Rookie of the Year Race: Lamberti’s Top 5

Whenever you have an All-Star game that features seven rookies, it’s bound to be a fascinating race for the Rookie of the Year.

Let’s take a look at some of my analysis on who could win the award.

Logan McNaney, G, Denver Outlaws

It all starts with Denver goalie Logan McNaney.

McNaney boasts the top save percentage in the league at 62.5% (granted he’s played two less games than Brett Dobson and Liam Entenmann). He hasn’t had a game with fewer than 14 saves. His ability to make clean saves and throw the ball to a streaking player on the money has made Denver into the most feared transition team in the league.

The league-average clean save percentage is 39%. McNaney is at a whopping 55.6%. His uncanny ability to catch seemingly everything thrown his way to start the clear immediately is really something special.

For all of his abilities in net, it’s his presence in the cage that really solidifies his status as a top young goalie in the leauge.

McNaney does not look or play like a rookie. The moment is never too big for him. He has zero wasted movement in the cage and already commands the defense in front of him.

It feels like McNaney’s relaxed nature has allowed everyone else on Denver to relax a little as well, knowing that when defensive breakdowns happen, they have a game-changer in the cage to make up for it.

Chris Kavanagh, A, California Redwoods

Aidan Carroll, A/M, Maryland Whipsnakes

In terms of point production, Aidan Carroll and Chris Kavanagh are two other options to be Rookie of the Year because of their status as starting attackers.

Carroll leads all rookies in points (17), but only recently got the nod at attack after playing midfield, and he responded with a 7-point (5G, 2A) outing against Carolina in their last game.

His likely insertion into a full-time starter role at attack is why Carroll is garnering a ton of hype for the award, but I must say, I’m a little skeptical. I love Carroll as a player, but I’d like to see him get another start at attack and once again show he can put in big numbers; not just in a blowout against the Chaos.

Another rookie righty attacker, Kavanagh has been steady-eddy for California. On paper, he was one to watch in the preseason race for this award because of his fit in this Redwoods offense.

He projected to slot in immediately as a gunslinger on the righty side who could score in bunches, and he’s lived up to that status.

Andrew McAdorey, M, California Redwoods

Matt Traynor, M, New York Atlas

As good as Carroll and Kavanagh have been, if it were up to me, I’d have Andrew McAdorey and Matt Traynor right up there with McNaney as a frontrunner for ROTY.

The reason? I’m not sure you will find rookies more valuable to their team than these two.

McAdorey leads all rookie midfielders with 15 points (9G, 1T, 5A), but it’s the attention he draws that make him so crucial to the success of this Redwoods offense.

One of the fastest straight line dodgers in the league, California smartly uses McAdorey as the last guy out of the box to get a head of steam dodging towards the cage.

Although he draws a pole assignment, and that pole presses out to him so he can’t get a running start, it doesn’t really change the outcome.

Not only can McAdorey get his own shot, but if teams slide early to him, he’s a great decision maker with when to move the ball, which helps jump start the whole offense from up top.

But we haven’t even touched on what he can do when he attacks from behind the net. A midfielder by trade, his time at attack in college has given him an invert skillset that is so hard to guard.

As for Traynor, it feels like a whole new dimensiion of his game has been unlocked as a dodger.

Sure, Traynor could certainly dodge in college, but he always struck me as more of a spot shooter and off-ball cutter in the pro ranks.

I just didn’t know he could dodge like this. I’ve never seen him move this way when he was at Penn State.

He was involved in New York’s last three goals to propel them over Utah and leads the team in midfield production.

Perhaps it’s the faster nature of the PLL or the fact that he is drawing an SSDM and not a pole like he did in college, but Traynor just looks like he’s moving in a different gear out there.

The Atlas’ attack unit of Jeff Teat, Connor Shellenberger and Xander Dickson always gave them a really high floor as an offense.

But they didn’t give the ball to any one of those guys late in the game; they gave it to Traynor, who beat every matchup thrown his way and led New York to the win, having a hand in the last three goals.

In the hunt: Owen Hiltz, Sam King, Coulter Mackesy, Jackson Eicher, Emmet Carroll

(By the way, Happy Code Rush! TB25ART)