The National Lacrosse League had its 2019-20 season cut short, and then the 2020-21 season shelved entirely, which had to be a hardship for players who do not earn the mega million dollar contracts of some other North American sports.
Now imagine you were a player who was part of a rather significant trade and then COVID hit, so you have yet to suit up for your new team. It would not be an easy situation.
But, that is what has happened for Josh Currier.
Just hours after free agency opened last summer the Saskatchewan Rush and Philadelphia Wings pulled off the big deal, with Saskatchewan sending Ben McIntosh to Philly in exchange for Josh Currier.
Currier is still waiting to head to Saskatoon and start his time with the Rush.
“It’s been terrible to be honest,” said Currier in a recent telephone interview. “It’s (lacrosse) kind of been my life for a long time.”
So Currier is anxious for the new season to start this fall “to start over in a new place like Saskatchewan.” He said he has played against the Rush in Saskatoon and knows how supportive the big crowds and how great the atmosphere is.”
While the Rush will be new, Currier did add “I’m lucky that I know a few guys (on the Rush) before the trade happened.” That includes being close friends with Ryan Keenan, and having played summer lacrosse with Mark Matthews.
So what is he expecting with the Rush?
“I know I’ve got really big shoes to fill (after McIntosh went the other way in the trade),” he said.
But he noted he ultimately has to just play his game.
“I’m hoping to bring a lot of energy . . . and bring some hard work to the offence,” he said.
Currier has been getting in some lacrosse as he waits. He attended camp with the Cannons of the Premier Lacrosse League, making the roster, although he was not in the line-up as the season started.
Of course the field game is not what Currier started out playing.
“It was basically all box,” said the Peterborough, ON. born Currie, adding “all Canadians are in the same boat as me. There was a couple of weekends in the fall we’d do some field lacrosse. We tried it but it was nothing serious.”
It wasn’t until Grade 13 Currier was given some real instruction in field lacrosse and he proved rather good at it eventually attending Virginia Wesleyan to play the field game in college.
To play professional field lacrosse “was something on my bucket list,” he said. So when he had a chance in the summer of 2020 to join the PLL Archers in the league’s bubble tourney, he took it.
“It was a blast, just a great experience,” he said.
But, the box game remains Currier’s true love.
“It’s what I grew up playing. What I grew up watching,” he said.
However, the skills honed in the close confines of box lacrosse do transfer well to the field game.
“A lot of the box lacrosse skills you still use,” he said, adding that because “everybody is so much closer together in box lacrosse,” you need good stick skills and that translates well. “There’s lots of easier catch and finish opportunities when there’s a lot more room, and a bigger net.”
As for the return of the NLL to action this fall, Currier said it’s an exciting time with the league continuing to grow, with Panther City Lacrosse launching in Fort Worth this season, and a team announced to begin play in Las Vegas in the fall of 2022.
“I’m thinking it’s going to be full steam ahead. Everybody excited to get back,” said Currier.
As for growth, “it’s a very exciting time to be a part of it,” he noted.
It doesn’t hurt that Steve Nash and Wayne Gretzky are among the ownership group in Vegas.
“It’s super cool to see that kind of thing happen ... it’s huge. It can do nothing but raise the profile of the league,” said Currier.
