21) and fifth in points (26). 

Palasek continued to produce, finishing second on the team in points in each of the next two seasons. Even in 2015, when the Lizards featured a roster that included Pannell, Rabil, Ned Crotty and Matt Poskay, Palasek still flourished, learning to play off the ball; he finished second on the team in goals (31) and third on the team in points (35). 

In 2019, with the Atlanta Blaze, Palasek posted career highs in assists (35) and points (63), which also were Blaze team records. He led the league in assists that year, and only Lyle Thompson had more points than him. 

Palasek played 10 seasons, made two All-Star rosters and won one championship. In 2024, he filled in as an injury replacement for the Utah Archers in their final game of the Championship Series, and he scored six goals and added one assist.

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