A lot of teams took a hit last off-season none quite worse than the Vancouver Nighthawks. The team lost two of the biggest names in the league in Morgan Hibbert and Brendan Wong and took a majority of their teammates with them. It left only nine players from the 2015 roster returning for this season and few top line players. In addition, Vancouver had to hire a new operations manager and head coach.
The team somehow managed to survive and with the history of past, defunct ultimate franchises that is a strong sign. However, they still need to put together a team and needed to find new star players to fill into key roles. As the roster came together some notable signings gave Nighthawks fans hope. Erik Hunter would return after playing in 2013, and joining him a former Australian national player Graeme Barber, a former Canadien national player David Stelck, and a Riptide standout Francisco Mogollon. They would be looking to lead a team with 20 MLU rookies, a majority from the men's club team Blackfish.
The team somehow managed to survive and with the history of past, defunct ultimate franchises that is a strong sign. However, they still need to put together a team and needed to find new star players to fill into key roles. As the roster came together some notable signings gave Nighthawks fans hope. Erik Hunter would return after playing in 2013, and joining him a former Australian national player Graeme Barber, a former Canadien national player David Stelck, and a Riptide standout Francisco Mogollon. They would be looking to lead a team with 20 MLU rookies, a majority from the men's club team Blackfish.
Record: 1-9 | Home: 1-4 | Road: 0-5 |
Wins were probably not going to be the ultimate goal for Vancouver this season. Building chemistry and putting together a team that can build toward next year is what the franchise needed.
It started out rough, the Nighthawks played the two playoff teams from 2015, the Portland Stags and Seattle Rainmakers, in their first five games of the season. In the first two games they averaged an offensive scoring efficiency of 39.8 percent and were outscored 47-22. In those opening blowout losses the team was able to take a lot away from it. Rookie Sascha Lo proved that he could hold the fort and be the team's primary handler allowing Hunter and one year veteran Taylor Nadon to be more explosive on offense. The only problem is that they struggled to get their defense on the field.
At the season's end the defense scoring efficiency only made it up to 20.6 percent, the last in the league. Generating blocks was a problem all season, the team only recorded 96 on the year. The team however still managed to get a victory on the season in front of their home fans.
What will be the team's biggest takeaway from this season is their improvement from beginning to end. While they might not show in the win-loss record, this team is far different than it was at the start of 2016. For a while they were out of the basement of the Power Rankings. This season marks the worst year in franchise history and joins the 2013 Portland Stags as the only two team's with a 1-9 record.
It started out rough, the Nighthawks played the two playoff teams from 2015, the Portland Stags and Seattle Rainmakers, in their first five games of the season. In the first two games they averaged an offensive scoring efficiency of 39.8 percent and were outscored 47-22. In those opening blowout losses the team was able to take a lot away from it. Rookie Sascha Lo proved that he could hold the fort and be the team's primary handler allowing Hunter and one year veteran Taylor Nadon to be more explosive on offense. The only problem is that they struggled to get their defense on the field.
At the season's end the defense scoring efficiency only made it up to 20.6 percent, the last in the league. Generating blocks was a problem all season, the team only recorded 96 on the year. The team however still managed to get a victory on the season in front of their home fans.
What will be the team's biggest takeaway from this season is their improvement from beginning to end. While they might not show in the win-loss record, this team is far different than it was at the start of 2016. For a while they were out of the basement of the Power Rankings. This season marks the worst year in franchise history and joins the 2013 Portland Stags as the only two team's with a 1-9 record.
vs. Dogfish: 1-2 PD: -9
vs. Stags: 0-3 PD: -41
vs. Rainmakers: 0-4 PD: -34
Getting a win this year was going to be difficult. The rest of the teams in the Western Conference had a majority of their core returning, except for the Nighthawks. If there was going to be a chance at them getting a victory it would be against the San Francisco Dogfish, the team looking to make it back to the playoffs for the first time in two seasons. With home-field being such a large factor they would have to take advantage of their lone home game against the Dogfish.
Their victory though was one call away from being a devastating defeat. In double overtime the Dogfish received and immediately worked it up the sideline. Andrew Goldstein went on a deep look and was called out of bounds on what would have been the game winning score for San Francisco. As Vancouver quickly worked it back up the field it would be Barber finding Jasper Lu for the 21-20 win. Barber had a fantastic game throwing five assists and completing 22 of his 24 throws.
The Nighthawks looked as if they could ride this momentum and perhaps take one away from Seattle or in San Francisco but this would be the lone game that they broke through.
Their victory though was one call away from being a devastating defeat. In double overtime the Dogfish received and immediately worked it up the sideline. Andrew Goldstein went on a deep look and was called out of bounds on what would have been the game winning score for San Francisco. As Vancouver quickly worked it back up the field it would be Barber finding Jasper Lu for the 21-20 win. Barber had a fantastic game throwing five assists and completing 22 of his 24 throws.
The Nighthawks looked as if they could ride this momentum and perhaps take one away from Seattle or in San Francisco but this would be the lone game that they broke through.
Team MVP: Taylor Nadon
(17G, 17A, 5B, 222/236 throws, 1.016 TPOP)
This team desperately needed leadership this season and Nadon was the biggest name on the roster returning from 2015. Nadon quickly became Vancouver's number one option wherever they needed him to be. Some games Nadon would go back and handle other times he was the team's primary cutter. His value is one that every team needs but on superstar teams they often get overlooked. This was only Nadon's second season in the MLU and will definitely be a player the Nighthawks will want to sign early into the offseason.
Team Star: Graeme Barber & Taylor Nadon (3 weeks each)
There were nine possible weeks for the Nighthawks to win the Weekend Star award. Barber and Nadon each received the award three times. Similar to Nadon's complete package, Barber filled in any role the Nighthawks needed as well on both offense and defense. Playing defense allows you to have bigger games and Barber certainly had some big ones this season.
Rookie of the Year: Sascha Lo
(3G, 6A, 3B, 220/237 throws, 1.446 TPOP)
On a team filled with rookies nine points on the season will not probably get you the rookie of the year. Lo made it up in other ways on the field. Coming in as the team's primary handler in his rookie season is a tall task, to make it worse his options were limited. He only played eight games on the season but his TPOP was the seventh highest in the league (leader was Barber, the West ROTY with 1.559). He threw 61 completions in a single game and even went a perfect 32 for 32 against the Rainmakers. Lo was always an option for a bailout throw and his quickness often gave him even better looks to get rid of the disc quickly.
Trend: Upward
Surviving a season of this caliber is always a success for a team, to improve throughout the season made it even better. Knowing that they can only go up from here puts some extra confidence in the Nighthawks. Next season might not be a playoff year for Vancouver but they will definitely be more competitive than this year if they can get their core group of players back. No player is currently signed to the 2017 roster but look for the team to quickly get Hunter, Lo, Barber, and Nadon signed this off-season.