The NLL draft is a big piece of the puzzle that helps shape what a team is going to look like for the upcoming season and beyond.
Vancouver Warriors General Manager and Head Coach Curt Malawsky’s draft strategy focused on adding size, skill, and speed to key positions, while preparing young players to learn from the veteran core. The Warriors turned five picks into six picks in the 2024 NLL Draft, gaining depth and youth on both ends of the floor.
Malawsky is balancing the needs of the here and now with the long-term vision of the franchise. His approach throughout the draft was to take the best available player at each pick and for those draftees to be able to capitalize on the knowledge from his veteran core over the coming years.
“I think it’s important that you make sure that you’re bringing in guys for succession plans,” Malawsky explained. “Eventually guys are going to have to move on and the free agent market’s not always going to go your way, but you’ve got to make sure you’ve got depth at all positions, and you can pick up those young guys to learn from the veterans.”
To be able to pick the best available player you need a group that is dialed in to the talent pool across college, Senior A and Junior A lacrosse leagues in North America.
“I think the biggest thing is we have a great team of people helping with our scouts and the guys that we have in that room – we spent seven hours going through stuff today [at draft] – and wouldn’t be able to do it without the help of everybody there. Genuine team effort from top to bottom,” Malawsky said.
Malawsky said things fell into place when they were able to select right-handed forward Johnathan Peshko as their fourth overall pick creating enough depth on the right side to enable a trade with the Saskatchewan Rush to acquire the sixth overall pick, drafting Remo Schenato. In the trade the Warriors also received a 2025 second-round pick in exchange for forward Brock Haley.
Peshko will see some familiar faces on the Warriors roster as he played Junior A lacrosse with Warriors’ recently signed forward Payton Cormier and second year defenceman Jackson Suboch. The trio played for the Mimico Mountaineers in Ontario, and Peshko and Cormier have played together since their Mini Tyke days.
Peshko said it’s special to be reunited with someone he played with as a youngster.
“I’ve been playing with him since I was three year old, so it’ll be really exciting to play with him instead of against him,” Peshko told Pat Gregoire and Teddy Jenner on NLL Draft Day.
“I thought we did really well in the first round, we got a right-handed offensive guy that shoots the ball excellent from the outside and gets to the middle of the floor. The best part is he can play without the ball, and we have a couple of guys in [Kevin] Crowley and [Keegan Bal] Baller that carry the ball a lot on that side so a right-handed o-guy is a big addition for us,” he said.
With Schenato, the Warriors continue to build a forest in their back end. At 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, Malawsky says Schenato moves well and is a physical player. Schenato recently won the Minto Cup with the Coquitlam Adanacs and played against Warriors’ 6-foot-3 defenceman Brayden Laity in the tournament.
“I thought we did good in the trade, and I think having a young B.C. guy that could potentially play for us for the next 10 years is big,” Malawsky said.
A Coquitlam product, Schenato spoke about his nerves during the draft and the relief he felt when his name was called. Getting to play for the team he grew up cheering for is a dream come true.
“It’s going to be unreal, playing in front of the home crowd and an area that I grew up around my whole life. It’s definitely going to be ideal,” Schenato said.
The Warriors picked up two right-handed forwards in the third round, selecting Rhys Porteous 32nd overall and made a trade with the Toronto Rock to acquire the 41st overall pick in the third round, selecting forward Josh Carlson. Toronto received the Warriors’ fourth-round pick (47th overall) and a 2026 third-round pick.
Porteous is a Delta, B.C. native and played with the Maple Ridge Burrards in the WLA over the summer. Porteous played for Warriors’ Defensive Assistant Coach Rob Williams as the bench boss of the Burrards and Malawsky watched the 22-year-old throughout the summer.
“He has good feet and is really athletic. He gets to the middle of the floor, shoots the ball very very well on the run,” Malawsky shared.
Carlson hails from Centennial, Colorado and plays attack at the University of Denver. Carlson will join the Warriors for the 2025-2026 season as he is going back to grad school next season at Denver.
“He’s played in the box league in Colorado where he scored a lot of goals. He’s going to transition really well to the box league, we’ll have him in the bank and he’ll be big for us next year,” he said.
New Westminster’s Kai George was selected in the fifth round (61st overall) and has come up through the Junior A and WLA ranks. The transition player took his talents to Lewis University for his post-secondary career and played throughout the summer with the Burnaby Lakers.
“He’s very physical and he plays on the edge, and he can get up and down the floor really well. On the back end, he finishes his checks and holds guys accountable going to the middle of the floor,” Malawsky said.
The Warriors’ final pick in the sixth round (76th overall) defenceman Cole Kastner played at the University of Virginia with Cormier. Kastner was the 2022 ACC Defensive Player of the Year with Viriginia, and you’d have to imagine it’d be like playing against the Monstars in Space Jam. The Palo Alto native is taking his talents to Stanford to play basketball for his graduate year next season.
“He’s 6’7”, 215, and if we can get him to Vancouver, he’ll be a big space eater for sure,” Malawsky said.
Malawsky feels good about what they were able to accomplish in the draft. He’s preparing for training camp at the end of October and looks forward to getting all the players under one roof and working to make each other better.
As the Warriors prepare for the upcoming season, the team is poised to build on its foundation.
The 2024 draft class is a puzzle piece that will play a role in shaping the team’s evolution.
