Major League Lacrosse today held its 2015 Supplemental Draft, giving teams the opportunity to build out their 23-man protected rosters to a 40-man preseason roster. The draft consisted of 12 rounds and the Charlotte Hounds had 13 picks, including the first overall. With that pick the Hounds selected Garrett Thul, a left-handed attackman out of Army.
Thul has two seasons of MLL experience, playing with the Hamilton Nationals in 2013 and the Florida Launch in 2014. In a combined 14 games, the six-foot-three, 231-pound attackman tallied 24 goals (including three 2-pointers) and added two assists.
The Hounds fell short of their goals in 2014, finishing in 8th place with a 4-10 record. GM Wade Leaphart and Head Coach Mike Cerino knew that they needed to add left-handed attackmen, veteran midfielders and defensive depth during the offseason. Each of those issues has now been addressed. A week prior to the Supplemental Draft, the Hounds traded faceoff specialist Geoff Snider to the Denver Outlaws in exchange for midfielder Terry Kimener, a seven-year MLL veteran.
Below is a complete roundup of the Hounds' supplemental draftees, who will join the members of the previously announced 23-man protected roster at training camp in late March and vie for a spot on the team's 25-man active roster, to be announced a week prior to the start of the 2015 season.
1st round, 1st overall: Garrett Thul, A (Army '13 -- 2 years MLL experience, most recently with Launch)
2nd round, 9th overall: Michael Italiano, M (Ohio State '14)
3rd round, 17th overall: Billy Ward, M (Syracuse '14)
4th round, 25th overall: Jack Runkel, G (Loyola Md. '14)
4th round, 30th overall: Alex Zomerfeld, M (Bryant '14 -- Lizards draftee)
5th round, 33rd overall: John Fennessy, D (Towson '14)
6th round, 41st overall: Sean Meagher, D (Robert Morris '14)
7th round, 49th overall: Glenn Maiorano, D (Bryant '13)
8th round, 57th overall: Casey Cittadino, M (Towson '06 -- 9 years MLL experience, most recently with Hounds)
9th round, 65th overall: Riley Loewen, A (Limestone '13)
10th round, 73rd overall: Todd Nakasuji, A (Limestone '14)
11th round, 81st overall: Nico Capron, D (Canisius '12 -- 1 year MLL experience with Hounds)
12th round, 89th overall: Bill Blakely, A (Greensboro College '12 -- 1 year MLL experience with Hounds)
See the complete list of results from today's Supplemental Draft