Roughnecks acquire new net-minder
In a somewhat surprising move, Roughneck GM Kurt Silcott traded a first round draft pick for net-minder Ryan Avery. Before the trade, Avery played on the Buffalo Bandits practice team after being drafted in the 2nd round in 2002 by the Rochester Knighthawks.
To many fans there is some confusion surrounding this move. We already have Curtis Palidwor as a starting goalie and Andrew Leyshon as a strong backup. So where does Avery fit in? Who does he replace if anyone? If he’s not replacing either Palidwor or Leyshon then why are we trading a 1st round pick for a third string or practice goal-tender? More than a few people have expressed questions such as these.
With no official announcement as to Avery’s role in the Roughnecks organization we are left to speculate. Right now there seem to be two obvious choices:
- Avery replaces Leyshon as the backup net-minder
- Leyshon moves to the starter position and Avery is the backup while Palidwor is either benched for a few games or traded
Reading between the lines in the official statement made on the official Roughnecks website seems to contradict the second option. That seems to leave the first option of Avery replacing Leyshon.
Myself and many others would have a hard time going along with this option. Leyshon hasn’t been given much of an opportunity to show us what he’s made of. In the big picture Avery and Leyshon have both played approximately the same amount of time in the NLL this year. I’d just rather give the current players a fair shot before going to outside sources. That way if the player performs great, if they drop the ball during that time there is still the option of trading/dropping them.