Players on the Albany Firewolves playing roster have salaries based on experience and performance.
The franchise usually gives one-year contracts to players that rise from year to year. Top players can negotiate a longer and more lucrative contract.
The NLL imposes salary caps but the Firewolves can provide top-ups from a discretionary bonus pool.
This article was updated when the final 2022/2023 roster was established.
How We Calculate Salaries
NLL franchises don’t publish player salaries. However, some details across the league were released during the 2018/19 negotiations between the NLL and the players association.
It was reported that the new agreement resulted in a 25% increase phased over four to five years. We assume that this has been applied as a 4-5% increase per year since then.
We also learned more about the bonus structures during a tug of war for Doug Jamieson between the Halifax Thunderbirds and the franchise that was the Black Wolves.
Clubs have a $30K bonus pool that can take individual players over the maximum salary range. The Firewolves don’t have to pay out to the maximum but they must distribute at least $16K each season.
How Much Do Players Earn At Albany Firewolves?
Rookies at Albany Firewolves receive a base contract of US$13K. They make from $15K to $21K in their second year.
A veteran player earns a minimum of $19K. This rises every year to a maximum salary of $37K.
The average salary across the Firewolves’ playing roster is $25K.
Apart from the average, the above numbers are rounded to the nearest one thousand dollars. We have the raw numbers later.
Franchise tag exception
That average salary doesn’t include the extra income that can be awarded to one franchise tag per season.
The club can give a total package of $46K to one player who is prevented from switching to another team.
Monthly wages
These figures may seem low. But bear in mind that the NLL season is about six months long.
I’ve put the monthly equivalent in the table below. These numbers aren’t rounded.
| Status | Annual (US$) | Monthly (US$) |
| Rookies | 12,408 | 2,068 |
| Second-year minimum | 14,824 | 2,471 |
| Second-year maximum | 20,215 | 3,369 |
| Veteran minimum | 18,433 | 3,072 |
| Veteran maximum | 36,626 | 6,104 |
Who are the top earners?
A few seasons ago, Curt Styres tried to bring Doug Jamieson north to the Halifax Thunderbirds.
Styres was prepared to use most of his bonus pool as a top-up on the ace goalie’s base contract. That could have been an extra $25-30K for Jamieson.
However, Albany Wolves provided a matching deal using their own bonus pool. We mostly know these details from some disgruntled comments by Styres after he lost out!
That kind of bidding war made Doug Jamieson the highest-paid player at the club. But there are a few other top earners.
Being a team captain doesn’t just bring extra duties on and off the field. It also shows how much a head coach rates a player.
Brett Manney was kept as captain for the 2022/23 season, having filled that role for the previous two seasons.
John LaFontaine had been appointed alternate captain in 2021, and remains in that role for the new season.
We expect both to be at the top end of the veteran range on a base contract of about $37K.
Losing a top earner frees up funds
As a measure of how good Joe Restarits was in the 2021/22 season, he was nominated for MVP for the 2021/22 season.
The Firewolves valued him so highly that they tried to give him the franchise tag to keep him. However, Resetarits left as a free agent before the start of the 2022/23 season.
Although this was a disappointment to the club, it freed up bonus pool funds for other top players.
We have the full roster for the Albany Firewolves here.
Middle-earners at the club
Kieran McArdle was acquired in a trade on the back of a stand-out season in the PLL for the Waterdogs. McArdle led the outdoor league in assists.
We expect Kieran to be starting on the lower end of the veteran tier.
Which Firewolves players are paid the least?
The minimum contract across the league is just over $12,500. We rounded it up to $13K in our earlier summary.
The Firewolves took seven draft picks in September 2022. One was a forward named John Piatelli from Round 3.
Piatelli made the active roster in the opening weekend in December. That puts his monthly salary at just above two thousand dollars.
The franchise also had several players on the practice squad. These guys only earn one to two thousand dollars per season.
Playing In The PLL
Some players finish their season in the NLL and then play outdoors in the Premier Lacrosse League.
Kieran McArdle extends his lacrosse income by playing for the Waterdogs in the PLL.
If you’re interested in how much annual income that brings a player like Joe Nardella, check out our review of player salaries at Whipsnakes.
Nardella is also in the early stages of his career outside of lacrosse. We’ll look at this in the next section.
Employment Outside The Lacrosse World
NLL players are employed by their franchise for about six months of the year.
They also don’t train full-time during the season. The standard schedule is to travel for training on Thursday evening or Friday morning.
That allows Firewolves players to work outside of the sport. Let’s look at a few to get a flavor.
I’ve focused on some of the older guys who are most likely to have senior positions in professional roles.
Greg Downing is a senior project manager at a property management company in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Joe Nardella is younger than Downey and is starting out in a career in real estate. He’s currently a realtor in Boston, Massachusetts. This is after moving on from being an assistant coach at Harvard.
Kieran McArdle is a teacher.
Brett Manney is Vice President of Sales and Recruiting at NXTsports. That’s a company that supplies teamwear for clubs for all kinds of sports.
Manney also used to provide analysis for the now-defunct MLL. He may continue in broadcasting in the future.
How Do Albany Firewolves Afford Player Wages?
You may be wondering if gate receipts are enough to cover player wages now and in the future.
The new Premier Lacrosse League has raised the level of income possible. You can find out more in our review of salaries in the PLL.
Fans understandably get worried about whether the franchise owners can withstand financial pressures in uncertain times.
However, this franchise has quite a lengthy list of stakeholders. Some have very deep pockets. We have a full review in our article on the owners of the Firewolves.
