We’ve reached March. That means everyone (save for the NESCAC in DIII, depending on when you read this) will have played at least a game or two. Players are putting more on tape, showing pro coaches what they can do. The Carolina Chaos formally introduced Spencer Ford as GM and Roy Colsey as Head Coach, both of whom spoke about already watching a ton of college lacrosse. It’s a good time to revisit the original big board and make some adjustments.
Since our last go around we’ve had some developments. A few more players are available, a few aren’t. It’s probably also a good time to set expectations. There’s a lot of player names down there, most won’t be pros. Or at least long time pros. Yes, even that guy you like a ton, even that All American, it’s just the nature of this thing. This is not as deep as last year, especially on the offensive side of the ball. It’s a fairly shallow midfield class.
Where this class does shine is between the lines. It’s a great class of SSDMs, two way midfielders, and LSMs. These aren’t going to be the sexiest picks in the world. There won’t be a highlight package full of ankle breaking dodgers and 16 yard heat for most of them. But these are the guys you need if you want to win a title.
As always, this is NOT a mock draft. I don’t expect players to be drafted in this order and would be surprised if they are. This is a list of college seniors and grad students, ranked by how likely I think it is that they become successful PLL pros. Drafts have to consider team needs, fit, and other connections, a big board considers none of that.
Per the PLL, if you’re a senior in college, you can declare for the draft. So if you’re a senior or grad student, I’m going to consider you draft eligible. Once I get confirmation that a player is not coming out of school, either because he’s doing another year of lacrosse or pursuing something else out of college, I’ll add him to the noted unavailable player section. We’re basically done with the COVID year stuff at this point, but grad years and the portal still mean players have the opportunity to spend more than four years in college playing lacrosse. Five(ish) years of lacrosse and leaving school with a grad degree is a pretty great opportunity and I love seeing players take advantage of it.
This board changes over time as players rise and fall, and as new players get added. Because I’m a voter for the DI media poll and media All Americans, I watch a lot of DI lacrosse. Because I contribute to the USA Lax Mag DII and DIII polls and player awards, I watch a lot of DII and DIII lacrosse too. It’s a lot of hours. But even with all those hours, college lacrosse is a massive place, I can’t do deep dives on every single player who is draft eligible and still keep my day job. If you look down the list and think I can’t believe Dan missed this guy, reach out, give me a game he stands out in, and I’ll take a look.
Notably unavailable:
Bobby Van Buren (Has a year left)
Hugh Kelleher (In the portal for football)
Jaysen Singer (In the portal for football)
OVERALL:
CJ Kirst, Attack, Cornell
Levi Verch, D/LSM, St Joseph’s
Chris Kavanagh, Attack, Notre Dame
Ben Ramsey, Midfield, Notre Dame
Coulter Mackesy, Attack, Princeton
Emmet Carroll, Goalie, Penn
Andrew McAdorey, Midfield, Duke
Brendan Lavelle, Defense, Penn
Sam English, Midfield, Princeton/Syracuse
Jake Taylor, Attack, Notre Dame
CJ Kirst stays at the top. This season he’s got 14 points in two games, including 12 goals. He single handedly outscored Denver. Coming into 2025, he’s had 10 game winning goals in 48 career starts. A little over 20% of the time he takes the field, he scores the game winner. That’s meeting the moment. Last year he stacked up 67 points, including 45 goals, and committed just 13 turnovers on the year. He shoots for a respectable 33% on his career. Kirst has also honed his skills with Mimico in the OJLL in the summertime, giving him a better understanding of play in tight quarters, space on offense, and turned him into more than just a dodger and scorer. Kirst is a plug and play lefty attackman for just about every team in the league.
Verch stays at two for me. Part of this exercise is putting aside the results of the team the player is on. We are strictly evaluating the individual here. And so I return to my previous analogy for Verch. There’s a scene in the movie Twisters where Glenn Powell and his tornado wranglers are driving through a storm and can barely see anything. All of a sudden a tornado hits some kind of refinery (rad) and catches fire (extremely rad) and becomes a fire-nado. If “tornado that has somehow caught fire” was a lacrosse player, it would be Levi Verch. The British Columbia native can move between LSM and close, shuffling to whatever the top matchup is. Off the wing and with the ball on the ground, he plays at a different speed than everyone else. He can cover a shifty dodging attackman at X, a big bodied leverage player from wings, a downhill dodger up top. And he plays with violence and intensity. He picked up 80 ground balls and had 29 caused turnovers last year. And at 6’2, 215 lbs, he is built for the speed and physicality of the pro game. He’s already been a Team Canada defender, and he’ll be a pro indoors and outdoors.
Chris Kavanagh is still the player with the best chance to change the “CJ Kirst is a lock for first overall” conversation. He gave Ty Banks, a talent that looks like a future first round pick, all he could handle this year. He’s taken on the role of being a ball dominant dodger and heads up passer in stride, surrounded by pro caliber weapons at ND. Kavanagh broke the school record for points at Notre Dame last year. That said, even as just a scorer, he can immediately be a starter in the PLL. All eight PLL clubs have plenty of players who will need touches as a dodger, and the old adage says there’s only one ball. Chris Kavanagh can be in your top six, score 15-20 goals as a rookie, and barely need to take a dodge all year. His sense for space and his shooting ability make him dangerous all the time. Because of that, every club in the PLL can use him. If he has a great year as a dodger and creator, every team is going to not just be able to use him, but consider him a player to build an offense around.
The top SSDM on the board is Ben Ramsey. I think the two way midfield class this year is the strength of the draft. 2021 saw Danny Logan, Ryan Terefenko, Connor Kirst, and Jeff Trainor get drafted, this draft class is right there and Ramsey is the headliner. He has a very similar build and speed of guys like Logan, he’s been a major contributor at SSDM for his entire career with the Irish. Ramsey at his best is the Final Four matchup with Duke a year ago. The saying with defenders is if you don’t say their name a lot, it means they had a good game. Ramsey disproved that. Because they were saying his name all the time, and it was only big plays. Six ground balls in that game and three caused turnovers as he tore up the Duke midfield. Ramsey is the type of player who will be on the Sixes radar for LA 2028, and can be part of the top SSDM pair on day one in the PLL.
I still love Mackesy, and I still would, despite that this isn’t a mock draft, expert the Cannons to take him one with of their first round picks. A starter since his freshman year, Mackesy has averaged north of two goals per game for his career at Princeton. He’s a career 30% shooter on over 400 shots. As you often see with box players, Mackesy has a great understanding of when he might seem guarded, a pole might be next to him or playing him physically, but his hands are free enough and he can see the goal, so he might as well be unguarded and shoot. Josh Byrne does this better than anyone. Guarding him takes just a little extra in the way of disrupting his hands and his center of gravity, because if his hands are free and his feet are set, it doesn’t matter what the defender is doing, he can shoot as if there’s nobody there at all. Mackesy creates shots for himself out of nothing as well as anyone in the draft, and that’s without a box background. His dodges can be short and deadly.
Emmet Carroll is the top netminder in the draft class. In terms of pro ceiling and viability, he’s a clear step above the others at the position. He spent almost all of last season with a save percentage in the 60s (it dipped to 59.4% at the end of the year). He led the DI in that stat. He also led DI in saves. He had double digit saves every game. He went 70% or better twice (Albany and Brown). The defense in front of Carroll was solid last year and great this year. Brendan Lavelle is elite and Ethan Till has been very good. He got leaned on to make a ton of saves every week, and he made a ton of saves every week. The late start by the Ivy’s hasn’t bothered him, he’s the clear top goalie in DI.
Andrew McAdorey has been very good to start the year with Duke. In their first game he didn’t take a shot, but had three assists. Agaist Michigan he scored three straight goals to snatch victory from defeat. He’s been used both above and below the goal. The Blue Devil have had a sort of bumpy February, winning games but maybe not with the dominant scoreline fans might expect. Don’t be fooled or knock McAdorey for that, he’s plug and play for most any PLL club. He’s another dodging midfielder who will have defensive coordinators considering poling him in a hurry. While a dodger like English is best at making his move and running hard to his right, McAdorey has more shake, beating men with change of direction and explosiveness in the style of a Tucker Dordevic.
Brendan Lavelle is who I’d consider to be the safest pick for close defense. We all saw him lock up Brennan O’Neill, that’s about all most scouts will need to see to be sold on him. Lavelle is my favorite type of close defender to watch. He is all substance, no style, and I mean that in the best possible way. Similar to a guy like JT Giles-Harris, Lavelle won’t have his highlights set to dubstep and blasted out on social media. He’s not going to wow you with over the head checks, huge crunching hits, or mic’d up soundbytes full of trash talk. But if he’s guarding you, he’s going to be attached to you for sixty minutes. Penn has played two games and been outstanding on defense but you really haven’t heard his name yet. In your pocket, unshakeable, playing all the correct angles, stick where it should be to lift his man’s hands. He is this year’s Ice Man from Top Gun. That’s how he flies, ice cold, no mistakes.
I’ve dropped English down a bit for now, although I still expect to be a 1st round or early second round player. Of all the offensive middies in the class, he’s the best two way player. English is great at taking limited space and making the most of it. Small jab steps, hesittations, he may not seem like he’s going anywhere be he shakes his man with every moment. He can get a shot off with very limited space. His elusiveness and ability to free his hands is hs best asset. He understands how to take a few blades of grass and turn it into pressure on a defense. It will not take long before he draws poles at the pro level. With his box background (he projects as a high level pro indoors too), OCs can scheme sets where he dodges alone or creates as the ball carrier in two man games..
Rounding out the top ten, Notre Dame attackman Jake Taylor. He owns one of the more spectacular debuts of a career I’ve seen. In his first start for Notre Dame, he scored eight goals against Syracuse, breaking the program record. He is the best off ball scorer/finisher in college lacrosse. His indoors skills, and hands, serve him extremely well outdoors. Everyone saw him score a 10 yard twister in the title game two years ago. Taylor was the only college player named to Team USA for the USA Lacrosse Experience in Indianapolis; he’s already shared the field with pros and been successful. In those three Sixes games, Taylor registered seven goals and two assists.
ATTACK:
CJ Kirst, Cornell
Chris Kavanagh, Notre Dame
Coulter Mackesy, Princeton
Jake Taylor, Notre Dame
Sam King, Harvard
Players to Watch: Michael Long, Owen Hiltz, Eric Malever, Russell Melendez
Is it the 2024 draft at attack? Not really. But that doesn’t mean it’s a way down draft. Four of these players already appear in the top ten and we covered them there. Clearly teams looking for attack help, particularly lefty attack, will have options in this draft. Sam King is hardly a consolation prize. Russell Melendez has had a nice bounce back in 2025 from a fairly down season in 2024.
MIDFIELD, TUCKER DORDEVIC DIVISION (Offense First Weapons)
Andrew McAdorey, Duke
Sam English, Princeton/Syracuse
Matt Traynor, Penn State
Players to watch: Griffin Schutz, Aidan Carroll, Mic Kelly, Ryan Bell, Ryan Cohen
We covered the top two above. I consider there to be a pretty big gap between the top two and the rest of the field here. I moved Matt Traynor up to three and dropped out Griffin Schutz. Traynor has been playing attack for Penn State but started his career as a midfielder, and I think he’s a more natural midfielder at the PLL level. He’s clearly Penn State’s top weapon and has really impressed as a dodger this year. He’ll have to prove it against PLL shorties as a rookie, but he has the ability. Schutz drops into players to watch as, despite his size and athleticism, I don’t see him consistently dominating ACC defenses and matchups, and if you can’t do that, you probably aren’t an instant impact pro. Just being big, strong, and fast isn’t enough anymore.
MIDFIELD, LATRELL HARRIS DIVISION (SSDMs and Two Way players)
Ben Ramsey, Notre Dame
Casey Wilson, Denver
Dylan Hess, Georgetown/Florida
Players to Watch: Patrick Hackler, Andrew O’Berry, Max Krevsky, Zack Goorno, Jack Gray
As noted above, I consider this position to be the strength of the draft. Ramsey is the crown jewel. Casey Wilson is a two league pro who is the best in the class when it comes to going defense to offense. Dylan Hess rejoins the draft on a bit of a technicality. He was drafted last year by the Chaos, but went to Florida to pursue football. Had he played football, Chaos would still own his rights. However, he ended up playing lacrosse for Florida’s MCLA team instead, so he re enters the draft pool. He’s an outstanding cover defender as a shorty. Hackler is the best swiss army knife in the group. O’Berry has gotten out to a great start to his grad year at UNC, really standing out in coverage. Jack Gray will be the biggest and fastest riser in this group. The duo of him and Aidan Maguire is the best SSDM pair in the country. In many other years, Gray would be the top SSDM in the class, he’ll be someone’s steal on draft day.
DEFENSE/LSM
Levi Verch, St Joseph’s
Brendan Lavelle, Penn
AJ Pilate, Army
Ben Wayer, UVA
Colin Mulshine, Princeton
Players to Watch: Michael Grace, Scott Smith, Michael Bath, Jimmy Freehill, Kevin Parnham, Mitchell Dunham, John DeFazio, Greg Campisi, Pace Billings, Paul Barton
We covered some of these players above. As in the past, I don’t split the defense into LSM and close, I just list them off. If you were to split them, Wayer is far and away the top LSM. In recent years, the position has evolved to be more offensively focused. And that’s fine. But as evaluators, I’ve begun to notice maybe us swinging too far towards poles who can play offense, and we overlook serious deficiencies on defense in doing so. Wayer doesn’t have those. He can cover too. There are LSMs in this class who can score you goals, but can’t cover at a pro level. Wayer is a budding All Pro on both ends. Verch could be an LSM or close defenseman, Lavelle is strictly down low in my eyes. Pilate is an exceptional defenseman, but as a service academy grad, teams have to accept that his pro career and availability will be limited. Mulshine is also a strictly down low defenseman, and will be pro ready having spent his college career matched up with Ivy weapons like Kirst, King, Mackesy (in practice), Brandau, and others. Most of the players to watch category can go between close and LSM, which is what makes this class so good at pole. Grace, Freehill, Smith, Billings, Barton, Bath, and Campisi could all push for pro LSM minutes. DeFazio should get a look in camp at a minimum as the best pole in DIII and a proven winner. Parnham looks much better down low, and teams in need of a close defender should rate him above some of the in-between guys.
FACEOFF SPECIALIST:
Will Coletti, Army
Will Lynch, Notre Dame
Machado Rodriguez, Yale
Players to Watch: Matt Paolatto
As noted with Pilate, Coletti will have a limited pro career as a service academy graduate. But he’s still the best specialist in this class. Lynch is closing the gap, he’s been on an upward trajectory over the past two seasons, and was on fire during Final Four weekend against some of the best in the college game. A team looking for a longer term player at faceoff shouldn’t hesitate to take Lynch ahead of Coletti. Rodriguez time has been limited at Yale so far this year, so for now, Lynch leaps over him. DIII king Matt Paolatto is off to a decent start at Rutgers and is worth watching.
GOALIE:
Emmet Carroll, Penn
Dylan Renner, Adelphi
Michael Gianforcaro, Princeton/North Carolina
Players to Watch: Jack Fracyon, Logan McNaney, Zach Vigue
Carroll remains the easy top choice. I still consider Dylan Renner to be a top three goalie in America, regardless of division. Gianforcaro is three for me, followed closely by Fracyon who I seem to be lower on than most others. Zach Vigue has gotten off to a great start at Richmond and is worth watching. Six goalies here, historically speaking we’ll see maybe two get drafted. It’s a tough spot to crack at the pro level.
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