With the college lacrosse season ending, the PLL season is right around the corner, as training camp has already started. Because of this, all new draft picks are heading to their new teams to get ready for opening weekend, which is this weekend. This weekend in Albany is sure to be a strong start, as there are great matchups all over the board.

In particular, the Carolina Chaos versus the New York Atlas is going to be one of the best matchups of the week. Last year, the Atlas had the number one statistical offense, with Jeff Teat being the best offensive player in the league. The Chaos, comparatively, had the worst offenses last year. However, they did run the best defense in the league with 5 time all-star Jerrod Neumann and one of the greatest goalies of the last decade, Blaze Riorden, contributing to the incredible defensive antics. 

This year, during the draft, the Atlas helped strengthen their offense by picking up attackman Matt Tryanor out of Penn State with the sixth overall pick. Tryanor recently played an incredible game against Cornell and he scored six goals against Chris Kavanagh and Notre Dame. In the second round, the Atlas picked up Yale midfielder Max Krevsky to help build their defense and transition game. In rounds three and four, they picked up long stick midfielder Mike Grace and midfielder Hugh Kelleher, who got a hat trick in Cornell’s win over Penn State this past weekend.

For the Chaos this year, they had three picks within the first four rounds of the draft and used them to pick up guys all over the field. In their first round, they picked up attackman Owen Hiltz out of Syracuse, who has proven to become potentially one of the best attackmen in the nation. In their later two picks, they picked up a midfielder and a short stick defensive midfielder to help their defense for the future. 

Although both teams are looking good this year, many fans have the Atlas winning due to their overwhelming stars on attack that include TJ Malone and Jeff Teat. Junior Jack Waterbury was asked about the Atlas’s overpowered offense and commented, “Their offense if filled with absolute studs. I can’t see a world where they don’t win the chip this year.” When asked about the Chaos defense, Junior Jack Daley commented by saying, “They are insane. All of their d-poles and middies are insane.”