Rob "Blazer" Blasdell (born May 15, 1970) is a lacrosse goaltender who plays for the Edmonton Rush in the

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United States and five in Canada. The N ...

Professional career

Blasdell began his career with the

Ontario Raiders The Ontario Raiders were a member of the National Lacrosse League during the 1998 NLL season. The franchise was founded as an expansion team in Hamilton, Ontario, and played their home games at Copps Coliseum. Former Buffalo Bandits coach Les B ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, moving with them to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

the next year. After being left unprotected by the Rock, Blasdell was selected by the expansion

Albany Attack The Albany Attack was the name of a franchise which played in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) from the 2000 season through the 2003 season. The Attack played in the former Pepsi Arena in Albany, New York (now known as the Times Union Center). A ...

in the 1999

expansion draft An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansio ...

. Blasdell played four seasons in Albany, and was named NLL Goaltender of the Year in 2002 when he led the Attack to the NLL finals. The Attack moved to San Jose before the 2004 season and Blasdell played in all 16 games that season, but after a blockbuster trade brought goaltender Anthony Cosmo to San Jose in the summer of 2004, Blasdell served as a backup for Cosmo for the 2005 season. He was then dealt to the

Arizona Sting The Arizona Sting was a member of the National Lacrosse League from 2004 to 2007. They played at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, from 2001 to 2003 as the Columbus Landsharks. On August 28, 2003, it was announced that the team was relocating to ...

, where he earned the starting role and returned to the championship game in 2007. After the cancellation and subsequent reinstatement of the 2008 season, the

and Boston Blazers announced that they would not be playing in 2008. A

dispersal draft A dispersal draft is a process in professional sports for assigning players to a new team when their current team ceases to exist or is merged with another team. Like most other sports drafts, most dispersal drafts are conducted in North America. ...

was held, and Blasdell was selected third overall by the Philadelphia Wings. When the Arizona Sting ceased operations prior to the

2009 NLL season The 2009 National Lacrosse League season, the 23rd in the history of the NLL, began January 3, 2009 in Buffalo, Portland, and Sunrise, Florida, and concluded with the Calgary Roughnecks defeating the New York Titans 12—10 in the Champion's C ...

, another

was held, and Blasdell was again selected by the Philadelphia Wings.

Statistics

NLL

Awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blasdell, Rob 1970 births Living people Lacrosse goaltenders Arizona Sting players Canadian expatriate lacrosse people in the United States Canadian lacrosse players Edmonton Rush players Lacrosse people from Ontario National Lacrosse League All-Stars National Lacrosse League major award winners Sportspeople from Brantford Philadelphia Wings players San Jose Stealth players Toronto Rock players