Darren Zary
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Just one win shy of a National Lacrosse League championship.
That’s the way the 2025-26 season ended for the Saskatchewan Rush, who are back at it once again starting with their season-opener at home Saturday night against the Calgary Roughnecks.
Game-time is 7 p.m. at SaskTel Centre.
Saskatchewan finished last season with a 13-5 record, tied for top spot overall with the eventual NLL champion Buffalo Bandits. They lost to those same Bandits in the NLL final, dropping two of three games in the fight for a title.
It marked a big improvement for the Rush, who were 8-and-10 the season before and out of the playoff picture.
While the Saskatchewan squad took a giant leap in the NLL standings, the Rush were rewarded with a number of league awards and accolades.
Jimmy Quinlan was named NLL coach of the year. Derek Keenan won the GM of the year award.
Frank Scigliano took home the NLL goaltender of the year award, while Matt Hossack earned defensive player of the year honours.
Yes, it was quite a season, and the Rush will look for more of the same in 2025-26.
Here are some things to know about the Rush heading into the new season:
Who’s back? Who’s not this season?
There were very few changes in the Rush lineup over the off-season.
Giant-sized forward Mike Triolo was dealt to the Buffalo Bandits for a third-round NLL draft pick in 2027.
The team will also start the season without holdout forward Patrick Dodds as well as defenders Isaac Ngyou and Keegan Bell, who was the NLL teammate of the year in 2025.
Third-string goalie Laine Hruska has not returned.
“We brought in some young bodies and draft picks and the odd free agent,” Quinlan says. “We’re excited to get going.”
Returnees include goalie Scigliano, forwards Robert Church, Zach Manns, Austin Shanks, Ryan Keenan, Clark Walter, Brock Haley, Josh Zawada and Levi Anderson, as well as defenders Hossack, Bobby Kidd III, Mike Messenger, Connor McClelland, Matt Achionne, Jake Boudreau, Adam Jay, Holden Garlent,Ryan Barnable and faceoff specialist Jake Naso.
Manns and Shanks tied for the team lead last season with 35 goals apiece. Church averaged 5.2 points per game. Scigliano led the NLL with a 9.40 goals-against average.
Who are newcomers to watch for?
New faces of note include first-round draft pick Levi Verch and fellow draft pick Mathias Houlahan, pegged as the team’s third goalie.
“We’ve also got a young kid out of Whitby in (defender) Julien Belair and a free-agent signing in a young player named Marcus Needham,” Quinlan points out.
Thoughts on the 2025-26 schedule?
“I mean, it’s alright,” says Quinlan. “There are a couple of things that we obviously don’t love, having to go to Halifax over the holidays —being that it’s not easily accessible. But the schedule is the schedule. We don’t really control much of it. We get our say. It sometimes feels like we’re not always listened to, but it’s nice to have some consistency and not many back-to-backs (two games in one weekend) and not a lot of bye weeks. So I think, once we start running here this weekend, we’ve get to play at a pretty consistent rate. We just have to take care of the play on the floor.”
“With our group, we were really good in a lot of the areas where we say they don’t take a lot of skill to do, but they are really hard to do. If we can continue to be one of those teams that enjoys doing that, we’ll have lots of success.”
Who are go-to players this season?
“Offensively, we’re going to rely on some of our veterans in Robert Church, Zach Manns,Ryan Keenan and Austin Shanks,” Quinlan says. “We’re a team that wants to score by committee, so we’ll need all hands on deck. Josh Zawada’s a guy we’re excited for. Same with Levi Anderson.Clark Walter is always bringing a lot of spark. Brock Haley’s probably been our best player in training camp. Again, we’re going to need every single guy up there.
“Defensively, it starts and ends with (goalie) Frankie (Scigliano). Jake Boudreau had a great season last year and we’re going to continue to see him take a step forward. Ryan Barnable was really good, Holden Garlent … I can almost name every guy.
What’s the key to success this season?
“Playing with that energy and that effort, and making sure we execute,” Quinlan stresses. “Those are some of the things we regularly talk about. Consistency is key in this league, so not having that many bad shifts either way, defensively or offensively, and staying even-keel.
“We had no Matt Hossack for a lot of training camp, and then he came back this past weekend and made a huge difference. The same can be said about Mike Messenger. It’s why we didn’t go after anyone in the off-season except for (re-signing) our own guys. We like what we have, and we feel we’re good enough to win.”
What outlook does the team have this season?
What’s needed to win it all?
“That’s a long ways away,” Quinlan says. “For us, it starts this weekend with one game. It’s playing with that energy and that effort, and consistency within our game. So that’s kind of outcome. We’re more of a process-based team so we’re going to worry about the things we can control and focus on the things that move us forward and, truthfully, if we do that, I feel like we’ve got a chance in every game. I think the big thing for us is understanding how hard it is to win in this league and making sure we don’t take any of the opportunities in front of us for granted and that starts this weekend against Calgary.”
