The Toronto Rock:

By Ted Montour

The Vancouver Ravens officially arrived with a ceremony, at GM Place, April 9, 2001, where NLL Commissioner Jim Jennings awarded the expansion franchise to Tom Mayenknecht, Bob Smart and Dave Stadnyk of Sportsworks Entertainment.

The new owners wasted no time, hiring two British Columbia box lacrosse veterans with impressive credentials, to build their team.

    


    
Chris Gill

Paul Dal Monte is the Ravens' Head Coach and Director of Lacrosse Operations, and Dave Evans is the General Manager and Director of Player Personnel. They would later add former National Hockey League All-Star Paul Reinhart to the ownership group.

Paul Dal Monte is also the coach of the Junior A Burnaby Lakers of the British Columbia Lacrosse Association (BCLA). His Lakers won the 2000 Minto Cup, emblematic of Canadian Junior box lacrosse supremacy, and returned to the championship in 2001, losing a thrilling 7-game final series to the St. Catharines Athletics of the Ontario Lacrosse Association (OLA). Dave Evans won back-to-back MILL Championships in 1990 and 1991 as coach of the Philadelphia Wings.



In the NLL 2001 expansion draft, Dal Monte and Evans began their team building with Buffalo Bandits veteran defender Rich Catton, Toronto Rock forward Ryan O'Connor, and Montreal Express defender Ian Rubel, B.C natives all, plus the Rochester Knighthawks' Lindsay Plunkett from Peterborough, Ontario, who played for Dal Monte in Burnaby.

Rubel would later go to Toronto in the trade for forward Chris Gill, and Plunkett to Ottawa for the 2001 entry draft first-round pick that garnered another junior Laker, forward Kevin Hanson.


After signing free agents by the dozens before training camp, the Ravens went to Buffalo for the entry draft with two picks in each of the first two rounds. Dal Monte looked no further than his own Burnaby bench to find Kevin Hanson, and then took forward Luke Ansley from the New Westminster Junior Salmonbellies, and goaltender Scott Wylie of the OLA Whitby Warriors, the 1999 Minto champs, in the second round.


The Ravens will open their inaugural NLL season with veteran goal-tenders Dwight Maetche, who was with Evans' 1990 MILL champion Wings, and Chad Miller of the Western Lacrosse Association (WLA, the senior major series in B.C.) Maple Ridge Burrards, along with Wylie. The defender corps, led by the veteran Catton, will include former New York Saints Tyson Leies and Darren Reisig.

The Ravens' attack will also feature some seasoned pros, including Gill and O'Connor (Rock), draw-man and power-play specialist Craig Stevenson (Bandits, Rebel), recently acquired Matt Dwane (Rock), as well as Baltimore Thunder veteran Kyle Goundrey (#2 in "01 WLA scoring - 29 goals, 57 assists), and former Bandits' draft pick Jeff Hanson, older brother of rookie Kevin. The Ravens can also expect production from Peter Morgan of the WLA's New Westminster Salmonbellies (#5 in '01 WLA, 34g, 46a).



     
The Vancouver skyline and GM Place



With six former Lakers who have played for Paul Dal Monte, and eleven current and former MILL / NLL pros, the Ravens will be well-prepared for their season-opening road trip, in Toronto with the Rock, Saturday, November 17, and the next day in Ottawa to help open the Rebel's sophomore season at the Corel Centre. In addition to six games against their Northern Division rivals Rock, Rebel and Roughnecks, the Ravens will face the Express (twice), Wings, Storm (twice), Power, Landsharks, Bandits, and Saints (twice). That is a minimum of seven games against legitimate playoff contenders, as well as four visits to the Eastern time zone (three in the first half of the season), including three double-header week-ends. Vancouver will finish their first NLL campaign with a three-game home stand, before closing in the Saddledome against the Roughnecks, March 23.


E-Lacrosse Holiday Gifts!


With a couple of splits, an upset, and at least one sweep, the Ravens could make things interesting in their Division. They can expect Ottawa and Calgary, however, to have a lot to say about who gets to be runner-up to Toronto.







The 2002 Vancouver Ravens website!



11/22/01

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