PLL Offseason Preview- Redwoods LC

Sorry for the delay, but the Saloon is back with PLL coverage! This week we will cover Redwoods LC, who finished as the runners up last season after a spectacular season. The driving force on this team is the defense, as they finished tied for 2nd in the league in goals against. As one of the deepest teams in the league, head coach Nat St. Laurent had a lot of difficult decisions to make when deciding the 11 players to protect. With that being said, Let’s dive into this roster.

Protected Players: Matt Kavanagh, Ryder Garnsey, Justin Heningburg, Sergio Perkovic, Brent Adams, Joe Walters, Kyle Harrison, Garrett Epple, Eddy Glazener, John Sexton, Tim Troutner, Matt Landis (Exempt), Brendan Gleason (Exempt)

Notable Unprotected Players: Clarke Petterson, Peter Baum, Wes Berg, Tyler Dunn, Sergio Salcido, Pat Harbeson Larken Kemp, Greg Gurenlian (retired) , Jack Kelly, Jerry Ragonese

The Redwoods are the only team to keep all of their starting attacks, which should really help this offense reach their full potential. Heningburg, Kavanaugh, and Garnsey combined for 81 points, which was 1st in the league among starting attack lines. There is no more balanced attack group in the league, and having them all back is huge for the Redwoods. Along with their attacks, the Redwoods keep the majority of their stout defense. Garett Epple is arguably the best defender in the league, and Tim Troutner had an extremely productive rookie year in goal. This protected roster is extremely talented, well balanced, and almost perfect, but I just do not understand leaving Sergio Salcido unprotected. The quickest guy on the field whenever he plays, his 20 points were good for 4th on the team. It is hard to fathom leaving Salcido off the roster and instead keeping Perkovic and Adams. Man are the Waterdogs getting a good player or what? Just take a look at him absolutely embarrassing 3 Chaos defenders on his way to scoring.

Sheesh.

This is one of the best protected rosters in the league, and part of it is the retirement of lacrosse face-off legend Greg Gurenlian. You have to respect the classy move on his part to let the Redwoods know of his retirement so they would not waste a protected pick on him. Gurenlian wanted one more year of playing to build this new league, and I cannot think of a better swan song for a guy who has helped this game so much. Unfortunately for the Redwoods, this leaves a rather large hole on their team. With the 6th pick in the draft, there is no chance they get TD Ierlan to fall to them. Essentially this leaves them with 3 options. Trade up in the draft, trade for a current player, or take a shot on a guy like Gerard Arceri from Penn State later in the draft. Arceri is coming off a 19/21 performance in Penn State’s season opener and his first move is incredibly quick. He could be a solid breakout player.

The Redwoods are incredibly talented and balanced, and the good news is that there is only one position of need, but the bad news? It is arguably the most important position in the game, and without a good player to fill that role, they will find it hard to make it back to the championship next September.