The NLL Awards Will Be Well Attended By Folks From Buffalo

Just a few days after the back-to-back National Lacrosse League champion Buffalo Bandits wrapped up their semifinals game against the Vancover Warriers to punch their ticket to this year's NLL championship, the league released the nominations for this year's NLL Awards—and it appears that Rax and the rest of the Bandits will need to reserve several seats as multiple team members were nominated for an award.

The League is set to issue 11 awards in total, and members of the Bandits have been nominated in 6 categories.

With the top-notch play coming from the NLL's number one team, it's good to see that the quality of the franchise is being highlighted for all to see.

The NLL Awards Will Be Well Attended By Folks From Buffalo

As the season is coming to a close, the Bandits are chasing their record third straight championship. Before that happens, there are five members of the team who are up for year-end awards this year:

• Dhane Smith - National Lacrosse League Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year
  • Buffalo's number 92 has been having a record-breaking year. Not only does he lead the league in assists, which he broke his own NLL record doing, but he's also recorded an amazing 134 points this year. If he wins the MVP Award, this will be the third time he's won it in his career
• Matt Vinc - National Lacrosse League Goaltender of the Year
  • Vinc is doing things that no player has done in the history of the National Lacrosse League. This marks his 10th nomination over his career, 8 of which he has won.
• Kyle Buchanan - National Lacrosse League Sportsmanship Award
  • Like most contact sports, emotions get elevated in this game. With its fast pace and hard hits, its easy for a player to maybe slide towards the dark side. However, Kyle Buchanan is a example of how players should conduct themselves (both on and off the field). You can see this by fact that he's only had to sit for eight penalty minutes over his career in Buffalo.
• Scott Loffler - National Lacrosse League Executive of the Year
  • Not all of the Buffalo action happens on the lacrosse field, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes and in the front office and you can see by the work that Scott Loffler does day-in and day-out why he's up for this award.
• John Gurtler - National Lacrosse League Tom Borrelli Award / Media Person of the Year
  • If you've caught a Bandits game on TV, then you know what an amazing job that Gurtler does as the play-by-play commentator for the team. He does such a good job that you often feel that you're right there in the arena at the game.

The Bandits are getting ready for Game One of the NLL Finals, which is set for Friday, May 16, 2025. The award winners will be announced before the game starts.

Let's Go, Bandits.