Colorado Mammoth Message Board

Hey Steve,
Now that Stilley has officially announced his retirement, *raises glass to toast and wish him the best*, I have some questions about the defensive end of the floor.

First, what's the scoop on ManCub? Obviously, I'd love to see him back in a Mammoth uni, but have heard nothing about him being signed or his returning to the team for one more year.

If he doesn't, that's two large components of our defense that are not returning. Who should we be looking for to step up this year (knowing that Mossy was picked up to prevent too much of a loss when this happens). Who are you most excited to see make up for the loss of Stilley and perhaps Hanford?

Voodoo

_________________
--V

Certainly the recent announcement of Dave Stilley's retirement was not a surprise to the staff and has been contemplated for a good deal of time. Dave has talked to us as earlier as the beginning of last season about his new job and the time that he was going to have to devote to that. He was always cognizant of the balance between his commitments.

For those of you that were watching closely last season during our 10-1 run early in the season Coach Gait had Dave and Matt Leveque splitting time between the two of them. Matt has been groomed for just this opportunity and perhaps his time has come to take on a more permanent role. Matt also filled in for injuries to Gallant in the 06 playoffs and did extremely well, he spelled both Coyle and Gallant last season when injuries forced them out of the lineup.

Jim Moss is a great defender. We acquired Jim to be a top contributor on the defensive end with our team. Last season we had Jim running in transition replacing Nick Carlson who had not completely healed from his knee injury. With an entire training camp under his belt with a coach that he is very familiar with and a style of defense that more closely suits his game, I expect that Jim will have an outstanding season on the defense.

Nick Carlson has healed tremendously and will be able to be back at the permanent transistion position that Jim was keeping warm for him. Expect great seasons from both Carlson and Moss in comfortable environments for both of them.

The beauty in all of this is that we acquired big Bruce "Moose" Murray in the dispersal draft from Arizona. A little known fact was that along with Matt Brown, I was discussing Moose coming over to the Mammoth before the dormancy of the Sting. Bruce is a fantastic defensive player, very mobile, very big and tough as nails. I greatly look forward to Murray patrolling the back end with the other defenders.

To answer the second part of your question, you will see an announcement very soon that Jamie Hanford is signing to play for the New York Titans this season. We have always known that this possibility may exist and have been preparing for it for some time. Jamie has always told me that he would never play anywhere else but Colorado but sometimes things change. Life happens. As I discussed on other postings he had scheduled his wedding during the first week of the playoffs so his return would have been difficult anyway. We wish him all the best and will miss him on the floor and in the locker room.

Scott Davidson is a very good faceoff specialist and could see more time this season in that role. Scott taught Geoff Snider how to face off at DU and regularly frustrated Hanford in practice. We are excited for Scott's third year with the Mammoth and excited for what he might bring to the table in possessions.

We aren't just pretty faces here in the Mammoth front office, we have been focusing on the future and the ultimate departure of some very loved players has been contemplated. I think our back end of Catton, Coyle, Gallant, Leveque, Ethington, Moss, and Murray is second to none in the National Lacrosse League and will become a formidable force in 2008. Normally we only dress 6 defenders anyway.

I think I have mentioned this before but even farther into the future we are very excited for our draft pick Matt Wilson to emerge as a stalwart defenseman. He will be in attendance at training camp this weekend spending time wth the team and working with our training staff to make sure of the earliest possible return from his knee injury. One more player in the stable preparing for the potential departure or retirement of another loved Mammoth player sometime in the future.

We have also signed some very intriguing free agents and hope to find the diamond in the rough through this process as well.

I hope this answers your questions. We are never happy about losing players that have been such fixtures in our family for so long but the best we can do is prepare ourselves to win today while preserving our success for the future.

Dave Stilley and Jamie Hanford will forever be part of the history of the Mammoth and will always have a great bond with me personally, I will miss them both as I know many of our fans will. We are contemplating the best way to honor Dave's retirement during the season. Good luck to them as we continue to strive for our goal to win the NLL championship!!

SG

I must admit, I don't want to see Mancub playing for anybody else, but at the same time I'm glad that the Mammoth (and so many other teams as well) are willing and able to be so accommodating for the players and their wishes.

Steve-

Thanks so much for your insight into how players are going to fill into different roles. I am excited to see how Scott Davidson moves into the lead face-off role, as the one game he did face-offs in last year he had a near 65% win percentage.

I have always been impressed with the team you and the staff have put on the floor since the Mammoth have been here in Denver. I look forward to every game as we always have a competitive team - I am sure this year will be no different.

I want to be very clear here. This was not the Mammoth being "accomadating" to Jamie Hanford. This was Jamie's choice to leave the team, he is an unrestricted free agent that is free to play wherever he chooses to play. Had he not been a free agent and had the same issue he would have been playing here in Denver or we would have attempted a trade if he had asked.

Ahh, gotcha. The unrestricted free agency situation didn't occur to me.

Still, I think it applies in general. Maybe I'm just being naive, but it does seem like teams are making an effort to do what's best for the players when they can.

Perhaps it applied more accurately to sending Prepchuk home to Edmonton?

Steve,
I noticed in the combine game that Andrew Spack was a decent face-off man so are you planning on getting him some chances in the ring?

Andrew Spack and Scott Davidson will spend time facing off throughout training camp.

Coach McMahon's philosophies de-emphasizes the importance of great face off players unless they are able to do more than just that. If you look to his input with the Arizona teams over the last few years you won't see a specific roster spot for a face off specialist alone. They were very successful in the playoffs and basically won 50% of their faceoffs with great wing play and not just a great draw man.

SG

I have never heard of that but it sounds great.