By Budd Bailey
It was another speedy offseason for Buffalo Bandits’ general manager Steve Dietrich. Championships do that.
Dietrich put together his second straight title-winning team when the Bandits won the NLL title in June. That’s mostly in the rear-view mirror, as the new season is almost here. Opening Day will be on December 7 in Rochester, while the championship banner will go up to the rafters on December 28.
Dietrich took time out from watching his team play a preseason game against Las Vegas on Saturday to discuss all things Bandits as we approach a new season.
Buffalo Sports Page: How was your summer?
Steve Dietrich: The last couple of summers have been a lot of fun. There was a lot of work obviously with the number of draft picks that we had. We probably watched more lacrosse this summer than we have in a while. We don’t know if trades are going to come about, if we’re going to keep our picks – which we ended up doing. It was fun.
BSP: Did it hit you that you were life-and-death to even make the playoffs last year, and you wound up zipping through the league to win it all? It was an amazing run in hindsight.
Dietrich: Yes, the one thing that really hit me was that we were one shot away in the first round from not even getting past Georgia. (That game was decided in overtime.) It just shows you how competitive our league is. No disrespect to the other teams, but our toughest matchup was in the first round of the playoffs. It makes things more exciting for the league, knowing how good everybody is. It wakes up that you’re that close, and everybody’s catching you.
BSP: When you play until late June, does that compress the offseason at all for you?
Dietrich: It’s pretty standard. The Major series (of junior lacrosse playoffs) are only starting a few weeks early. We’re always watching the juniors as it’s going on. It’s a case of doing some double-dipping, because the Bandits are still going on while you’re doing other stuff. Other than that, we’re good.
BSP: Did you try to emphasize keeping everyone together for the coming season? That’s always difficult, but the roster is mostly intact.
Dietrich: We’re lucky. Scott (Loffler) and the ownership group give us a lot of leeway to financially keep a lot of these guys together. Getting Matt Spanger back was going to be a big one for us. We knew we had to do a couple of things. Getting Thomas Whitty is going to help. The kids we drafted will help. We wanted to keep a lot of the same team, but we also wanted to make changes so that you’re always keeping up with the Joneses. You’re always trying to stay young while staying competitive.
BSP: Brandon Robinson was one who got away, as he was traded to Rochester (for Whitty). How did that happen?
Dietrich: That was a tough one. We knew we wanted to get a little quicker on the left side. Speed is not Brandon’s game, and I don’t think it’s Chris Cloutier’s game either. I think it got to the point where we wanted a little more speed. He was an RFA (restricted free agent), but he wasn’t going to be difficult to sign. Rochester was interested in him, and we’ve liked Whitty.
BSP: Did it take much arm-twisting to get Paul Dawson and Matt Vinc back for this season?
Dietrich: No, not Paul. I basically knew Matt was signed, so I put my head in the sand, I figured if I don’t hear from him, I’m just going to assume he would be here from Day One at training camp. I didn’t hear no from Matt, so as the summer got closer to the end, I became a lot more confident that Matt was going to come back. Paul was easy. Paul loved it last year in Buffalo and wanted to come back.
BSP: You were in a unique position in the draft with three first-round picks. Usually the defending champion does not have that. Did you try to package them and make a deal for one of the very early picks, or were you happy to get those bodies?
Dietrich: Obviously we would have liked to have moved up, but it got to the point where the teams up top weren’t really looking to move their picks. Then as the draft started to go, we got a lot of feelers for our picks. We really like (Lukas) Nielsen, we really like (Luca) Antongiovanni, the two guys we got at seven and eight. Nielsen going to be really good. He’s young, much like Dylan Robinson was. He’ll grow into himself. You’re going to see a lot better Lukas Nielsen at the end of this year and the next year than you will right now. Once we got past those guys to late in the first round, Taylor Dooley started to slide a little bit. I had a lot of feelers on that. So we thought that if Dooley was still there, we didn’t want to make a move.
BSP: The annual question: How healthy is the team right now?
Dietrich: We seem to be pretty good. The guys that didn’t play (because of minor injuries Saturday, such as Josh Byrne and Tehoka Nanticoke) … would be playing if it was a “real” game. … As of right now, we’re as healthy as we’ve been for a long, long time. The exception is Bryce Sweeney. If he comes back, it probably will be in March.
BSP: Perhaps the biggest story of the offseason was Panther City’s folding on very short notice. I guess that makes every team a little better, even if it’s tough enough as it is.
Dietrich: You look at Colorado – two years in a row they’re in the league final. They have a tough year last year, and their present was Will Malcom – a 100-point scorer. Every team got two guys better. Obviously with us picking late (No. 14), things worked out that we ended up getting a draft pick (second-rounder from Philadelphia in 2025). The guy we wanted went a couple of picks earlier. It just makes a competitive league more competitive, when teams get two players.
BSP: Finally, do you feel like someone has put a bigger bull’s-eye on your back this year, if that’s possible?
Dietrich: No one is putting a bigger bull’s-eye on us then ourselves. The guys are really driven to get back there and win. Nobody wants it more than us. Nobody is challenging us more than us. Everyone wanted a shot at us last year, and they’re going to want it this year., because of who we are and the building we play in. Add two championships to that. But it’s fun. People say they’d rather be the hunter than the hunted. I’d rather be the hunted. That means things have worked out pretty well for you.
(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)
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