Riding off their first Western Conference Championship in 2015, the Seattle Rainmakers were going to have their hands full defending their title and getting back to the championship game. Bringing back 17 players for the previous year's roster, Seattle was clear favorites, along with the Portland Stags to get back to the playoffs. The team was able to improve their overall record by finishing 7-3, their best mark since the 2013 season.
The only major loss of the off-season was Mark Burton, the 2015 scoring title holder, who was released from his two-year contract. In addition, the team lost Andrew Lynch and Jeff Pape from the Western Conference Championship team, but added both Ben Wiggins and Steve Gussin from the 2013 squad.
The only major loss of the off-season was Mark Burton, the 2015 scoring title holder, who was released from his two-year contract. In addition, the team lost Andrew Lynch and Jeff Pape from the Western Conference Championship team, but added both Ben Wiggins and Steve Gussin from the 2013 squad.
Record: 7-3 | Home: 4-1 | Away: 3-2 |
With the loss of Burton, it was clear that Khalif El-Salaam was going to be stepping into Burton's role on the team. El-Salaam would be getting a lot of touches on the disc as a handler and also become a deep option on occasion making him really difficult to cover and shut down.
Everyone knew that having El-Salaam as a focal point was going to be difficult at times during the season. El-Salaam had multiple ultimate commitments that would conflict with the MLU schedule, including college sectionals, regionals, and nationals and the WUGC in London. As a result El-Salaam only played in four games on the entire season, missing seven games, one of which was the Western Conference Championship.
For the four games El-Salaam did play in, he was unstoppable. He scored 13 goals, threw 21 assists, and had five blocks. On average that is 3.25 goals per game, 5.25 assists per game and 1.25 blocks per game; easily the best scoring averages in the league for players who played in three games or more (i.e. Tannor Johnson). He was so dominant that by season's end he was still tied for eighth in scoring throughout the entire MLU.
Early on, other problems became to arise for the Rainmakers. Wiggins addition looked to fill in Pape's role as a key offensive handler. A preseason injury though sidelined Wiggins and as the season continued he never made it onto a gameday roster. The team also lost O-line handler Gavin McKibben (three goals, 10 assists, 114/122 throws, 89 points played) halfway through the season.
Without El-Salaam, Wiggins, and McKibbin, it left little depth at the handler position on offense and prevented them from ever overtaking the Stags. In the Western Conference Championship, the Rainmakers got blown out 18-9, ending their 2016 campaign.
vs. Nighthawks: 4-0 PD: +34
vs. Dogfish: 3-0 PD: +25
vs. Stags: 0-3 (0-1) PD: -19 (-9)
If there was going to be a team to threaten Seattle's postseason bid, it was going to be the San Francisco Dogfish. In 2015 it was evident that they under-performed but were capable of stringing together a strong performance (they were only team to knock off the Stags).
However, any threat of them overtaking the Rainmakers was debunked in Week 7, as Seattle dominated 29-16. The second highest point total any team put up in 2016.
In this game, which was one of the few El-Salaam played in, Seattle reeled off 17 breaks (11 in the first half). The team converted on break opportunities 63 percent of the time helping them get their season break possession scoring efficiency to 55.4 percent, the highest in MLU history.
The duo of El-Salaam (four goals, four assists) and Henry Phan (four assists, 34/37 throws) led the D-line of the Rainmakers. This game goes to show that if Seattle's offense can keep up with another team's offense and El-Salaam can be put on defense, this becomes a really dangerous team.
Team MVP: Brad Houser
(29G, 16A, 4B, 94/109 throws, 0.701 TPOP)
Without El-Salaam for six out of the team's 10 regular season games, Brad Houser became the go-to cutter on offense. Stepping up in a situation where the Rainmakers always had either Burton or El-Salaam to rely on, Houser was the most important figure for Seattle. He was the play-maker every week and even made his presence felt when there was a full roster for Seattle. There were only two games that Houser did not reach four goals and assists in a game. He nearly doubled his scoring numbers from his rookie season in 2015 but most importantly had no drops. As a result Houser was named the West Offensive Player of the Year.
Team Star: Khalif El-Salaam (4 weeks)
Four games, four weekend star awards for El-Salaam. There should be no surprise that he is the top star player for Seattle. The only thing that the league is waiting on him to do is play a full season.
Rookie of the Year: Dylan Harrington
(12G, 8B, 17/18 throws, 69 D-line Points Played)
There were not many rookies playing for the Rainmakers in 2016, as a majority of the core of the team has stuck together. Dylan Harrington though proved himself where most rookies do, on defense. Harrington did not see playing time until the halfway point of the season. Generating eight blocks on the year, in only five game played, he quickly became a staple for the defensive unit. He recorded a block in every game he played in and also added 12 goals, all of them being breaks. In the Western Conference Championship he also scored two goals and had two blocks.
Trend: Upward
Although the Rainmakers were never able to overtake the Stags in any of their four matches against them on the season, 2016 was a huge improvement for the team. Many forget that despite a MLU Championship berth in 2015, the team finished the regular season 5-5 only two games ahead of the Dogfish and Vancouver Nighthawks. This year the team swept the bottom half of the standings (7-0). Next they will have to beat Portland, which they have only done once in the past two years. The only player locked for next year is El-Salaam and he has one more year left on his contract. His return should keep other top players on the roster in 2017.