Former Sask. Rush ball boy Wudrick among top prospects in NLL Draft

Jeremy Wudrick’s professional destination is still up in the air, but he knows what his first choice will be while watching the National Lacrosse League Draft alongside his family.

“We’re just going to have a lot of chicken wings and hang out,” Wudrick said. “Maybe a couple of my buddies will be coming over after.”

Read more:

• Saskatchewan Rush to pick 10th in NLL dispersal draft after franchises fold
• Meet the Regina woman with 150 Saskatchewan Roughriders jerseys
• Swift Current athlete earns spot at RBC Training Ground national event

Between bites of flats and drumsticks, Wudrick will anxiously wait to hear his name called on Thursday night, a moment which will signal the start of his professional lacrosse career.

Wudrick is expected to be selected early in the first round or late in the second after the towering Saskatoon power forward completed his NCAA career with the Lander University Bobcats and a summer season in the Western Lacrosse Association with the Nanaimo Timbermen.

Following his time with the Saskatchewan SWAT program, Jeremy Wudrick played with the Calgary Mounties, Edmonton Miners and Nanaimo Timbermen. (Edmonton Miners/Instagram)

“Pretty nervous. Pretty exciting though,” Wudrick said. “I’ve worked for this moment my whole life, so I’ve really been looking forward to it.”

Wudrick first discovered the sport at just five years old and developed his game in the Saskatoon lacrosse community, eventually playing for the Saskatchewan SWAT junior franchise and capturing gold for Canada at the 2022 IIJL World Junior Lacrosse Championship.

In the days leading up to the NLL Draft, it’s that community which has flooded Wudrick’s phone as he prepares to watch the draft unfold in his hometown.

“I’m getting texts and calls every day,” Wudrick said.

“It’s cool to have these conversations now, because it was all a dream before. It’s pretty cool that it’s coming to fruition.”

He credited the Saskatchewan Rush for helping spark his love of the game after he joined the team at 12 years old as the organization’s ball boy, a position he held throughout high school.

While working with the Rush, he watched the team win NLL titles and rubbed shoulders with some franchise icons along the way.

“I had season tickets. All those years I went to all those games,” Wudrick said.

“I travelled with the team once to Vancouver. I was that young kid hanging out with the team, I’m hanging out with Mark Matthews and Robert Church.”

Those days of chasing lacrosse balls around the floor at SaskTel Centre helped spark a drive to one day reach the professional level, Wudrick explained.

“That’s when it set in and I was like, ‘I want to pursue this. I want to be like these guys,’” he said. “I want to be like Mark Matthews. I want to be like Robert Church, being able to play the game you love all over the place.”

The six-foot-four forward is coming off an eight-goal, 16-point season in his senior college year with the Bearcats, and finished fifth in team scoring in Nanaimo this past summer, with 13 goals and 28 points in 17 games.

That experience against senior players, including many with NLL games under their belts, has given Wudrick confidence that his game of power and skill can translate onto a professional team’s roster this winter.

“I feel pretty ready,” Wudrick said.

“This summer out west playing senior A and playing against the older guys definitely helped me get ready for this moment. I’m doing all I can to prepare for whatever is next to come.”

Wudrick has the chance to join Casey Zaph (seventh overall, 1997) and Laine Hruska (13th overall, 2020) as the only Saskatchewan-born lacrosse players to become first-round picks in the NLL.

And while he’d love to go to any market across the league, he said it would be extra special to have a Rush logo next to his name on Thursday.

“It’d definitely be a full-circle moment,” Wudrick said.

“It would be pretty cool, right? Hometown, having the history with the team already, it’d be awesome.”

Rush holds eighth overall pick in NLL draft

The Rush will be in a unique position on Thursday, as the team holds the eighth overall pick after an early first-round playoff exit at the hands of the eventual NLL champions, the Toronto Rock.

It’s the earliest pick for Saskatchewan on the NLL Draft floor since 2022, when the Rush nabbed forward Austin Madronic with the sixth overall selection.

Rush co-head coach and general manager Derek Keenan said the team will look to bring in a prospect who can quickly grasp the professional game, with few roster spots available heading into this season.

“We really want to try and find a guy that’s who is going to play right away,” Keenan said.

“It’s a good draft. It’s not super deep. I think next year is probably better, but it’s a good draft. After probably (pick) five or six, there’s not a ton of high-end offence there, but there’s some pretty good defence. We’ll see how it falls. I mean, crazy things happen on draft day.”

The Rush has had a major shake up of its roster from last season following last week’s NLL Dispersal Draft, which saw teams select players from the now-defunct Philadelphia Wings and Ottawa Black Bears franchises.

While the folding of two franchises meant new talent injected into Saskatchewan’s lineup, Keenan said it was difficult news to swallow for the league as a whole.

“It’s been busy, and not necessarily in a good way,” Keenan said. “You just don’t like to see that, with 50 jobs being lost, with two teams dispersing. That’s the hard thing about it all, right? At the same time, you have to deal with it and try to do our best to make the most of it.”

Saskatchewan selected transition player Jake Stevens, who posted 10 points last season with 84 loose balls and 23 turnovers defensively, with the 10th overall pick from Ottawa.

According to Keenan, Stevens was a player who the Rush nearly traded up to bring into the fold.

“We didn’t think he’d be there at 10 when we picked,” Keenan said. “We thought he’d go a lot sooner than that, and in fact we had kind of contemplated making moves to move up a little bit. It just didn’t work out, but when he dropped there we were pretty happy.”

Black Bears forward Sam Firth and transition defender Reed Kurtz were taken with Saskatchewan’s second and third picks of the dispersal draft.

What followed later that day was a blockbuster deal which sent star defender Holden Garlent to the Oshawa FireWolves in exchange for forward Connor Kearnan, defenceman Jaxon Fridge and the 20th overall pick in Thursday’s draft.

A member of the Rush since 2019 and the team’s alternate captain, Garlent’s deal was months in the making, according to Keenan, with his availability set to be limited due to a new career.

Saskatchewan Rush co-head coach and general manager Derek Keenan (right) with former defender Holden Garlent following a 10-9 victory over the Toronto Rock on April 18, 2026. (Steve Hiscock/Saskatchewan Rush)

“He got a policing job in Hamilton, Ontario, and it would have made it virtually impossible for him to play for us this year,” Keenan said.

“He might have been able to play five or six games, so he’s better suited to play in the east. We got some value out of that, and that was important for us.”

Along with Garlent, the Rush saw three other veterans depart the team, with forward Clark Walter traded to the San Diego Seals for a third-round pick, defender Jerrett Smith signing with the Calgary Roughnecks, and star sniper Austin Shanks leaving via free agency for the Las Vegas Desert Dogs.

Keenan said the NLL’s new salary structure this season, which saw a luxury tax system move to a hard salary cap, meant Shanks became unaffordable after two seasons in Saskatchewan.

“We were in a position where we just could not come close to fitting his previous salary in,” Keenan said.

“We did have discussions with him about if nothing comes up that’s palatable for you that works in terms of the finances, then we would circle back. Obviously he found a spot in Las Vegas, and good for him.”

To help fill that void, Saskatchewan signed veteran free agent forward Reilly O’Connor after he recorded a 70-point season last year in Ottawa.

Rush fans in the southern part of the province will get the chance to see the team up close this fall, as Moose Jaw’s Temple Gardens Centre will host a pre-season game between Saskatchewan and Calgary on Nov. 14 in the first NLL exhibition game played in the city since 2023.

The first round of the 2026 NLL Draft will begin at 4 p.m. on Thursday, with the Rush set to kick off its 2026-27 season on Nov. 27, visiting Oshawa.