San Diego’s newest professional sports franchise, the San Diego Seals, now actually has a team.
The Seals, an indoor National Lacrosse League expansion team, drafted nine players Monday to complete its roster. The team will begin play at the Valley View Casino Center in November 2018.
The team’s first-round pick (second overall) is 24-year-old left-handed forward Turner Evans, who played two seasons with the Toronto Rock. In 26 games with the team, he’s scored 20 goals with 52 assists and 108 loose balls.
“Turner is a great young lefty offensive player,” Seals general manager and coach Patrick Merrill said. “He is a quality person with a very high lacrosse IQ. He is known around the league for his playmaking and finishing skills, and I can’t wait for the fans in San Diego to see him play.”
For the team’s second-round selections, the Seals selected Saskatchewan Rush’s Brett Mydske and Adrian Sorichetti. Mydske, Saskatchewan’s assistant captain, is a nine-year NLL veteran. In 2017, he was the Rush’s all-time leader in games played and led the team to championships in three of the last four seasons.
His teammate, Sorichetti, is a strong lefty who registered a career-high 15 points last season for Saskatchewan. Recognized for his grit and reliability, Sorichetti caused 20 or more turnovers in each of the past three seasons.
Rounding out the draft, the Seals selected:
- defenseman Cam Holding from the Colorado Mammoth;
- defenseman Bryce Sweeting from the Colorado Mammoth;
- goaltender Frank Scigliano from the Calgary Roughnecks;
- defenseman Garrett McIntosh from the Calgary Roughnecks;
- forward Casey Jackson from the Vancouver NLL; and
- defenseman Brendan Ranford from the Vancouver NLL
Sweeting was traded to Buffalo after being drafted for defenseman Ethan Schott and the Bandits’ second-round selection in September’s Entry Draft.
“We’ve drafted a strong foundation,” Merrill said. “All nine of the players are quality guys on and off the floor. I couldn’t be more excited to build around this group.”
Indoor lacrosse, otherwise known as box lacrosse, originated in Canada and is played with teams of five players and a goalie, typically on an ice hockey rink with the ice removed or covered. It’s typically played in the summer, but National Lacrosse League plays their games during the fall and winter.
San Diego was awarded the team in August 2017. It is owned by billionaire Joseph Tsai, the vice chairman and a co-founder of the Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group who played lacrosse at Yale.
Tsai is 250th on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people with a net worth of $9 billion.