For each of the Premier Lacrosse League’s first two seasons, Lyle Thompson could do nothing but watch as the sport’s preeminent league was taking shape. As the new league was budding, Thompson was locked into a multi-year deal with Major League Lacrosse’s Chesapeake Bayhawks, winning the MLL MVP award and a championship in 2019, but also watching as much of the sport’s top talent played elsewhere. “It’s been honestly tough,” Thompson says. “Not that I wasn’t treated well in the MLL. It was just that as a competitor, you want to play against the best.”
Thompson will get that opportunity this summer after MLL merged into the PLL in January, bringing Thompson and a number of other MLL holdovers into the mix.