The annual PLL Top 50 is here, so we now have the definite list of everyone who has been severely disrespected and/or is without question or argument the best player in the world. I enjoy the Top 50 as an exercise.
My favorite thing to do, and I’ve done it every year the PLL has done this, is making the Not Top 50. I built a 19 man game day roster composed only of players who finished outside the Top 50. We demonstrate the depth of weapons in the league, possibly identify some players who have actually for real been disrespected, and draw attention to rising stars and other grinders.
My Not Top 50 requires that the players actually took the field in the past season. For example, while Latrell Harris is clearly one of the 50 best players in the sport, he missed 2024 with injury, so he didn’t make the Top 50 but he also won’t be included in the Not Top 50. Tucker Dordevic is a Top 50 player, but missed (almost) all of 2024 with injuries. This roster is made of roster regulars who are ranked somewhere between 51 and 200. The Not Top 50 also requires that we build a roster for a PLL game. It can’t just 18 attackmen and a goalie. We’ll be building an actual team. For that reason, making this roster is hard and comes with challenging decisions. There are All Star level players who may not make the Top 50, and then also miss out on this group. PLL is a deep league.
ATTACK
Wes Berg
Eric Law
Levi Anderson
Only three attackmen, this will make more sense when you look at the midfield. This group lines up nicely. Wes Berg as your righty scorer, Eric Law at X and inside as a scorer, Anderson as the lefty dodger and scorer. I am going for an attack line full of buckets. Berg finished last year with 14 goals and shot 50%. Law only had 13 points, but he also only played in six games. He was left out of the New York lineup until his release, which allowed him to return to Denver. If he just played to his average last year for a full 10 games, he’d have been pushing top 20 in the league in points. Anderson is a similar story. He didn’t play for the Redwoods once, despite them drafting him in the third round. Ultimately he was flipped to the Whips for a 4th round pick. In his seven games with the Whips he had 13 points. He also had a hat trick in the semifinals against the Atlas that included an OT game winner. As a dodger and creator, Anderson is still coming into his own, but already looks like a star.
MIDFIELD
Ryan Ambler
Justin Anderson
Graham Bundy Jr.
Ryan Conrad
Myles Jones
Connor Kelly
Jeff Trainor
Ian MacKay
Piper Bond
My midfield is all lumped together because I went for some flex players. Connor Kelly can also play attack in a pinch. Ian MacKay and Jeff Trainor can do it all, they can serve as SSDMs with Piper Bond. MacKay is everywhere in games, and has even picked up a pole for the Chaos in the past. Kelly had a very poor shooting season from two point range, going just 1-18 on the season. Since 2020, his next worst season is 2021 when he shot 13%, the last two years he’s been over 30% from two point land. Like many Waterdogs, it just seemed to be a snake bit kind of year for Kelly. Ambler and Anderson are both easy inclusions for me. They’re steady, smart, reliable midfielders. Not superstars, but players you always happy are playing for you and not against you. The Archers have a wealth of highlight players on offense; four of their top six made the Top 50. Ambler still is a first line midfielder for that group and has been since the team launched in 2019. Bundy hit six two pointers this year and finished with 23 points, which puts him Top 20 in the PLL. He attempted more twos than anyone, and put 70% of his two’s on cage. He is quickly becoming the most dangerous stretch shooter in the league. Ryan Conrad struggled with the Waterdogs through the early part of the year, but was traded to the Whips which sparked his game. He was used in single inverts and as a wing dodger to pressure defenses and demand slides. Conrad had at least two points in each postseason game the Whips played, including a hat trick in the title game. Myles Jones put together a bounce back type season in his first full year with the Atlas. He struggled mightily in 2023. 18 points this year, a pair of twos, six assists which may not sound like much but for a midfielder is very solid. The return to form coincides with him having more time to train and get acclimated into a stacked Atlas offense. While Teat, Shellenberger, and others draw more attention, Myles gets to attack more short stick matchups and play with his eyes up and less pressure in his hands. Trainor can just fit into your midfield somehow, some way. He’s an SSDM and great going from defense to offense for Boston. He had 10 points this year, the most among SSDMs in the PLL. He also caused six turnovers.
DEFENSE/LSM
Colin Squires
Tim Muller
Jake Piseno
Arden Cohen
Brett Makar
I thought Colin Squires was an LSM of the Year nomination snub this past season. He was second in the PLL in ground balls among non-faceoff specialists (only two behind Tyler Carpenter). After Michael Ehrhardt retired, the Whips drafted Stephen Zupicich who got rave reviews through training camp. But Squires won the job, and was excellent in the role as top LSM all year. Speaking of GBs, do you know which close defenseman led the position in that category this year? That’s right, Arden Cohen. The Woods rough season, and some of the defensive struggles, overshadowed that Cohen is still a damn good close defender. Piseno also was a statistical standout at the LSM position after being an early 2nd round draft pick. The only LSMs with more CTs than Piseno this year were Troy Reh and Ethan Rall, both of whom made the Top 50. The streak has now reached six years; Tim Muller, and I can’t believe it as I write it, still has never made the PLL Top 50. I don’t know much, but I am certain that Tim Muller has been a top 50 player at least a few times in the last six years. The Schmeisser winner is never going to wow you with stats, but he and teammate Matt Dunn deserve a ton of credit for steering that rebuilt Whipsnake defense this year. Muller served as a voice and chief communicator, while still handling his matchup, every week. I fear this could be the path that Brett Makar goes down as well. Another defender who probably won’t ever wow you with stats and highlights, but will perform exceptionally well in his matchup and as part of the team defense every week.
GOALIE
Brendan Krebs
The Whips netminder had the third most saves in the league this year with 124. He was less than a percentage point behind Colin Kirst in save percentage, and Kirst finished 26th in the top 50. He was a tenth of a point worse than Brett Dobson in SAA, and Dobson is 6th in the Top 50. He had 13+ saves in a game five times, including a 20 spot against the Waterdogs. There was major change to the defense coming into this season following the retirements of Michael Ehrhardt and Tyler Warner and the trade of Connor Kirst and Bryce Young, Krebs took it all in stride.
FACEOFF
Mike Sisselberger
A down year by Sisselberger standards. He still went 58%, only about a point and a half behind TD Ierlan, who was 34th in the Top 50. Siss had the lowest amount of offensive production out of primary specialists in the PLL this year, registering just one point on the season, and also had the most turnovers of any specialist, which has become especially punishing in the 32 second clock era. But both marks were significant dips from his year prior. Siss went 68% against the Woods this year, kept things about even with Baptiste against the Atlas, and had more games over 60% (five) than he had under 50% (four).
Tough Omissions:
Romar Dennis - If the Redwoods make the playoffs or just have a better record, Romar’s season probably is a much bigger story. He led the league in two point goals, doing the thing that any team who signs him expects him to do. What stands out though, is that five of his seven two pointers came in the second half of the year. In his first four games, he had four points and they all came in one game. In his last five games, he had 11 points. He was on FIRE down the stretch, and finished with a 28% from two point range. Of players with double digit two pointers attempted, only Matt Campbell shot better.
Adam Poitras - Poitras only appeared in seven games, but got comfortable in a hurry in a PLL offense. He had a hat trick against Boston, and averaged nearly two points a game. Two points a game on about 20 touches per game makes him an impact player who should be in line for a larger role this summer.
The Archers SSDM Unit - The whole thing is Top 50 caliber. Piper Bond made the squad above, but Connor Maher is one of the best in the business at going defense to offense. If Beau Pederson wasn’t on a team so deep at the midfield, his level of play may have stood out more. Pederson’s rookie season at the position was exceptional. Not a lot of stats, but like all Archers SSDMs, exceptional in coverage and in transition. Pederson threw 58 passes and had 62 touches in 2024; he committed a single turnover. That’s the story of a player who covers and successfully gets the ball to the offense.
Chris Merle - Chris Merle quietly had an outstanding season as an SSDM for the Woods this past year, muddied a bit by the team’s struggles. He was 4th in the league in CTs last year. Not among SSDMs, but among everyone. He had as many GBs as Top 50 player Zach Geddes.
Mike Manley - He just refuses to rust. Manley won his first of two Defensive Player of the Year awards a DECADE ago. He still handles matchups well. Today, as he enters Year 15, I trust him to guard physical matchups like Rambo and get the job done. He still piled up 11 CTs a year ago, he can be dangerous in transition, and he committed a total of two penalties all last year.
Bryce Young - In his first season with the Cannons he caused 11 turnovers and picked up 14 ground balls. His penalty minutes were high, but more than half his penalties came in a single game against the Waterdogs in Week three. He committed just one penalty in the final six games of the year. The Cannons defense had some big changes this offseason, acquiring Young, signing Garrett Epple, and adding Kyle Hartzell as defensive coordinator. The experience of that trio helped the unit lead the league in CTs and be second in the league in SAA.
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