As Toronto Rock season ends this weekend, rebuild looms

Article content

The Toronto Rock is heading to its busiest and most transformative off-season in nearly a decade.

The Rock is finishing its 2024-25 season this weekend. It lost 16-9 to the Halifax Thunderbirds in its final game at Paramount Fine Foods Centre on Friday. It will head to Rochester to play the Knighthawks on Saturday. Then the rebuilding begins.

After going to the National Lacrosse League semi-finals the past four completed seasons, the Rock plummeted this campaign and now sits at 5-12. Needless to say a full review process will be on the docket at the team’s Oakville headquarters.

“We’re now evaluating guys for next year,” Rock owner and general manager Jamie Dawick said. “We’re waiting on how things fall out with the picks.”

“We could have the first three picks in the NLL draft. This is what we hoped when we made the deals. The hope is that we can turn this around as quickly as possible.”

In addition to its own pick, the Rock have the selection of the last-place Las Vegas Desert Dogs, which it acquired in 2022 for forward Rob Hellyer. It also has the pick of the Philadelphia Wings, who may have the third-worst record if it loses to the Vancouver Warriors on Saturday. That was acquired in the trade that sent Mitch De Snoo and Chris Corbeil to Philadelphia in February. In addition, the Rock are anticipating 2024 draft pick Sam English to join the team after completing school this year.

The campaign was a disaster from the opening blowout loss to the Ottawa Black Bears. Injuries to key players hurt the club from the outset. Toronto enjoyed another solid year defensively but were too inconsistent on the offensive end.

Dawick will have to make decisions on unrestricted free agents Tom Schreiber, Corey Small, and Brad Kri. And after the mid-season trade of Nick Rose to the Calgary Roughnecks for a 2026 first-round pick, Dawick needs to evaluate if Troy Holowchuk has done enough to earn the starting goaltender role moving forward.

And then there is the coaching staff. Matt Sawyer has more wins than any head coach in Rock history, but with a 1-7 record in one-goal games and a 2-7 record in the temporary Mississauga home, many observers believe the team needs a new voice behind the bench.

“I evaluate everyone top to bottom as a general manager,” Dawick said. “From the head coach to the players on the active roster and the players on the practice roster, I’ll have those meetings with every single person for sure.”

The Thunderbirds (11-7) clinched a home playoff game at Scotiabank Centre with the win. Dawson Theede scored four times. Thomas Hoggarth, Mike Robinson and Cody Jamieson all had hat tricks. Randy Staats scored twice and Wake Riat BowHunter had one for Halifax.

Josh Dawick scored twice to bring his season total to 40 for the Rock. Chris Boushy scored five times to bring him within three of the 40 mark. Corey Small and Justin Martin had the other Toronto goals.