Whipsnakes looking to add midfielder in player movement window

The PLL player movement window opens on Dec. 17, with an open discussion period beginning on Dec. 10. That’s when unsigned players can begin negotiating with other teams as they prepare to enter the 2026 season.

The Maryland Whipsnakes entered the offseason from a position of stability. Most of their core contributors are already under contract through 2026: attackmen TJ Malone and Rob Pannell; midfielders Matt Brandau, Brad Smith and Adam Poitras; defensemen Matt Dunn, Tim Muller and Ajax Zappitello; and faceoff specialist Joe Nardella.

Long-stick midfielder Colin Squires, who just finished his fifth season with the Whipsnakes, re-signed with Maryland through 2027. He’ll reunite with Nardella and Poitras to anchor what was the league’s top faceoff unit in 2025.

They’ll be joined by the 2025 rookie class of attackman Aidan Carroll, goalie Emmet Carroll, short-stick defensive midfielder Christian Mazur and LSM Jack McDonald, each signed through 2027.

The result? Maryland’s No. 1-ranked defense from 2025 is fully locked in for 2026, and its attack line of Malone, Aidan Carroll and Pannell appears set.

The Whipsnakes tested out several attack combinations this past season, but head coach and general manager Jim Stagnitta feels confident in his unit heading into 2026. His focus now is on tightening up the midfield.

“I’m actually more concerned about the midfield than I would be the attack,” Stagnitta said. “Once we made the move to put Aidan down into attack, I thought we were pretty solid there. … I thought Rob played well down the stretch, really well down those last few games. But again, he knows he’s going to come back this year, and there’s going to be some competition.”

Malone (18G, 1T, 14A) and Carroll (21G, 8A) were the Whipsnakes’ primary catalysts at attack, and though it took a few weeks for Pannell to find his footing with his new roster, he still contributed the fourth-most points on the team (7G, 13A).

“We need to focus on making sure we’re better at that midfield position on both sides of the ball,” Stagnitta said. “We’ve got to find some No. 1 guys.”

Stagnitta is eyeing a more prominent role for Brandau, who emerged as one of the best midfielders in the league in 2025. The second-year pro led all midfielders in scoring (22G) after notching just four goals with the Philadelphia Waterdogs in 2024.

“I think [Brandau] will take a much larger and greater leadership role this year, and certainly will come through the door without any of the trepidation that he had last year,” Stagnitta said. “We need a couple more guys like that. That can win a matchup and can play off-ball. He could do everything. He played some pretty good midfield defense when he got caught on the field.”

Smith played well in his first season back from injury. He finished tied for second in the league in two-point goals (four) and was nominated for Comeback Player of the Year after totaling 15 points (10G, 4T, 1A). However, his ongoing recovery from a 2023 knee injury still affected his season.

​​”Brad was still, and still is, dealing with some injuries. Last year, coming back from it, it was a pretty major surgery, and he hadn’t played in two years,” Stagnitta said. “While there were some glimpses, he’s not the Brad that we were used to, certainly.”

Similar to Smith, Stagnitta signed Ryan Conrad at the end of the 2024 season, and he helped contribute to the Whipsnakes’ run to the 2024 Championship game. He notched five goals in the 2024 postseason and scored 10 goals in the 2025 Championship Series, but he missed the entire 2025 season for the Whips with an injury.

“Ryan Conrad was out last year and is still coming back from surgery,” Stagnitta said. “Not sure exactly what his availability and situation is going to be. So a couple of unknowns there. So it’s an area that we’re looking to address through the offseason, and look at opportunities that we’ll have.”

However, Stagnitta made clear that if Conrad can recover by the summer, he will be back in the Whipsnakes lineup.

“If he’s 100% and he can play, he’s going right back in the lineup. He’s absolutely what we need,” Stagnitta said. “We need to get a little grittier. We need to get a little more of a chip on our shoulder. We’ve got a lot of young guys that don’t know how to do that yet. And, again, maybe we can bring in some guys that will bring that energy and that level of competition.”

Poitras totaled 13 points in 2025 (8G, 5A), with Levi Anderson adding 10 (9G, 1A) and Colin Heacock contributing nine (8G, 1A).

When it comes down to it, Stagnitta is looking for one thing.

“Everywhere on the field, somebody’s got to be able to win a matchup,” he said. “That’s what these top teams have been able to do, and create opportunities. We lost three one-goal games. There’s a point in time we used to win those. We need guys who could step up and make plays at those times.”

In past seasons, Stagnitta has brought in veteran offensive power, including Pannell in 2025, Heacock in 2024 and Will Manny in 2023. However, Stagnitta also knows that to be a veteran in this league does not necessarily mean playing a 10-plus-year career.

“There’s guys that have only been in the league three years and are 25 years old, and they’re veterans in that they’ve played, but they’re young, having five or six years left in them,” Stagnitta said. “So more of a balance in that than we are looking for some aging vet. I think we can get the best of both worlds if we get the right guys in this.”

Luckily for Stagnitta, there are a few guys with expiring contracts who fit the mold he is looking for in his midfield.

“You see the list right now, there’s a handful of them in there,” Stagnitta said. “I mean, you can look at and go, ‘Alright, this guy makes sense, this guy makes sense.’ I think there’s five or six guys in that group right now that we certainly will be interested in communicating with early in the process.”

One name that jumps off the list is Denver Outlaws midfielder Dalton Young, who just finished his second professional season. Young scored a career-high 11 goals in 2025, playing alongside Denver’s quartet of Tewaaraton Award winners Pat Kavanagh, Brennan O’Neill, Logan Wisnauskas and Jared Bernhardt.

“The fact that we have Dalton as, like, our fourth or fifth option on all these offensive possessions is incredible,” Kavanagh said after Denver took down the Redwoods in the 2025 semifinals. “He’s one of the best middies in the league. One of the most underrated players in the league. He’s the most unselfish guy.”

Young earned his first All-Star selection in 2025, just a year after earning his second consecutive Atlantic 10 Offensive Player of the Year at the University of Richmond.

“He’ll do whatever you need,” O’Neill said after the Outlaws’ semifinal win. “You saw flashes of it last year, but he’s just made so many steps each week. He can catch everything inside. He’s very quick and shifty. Can dodge, can beat a guy, can feed. He can really just do it all, and he’s been huge for our offense.”

After shooting just 23.1% on 26 shots as a rookie in 2024, Young’s shooting dramatically increased in 2025, when he shot 44% on 25 attempts. He has quickly gained confidence and maturity, as well as the respect from some of the top attackmen in the league in Kavanagh and O’Neill. He would be a great young addition to Stagnitta’s roster in the midfield, giving Maryland the best of both worlds with experience and youth.

New York midfielder Bryan Costabile is fresh off what Atlas offensive coordinator Steven Brooks called “the greatest season of [his] career.” The 27-year-old was a Midfielder of the Year finalist and second-team All-Pro after scoring 23 points in the regular season (fourth among midfielders).

Costabile has spent his six professional seasons with the Atlas, and he scored the game-deciding goal in New York’s first-ever championship. His aggressive shoot-first mindset would fit directly into the mold Stagnitta is eyeing. While he has demonstrated his vision as a passer, he has scored 86 goals, including 11 two-pointers, compared to just 36 assists since entering the league.

Like Young, Costabile was able to shine playing alongside the last two Jim Brown MVPs, Connor Shellenberger (2025) and Jeff Teat (2024). Costabile is a threat not only to attack the cage, but from outside the arc, as well. He scored three two-point goals (tied for fourth-most in the league) in 2025, which helped the Atlas boast the No. 1-ranked offense in 2025.

His teammate, midfielder Myles Jones, whose contract with the reigning champions is also expiring, would bring a new kind of power to Maryland’s midfield despite playing just three games in 2025.

The 6-foot-5, 250-pounder would be a threat not only to attack the cage, but also to feed the Whipsnakes’ leading scorers (Malone, Brandau and Carroll). A first-team All-Pro in 2021, Jones made the 2025 Championship Series All-Tournament team, is a six-time All-Star and tallied 18 points (10G, 2T, 6A) in his last full season in 2024.

Stagnitta also has the opportunity to re-sign two of his former players in Boston Cannons midfielders Ryan Drenner and Connor Kirst. Drenner just had his most efficient season as a shooter, shooting 46.2%. He was a part of the 2019 Whipsnakes roster that won the inaugural PLL Championship, where he produced similar numbers (19G, 1T, 1A). However, Drenner’s tenure with the Whipsnakes ended after just one season. He was selected by the Waterdogs in the 2020 Expansion Draft after the Whips left him unprotected.

Kirst was Stagnitta’s first-round draft pick in 2021, and he played three seasons with the Whipsnakes before being traded to the Cannons in 2024. Like Drenner, Kirst has always been a shoot-first midfielder; he’s recorded 36 goals to just six assists in his five-year career.

Other unsigned midfielders include Thomas McConvey, Dox Aitken, Kyle Jackson, Cole Williams, Cross Ferrara, Charlie Bertrand, Jonathan Donville, Chris Aslanian, Ryan Ambler, Sam Handley, JJ Sillstrop and Sergio Perkovic. Heacock’s contract has also expired.

The Whipsnakes also have the opportunity to bring in talent through the 2026 College Draft, in which Maryland holds the No. 3 overall pick. However, Stagnitta is looking to pick up a midfield target during the player movement window before turning his attention to building through the draft.

“For the first time, we have a top-three pick, and we should be able to fulfill a need through that also,” Stagnitta said. “But I like the fact that [player movement] is earlier this year, and so guys aren’t going to just jump right back. I think more guys will test the waters early on, because there’s more time to do that, and maybe we’ll have some opportunity to grab some guys in that.”

Stagnitta has brought in game-changers in the past, and with the player movement window opening earlier than usual, he can get a jump on adding a key piece to help Maryland return to the postseason in 2026.