A little under a year ago, the National Lacrosse League announced its expansion, adding two new franchises in Philadelphia and San Diego. With both teams set to begin play in the 2018-19 season, they must first build their teams through the Expansion Draft and later the Entry Draft. The Expansion Draft is slated for July 16, 2018 with the Entry Draft being held following the conclusion of the NLL Combines later in the Fall.
In order to determine the order of selection, a ceremonial coin toss will be held. From the coin toss, the winning expansion franchise will elect to have either the first player selection during the Expansion Draft or the first selection at the Entry Draft. The other team will then have the first pick at the draft not selected by the winning team. The Philadelphia Wings’ Assistant Coach Landon Miller and the San Diego Seals’ General Manager and Head Coach, Patrick Merrill will represent their teams respectively at the coin toss held during halftime of Game 2 of the NLL Finals in Rochester, NY on Saturday, June 2. Looking forward to the night Merrill said, “The coin flip will be remembered as a monumental moment in Seals history. We’re thrilled to get to share this event with the Philadelphia Wings and the rest of the NLL fans live on Saturday in Rochester. Regardless of the result of the coin flip, we believe it will be a win-win situation for the Seals and our fans. We’re very excited and have been anxiously awaiting this moment for a long time!”
With only two entering teams the Expansion Draft held this coming July, current member clubs are able to protect a total of eleven players, comprised of up to one goalie and ten runners or eleven runners and no goalie. In both scenarios, only five of the protected runners can be offensive players which must be approved by the Commissioner. In addition, no member club shall be required to lose more players than the number of expansion teams entering the Expansion Draft. Clubs are not allowed to protect more players once a current player has been drafted.
At the Entry Draft, to be held in the Fall of 2018, both expansion teams will have picks in the first round of the Draft. They will have one additional selection at the end of the Second, Third and Fourth Rounds. Given there are two teams, the order of selection determined from the coin toss on June 2, will be reversed in each alternating round at the Entry Draft.
The June 2 coin toss will be held at halftime of Game 2 of the 2018 NLL Finals with Commissioner Sakiewicz presiding over the ceremonies. The coin toss will be streamed live on NLL TV, Twitter and CBS SportsLive. Philadelphia Head Coach Paul Day noted, “This weekend’s coin toss in Rochester brings us another step closer to building our team in Philadelphia. There is great talent throughout the league that we will work to acquire through the expansion draft in July and then having a top position in the entry draft in September will help round out our team with strong young talent. We are excited for what the next few months will bring, and we are confident that Philadelphia will have a first class team on the turf in December.”
