Breaking Down the 2020 Unprotected Rosters
- Ryan Hulsebos
- Feb 10, 2020
- 4 min read
On January 13, the head coaches of the league’s six founding teams submitted their protected rosters ahead of the 2020 Expansion Draft. These rosters, which include ten positional players and a goalie, helped to form the league's Unprotected Roster Pool that will be available for the PLL's newest expansion team, Waterdogs LC.
In two days, Waterdogs head coach Andy Copelan will have his first of three opportunities to build his program ahead of the team’s inaugural season. He will make 18 selections on February 12, and all players not selected will return to their original teams. A maximum of four players can be selected from a single team. Here are the top players available:
Goalie

Adam Ghitleman played in all but one of the Archers games last year. The Virginia alumn, who boasted 99 saves and a 51% save percentage in 2019, split time with fellow goalie Drew Adams. Ghitleman, 30, was one of three goalies on Team USA’s 2018 Men’s Team that won Gold in the FIL World Championship in Israel.
Jack Kelly was also part of that Team USA squad. A First Team All-American in 2016, Kelly did not play in 2019. Rookie of the Year Tim Troutner led the Redwoods to the Championship, sealing the job for the foreseeable future. The Waterdogs should hope that Kelly can do the same for them in 2020.
Attack
Five of the six teams chose to keep two attackmen. The defending champs only chose one.
Miles Thompson played with superstars Connor Fields and Josh Byrne and drew the shortest straw on a Chaos attack that scored 56 goals in 2019. The same happened to Christian Cuccinello and Kieran McArdle with Archers and Atlas, respectively.

Ryan Drenner matched teammate and league MVP Matt Rambo in regular-season goals with 19. The Whipsnakes chose to keep a defense that ranked first in goal differential intact, leaving one of their top goal-scorers and the league-leader in game-winning goals unprotected. He should be a player that the Waterdogs build their offense around. (Oh, and did I mention that 2018 Tewaaraton Award Winner Ben Reeves is also available.)
Midfield
Connor Kelly and Drew Snider were on a Whipsnakes team that won the Championship in the PLL’s inaugural season. They should be bringing that same championship mindset in 2020 whether they are in red, white, and green or not.

Romar Dennis and Max Tuttle got buried on Chrome’s midfield depth chart, which also included Ned Crotty, Matt Danowski, Jordan MacIntosh, and John Ranagan. 2019 PLL All-Star Sergio Salcido had 20 points and short-stick defensive midfielder Peter Harbeson, who was also an All-Star, had 21 groundballs and four caused turnovers for the Redwoods in 2019. All four are hoping to shine and establish themselves into new roles if given an opportunity to play on a new team.
Joel Tinney is an all-around midfielder that plays in all three phases of the game. The Canadian and Hopkins alumn could be the spark that Copelan needs to get a new program off and running.
Defense
The Archers chose to keep 2019 2nd Round Pick Curtis Corley, leaving no room on their 10-man protected roster for Jackson Place. He caused 12 turnovers and had 24 groundballs in 2019 before suffering a head and neck injury in September.

Long-Stick Defensive Midfielder Brian Karalunas was the only Redwoods defender to play in every game in 2019, and he could serve as a veteran presence for what could be a young defensive unit. Noah Richard and Cade Van Raaphorst combined for 43 groundballs and 12 caused turnovers on an Atlas team that only kept two defenders, and Rookie Isaac Preparo, who plays both at close defense and at LSM, was buried on a very talented Whipsnakes depth chart.
Faceoff
Five of the six teams kept their primary faceoff specialist from 2019, with the Redwoods being the outlier (Greg Gurenlian retired on January 22). Brendan Fowler and Drew Simoneau are the only specialists in the pool that had over 60 faceoff attempts last season, and Coach Copelan could select one to compete for the starting job in the spring.
Prediction:
The Waterdogs will not draft a faceoff specialist. Instead, they will focus on the College Draft in April or possibly the Entry Draft in March when it comes to finding their faceoff man of the future. Yale Senior T.D. Ierlan, a 2020 preseason First Team All-American, Penn Senior Kyle Gallagher, and Penn State Senior Gerard Arceri are three of the top specialists that could be available in this April’s draft, and current pros Max Adler and Alex Woodall could be in this year's Entry Draft (Woodall was drafted 4th overall by the Whipsnakes in 2019 but did not sign). The college draft is going to be full of attackmen, which could allow Copelan to figure out the goalie situation and focus on building a young defense and midfield in the Expansion Draft. With each team surrendering at least two or three starters, he should have no problem in putting together a talented group that he can start to shape an offense and defense around.
So who do the Waterdogs take? I expect Salcido, Dennis, Snider, and Connor Kelly to make up the midfield group, with Drenner, Thompson, and Kieran McArdle completing the offense. Drafting Ghitelman and Jack Kelly will automatically solve the goalie situation, and Karalunas, Place, and Noah Richard paired with Tinney and Harbeson could give teams headaches on the defensive end and on rides.
Tune in on Wednesday, February 12 to the league's YouTube channel for full coverage on the 2020 PLL Expansion Draft.
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