Why don't more American players enter the NLL?

I know there's some scheduling issues and field lacrosse is different than box, but I kind of assumed people would go where the money is. And my understanding is that's the NLL.

 

You answered your own question. Most field players can't make the transition.

 

Talent concentration in a nine team league

As the league gets watered down, the available Americans will get to a point where they are arguably as good as the available Canadians, and, if you're talking about role players, them not needing flying in or housing allowance is a huge deal.

 

Does Rob Panell play in the NLL? If no, why not? Why did Paul Rabil decide to focus on the MLL, as opposed to the NLL?

 

Paul rabil used to play in the NLL but he prefers the MLL. Rabil is arguably the best field player in the world, but when it comes to box he's just a normal good player. His ego is probs keeping him out of the NLL

Panell played in the us vs Canada game last year in Hamilton ON. Us get destroyed hard ! Panell got one goal but he and most other Americans can't keep up in box.

 

Ok, besides Paul Rabil, who are some good American players that could be in the NLL, but just aren't, for whatever reason? I don't know. Maybe this I just my ignorance, but I have a hard time believing people selected #1 in the MLL draft couldn't at least find a role player spot in the NLL.

 

He was drafted by the wings but was too big a poosay to report

 

Field players aren't used to working in the tight spaces with all the slashing that you see in the indoor game. There are some exceptions but field players would rather train for the Spring season than play in the Winter. Maybe that will change as the NLL makes off-ball contact penalties tougher and as more spots become open with expansion but for now, it's tough to give a roster spot to a guy with limits.

 

If you watched Paul Rabil in the last heritage cup game, you may have noted that he spent most of his shifts getting in Schreiber's way.

the guy is an incredible physical talent with ridiculous raw skills, but, he is borderline useless for being a team player in elite level box.

 

Or if you watched him with Philly as a full time attacker, if you passed him the ball, you might as well have just jogged to the bench to spring a defender.......Rabil would just dodge by the wall until there was no time on the shot clock, and then uncork a 200mph howitzer, usually high and wide, often becoming a scoring chance at the other end.

 

Something else to keep in mind is that there may be plenty of US players who could make the transition with just a little bit of work. The problem is that no team currently has the roster space to waste on giving someone a season or two to see if they work out. There's no minor leagues and they're not going to go play summer indoor lacrosse when the MLL is going on. Simply put, there's not many ways for a US player to get high level box experience.

 

The bottomline answer is that, since the NLL is box lacrosse, the Canadians are already adept at playing box lacrosse while the Americans need to learn and adapt to box lacrosse.

The reasons why boil down down to these points:

1. The skill set for box lacrosse and the nature of that game are different than field lacrosse.
   
   
2. In Canada, kids grow up primarily playing box lacrosse while, in the USA, kids grow up primarily playing field lacrosse.
   
   
3. The skills in field lacrosse are considerably different than box lacrosse and many of the skills needed to play box lacrosse are just not taught or even needed in field lacrosse.
   
   Furthermore, the skills in box lacrosse are better than the skills in field lacrosse.

• Box lacrosse skills easily translate well into field lacrosse.
• Playing box lacrosse well requires skills that are just not developed nor needed in field lacrosse. For instance, the intense physicality, stick speed, and shooting accuracy. A good box lacrosse player playing field lacrosse, like the Gaits were in the NCAA, is almost a predator in field lacrosse. This is why NCAA coaches now go to Canada to recruit players when, in the past, they would have confined themselves to the USA.

The bottomline with skills is that Canadian players already have both the skills for box and are usually better overall lacrosse players, field or box.​

 

So I guess MLL just increased its salary cap by 51%. I assume that will make it even less likely Americans will transition to box.

 

That's what I think, philly and San Diego both signed a lot of MLL talent so the MLL decided to pay more and extend their schedule to hold players....

Idk how that will work for the MLL because Atlanta, Florida, and Charlotte surely are barely profitable, they will most likely fold / relocate within the next 3 years.

 

coaching. chris hall was the best at this. he developed manney, hartzell, holmes, martin, odougherty into nll ballers and gave rabil a defined role. most nll coaches don't have the patience for this.

 

Well by my count 9 of the 18 #1 overalls in the MLL draft played in the NLL with only 4 of them being a top 5 player for a NLL team at any point. Those 4 all played box lacrosse from a young age.
I guess you better start believing most MLL 1st round picks can not play in the NLL.

 

I wasnt talking about them being top-5 players. I was talking about them at least finding a role-player spot.

 

At 16 teams, we will have half a league worth of guys that used to be training camp cuts, so, yeah, if you're staffing your depth chart, it will eventually come down to deciding whether to carry an athletic yank project or a B level Canadian vet that needs flying in for everything and misses some of the practices.......

Maybe you decide it ain't worth flying in the Canadian, and, there's another job for a US-born-and-trained guy.

Just thinking about the numbers, and the abilities of the "next level" guys that might have NLL jobs in a couple of years.

Some of these will either be on the cusp, or, are actually NLL-worthy-but-cut-due-to-loyalty-to-a-veteran-that-does-the-same-job kind of cuts, so, won't affect level of play much.

After you get past the first 30 or so, it's going to be noticeable...... and then there's the goaltending.

 

I gotta think that Thrillis would've had a job in the NLL had he come along 10 years later.

 

It will be a cost benefit analysis for some teams. The Canadian with years of playing box that you fly in -- does he make your team better and more competitive than the US born guy who has once in awhile played box but lives in or near the town your team is in?