Shayne Jackson, Mike Poulin, and Lyle Thompson named finalists for NLL 2019-20 End of Season awards

Winners of awards to be announced the evening of June 30

June 25, 2020 By: Ty Merrow

The Georgia Swarm are proud to announce that Shayne Jackson, Mike Poulin, and Lyle Thompson are finalists in three NLL 2019-20 End of Season Awards categories. Jackson is a finalist for NLL MVP, Poulin is up for NLL Teammate of the Year, and Thompson a finalist for the NLL Sportsmanship Award.

The NLL revealed the nominations for its End of Season Awards on June 24 and 25, and the winners of each category will be announced on Tuesday, June 30 from 7-9 p.m. ET on the NLL’s social media channels.

Jackson, 29, is a first-time nominee for NLL MVP. He led the Swarm in points with 73 (31G, 42A) and was on pace to obliterate his career-highs in those offensive categories before the 2019-20 NLL season’s cancellation. The Limestone College alum also posted a 21.4 S% and collected 63 loose balls. He is the Swarm’s first MVP finalist since the 2018-19 season, when Thompson was up for consideration for MVP. A win for Jackson would give the Swarm their second MVP in franchise history, joining Thompson in 2017.

Callum Crawford for the New England Black Wolves and Rob Hellyer for the Toronto Rock are the other two finalists for the NLL MVP award.

Poulin, 34, is a finalist for the third time for the NLL Teammate of the Year. He won the award twice, in 2017 with the Swarm and 2016 with the Calgary Roughnecks. He finished the 2019-20 NLL season with a 7-4 record, 10.15 GAA (a new career best, minimum of 500 min. played), and .786 SV% across 679:59 min. of play. A win for the Kitchener, Ontario native would make it consecutive seasons that a Swarm player has won the award, following defenseman John Ranagan’s win in 2019.

Ranagan, now with the New York Riptide, and Dan Dawson with the Toronto Rock are the other two finalists for the NLL Teammate of the Year Award.

Thompson, 27, is a finalist for the third year in a row for the NLL Sportsmanship Award, an award he has won in the previous two seasons and that the Swarm have had a player win for the past three seasons (Jordan Hall in 2017). The University at Albany finished his 2019-20 campaign with 60 points (27G, 33A), 87 loose balls, and 8 caused turnovers.

Curtis Knight for the Rochester Knighthawks and Kyle Buchanan for the San Diego Seals are the other two finalists for the NLL Sportsmanship Award.