Reaction to the Romar Dennis Trade

Romar Dennis did not have the 2019 season that he might have envisioned.

After scoring 14 goals in 2018 with the Denver Outlaws (MLL), including four two-point goals, the 6’5”, 230-pound Loyola graduate was held to just four goals in the PLL’s inaugural season despite playing in all 12 of Chrome’s games. Between his sophomore and senior season in college, the Maryland native averaged 16 goals and started in all 49 games for the Greyhounds.

This was not the case with Chrome. He ran as the fifth offensive midfielder behind Ned Crotty, Jordan MacIntosh, John Ranagan, and Matt Danowsky. Sometimes he ran as the sixth behind Will Haus. Granted, Chrome’s offense did score the most goals in the regular season, but Dennis only had four of them, and for a team that went 2-8 and failed to secure the first overall pick in the 2020 College Draft (and would eventually fall to number four), this didn’t seem to make sense for Dennis.

"I don’t think there’s a player in the league who suited up every game but got as little playing time as I got," said Dennis to pro lacrosse expert Dan Arestia in an interview on ProLacrosseTalk.com. "I got one or two runs at midfield a quarter. Maybe two shots a game….There was a point where I rather would have been taken off an active roster or gone back to the player pool."

That was under old head coach Dom Starsia, who stepped down and joined the PLL Lacrosse Advisory Board. He handed the reins over to Tim Soudan, who coached the MLL’s Rochester Rattlers from 2011 to 2017, winning MLL Coach of the Year in 2014 and back-to-back MLL Championships in 2014 and 2015. When the league tasked the six head coaches in protecting ten of their team’s players ahead of the Expansion Draft, Soudan chose five midfielders. Romar Dennis was not one of them.

Who Soudan did choose was Crotty (33), MacIntosh (30), Ranagan (28), Danowski (34), and Haus (27). Dennis (24) was released to the player pool and available to the Waterdogs, which many, including Dennis, questioned.

"We all thought they’d keep some young guys because other guys might not have that many seasons left,” said Dennis. "We thought they’d keep some of their own youth rather than taking a gamble on getting some new players."

Chrome didn’t keep their young guys, but they only lost two players, face-off specialist Drew Simineou and defenseman Chris Sabia, to expansion. This brought Dennis and a young midfield group, including Max Tuttle and John Prendergast, who were both rookies in 2019, back to Chrome. It’s all good and well, right?

Wrong. In the same interview with Arestia, Dennis expressed his frustration with Chrome and the new head coach for leaving him unprotected. He felt that, despite his struggles in 2019, Soudan would choose youth over experience, but he didn’t. Dennis said that "it wasn’t a great call,” and that if he was to return to Chrome, he would consider asking for a trade.

"If a player’s coach did a great job of explaining the decision, it won’t be weird to go back to a team….But that wasn’t how my situation was handled….The first thing [the Chrome] told me was that there was a question mark by my name. I didn’t want to potentially play somewhere I’m not wanted."

"I don’t know what the new trade window is, so I don’t know if I can say if the Waterdogs don’t pick me up can you trade me."

We don’t know if Dennis actually requested a trade from Chrome, but that quote definitely stuck with Coach Soudan. He sent him to the Atlas with a third-round 2020 College Draft selection for the Atlas third-round 2020 College Draft pick on Monday morning.

For the Atlas, this is a steal. Dennis will join a midfield unit with Paul Rabil, Connor Buzcek, John Crawley, Joel Tinney, Kevin Unterstein, and Jake Richard, and he should act as the third or fourth offensive middie out of the box as a two-point and a dodging threat that could play opposite attackman Eric Law behind the goal. As I said on our podcast, Behind the Back, the Atlas would not have gotten a player like Romar Dennis in the third round of the College Draft. This isn’t because there aren’t enough good senior midfielders in College Lacrosse (which you’ll be able to read all about this Friday, March 6), it’s due to the limited number of roster spots on the seven PLL teams, which may lead players that would be third- or fourth-round picks in April to decide to play in the MLL in 2020.

As for Chrome, this is a head-scratcher. We saw a similar situation in the NFL in March of 2019 when the Pittsburgh Steelers parted ways with wide receiver Antonio Brown, trading him to the Oakland Raiders. In return, they only received a third- and a fifth-round draft pick. A few days later, the New York Giants traded wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns for a first- and a third-round pick, as well as a starting strong safety in Jabrill Peppers. This is despite Brown having more receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns than Beckham since 2014 when Beckham was drafted into the league.

Dennis didn’t play well in 2019, as he himself admitted, and his comments signaled the glaring possibility of a trade, but Tim Soudan only manages to move up three spots in the third round. As I just said, we don’t know what kind of talent will be available in the third or fourth rounds, so it’s hard to tell how valuable dumping one of your best young players to move up in the third round could end up being, especially for a team that finished last in the league in 2019.

Despite this possibility, however, Chrome is stockpiling draft picks. They currently own the fourth overall pick in round one, along with one second-, one fourth-, and three third-round selections. It is going to be interesting to see if Soudan waits and uses all of those picks, or if he decides to use one or some of them in future trades to further build his team before the College and possibly Entry Draft.

As for the Atlas, this trade has made them exponentially better. They got one of the best young midfielders in the game for practically nothing, as they only move back three spots in round three. With one of the best face-off guys in the game, a now improved midfield, and the possible addition of a third starting attackman in April, the Atlas could be poised to have one of the best offenses in 2020.