Shattler instrumental in National Lacrosse League championship

Jeff Shattler from Wiikemkoong Unceded Territory.

By Sam Laskaris

SASKATOON – A citizen of the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory played a rather instrumental role in helping the Saskatchewan Rush claim another National Lacrosse League (NLL) championship.
Jeff Shattler, a 33-year-old Ojibwe, led the Rush to a league championships this past Saturday in Saskatoon.
The Rush downed the Rochester Knighthawks 15-10 in the third and decisive game of the NLL’s best-of –three championship series.
Shattler, who collected 15 points (eight goals and seven assists) in four post-season matches, was chosen as the most valuable player in the NLL playoffs.
Shattler, however, was much happier his squad captured the league crown.
“I was just happy to raise that Champion’s Cup,” he said of the NLL’s championship trophy.
Despite scoring four goals and adding one assist on Saturday, Shattler said he wasn’t expecting to nab playoff MVP honors.
“Not at all,” he said. “I knew we had great performances from a number of guys, both offensively and defensively. I think it could have gone to a number of different players.”
Shattler’s five-point effort wasn’t even the highest offensive production of the night. His teammate Mark Matthews collected eight assists in Game 3. And another Rush player, Ben McIntosh, was credited with six points (four goals and two assists).
Shattler has now been a member of two Champion’s Cup winning teams. His first title was in 2009, with the Calgary Roughnecks, the franchise he spent the last 11 seasons with.
The Saskatchewan franchise signed Shattler to a two-year free agent deal this past August. He welcomed the move since he didn’t know if he would fit into the Roughnecks’ plans for the 2018 campaign.
Plus joining the Rush meant he wouldn’t have to uproot his young family from its Calgary home. Shattler and his wife Lindsay have a two-year-old daughter Ava and a seven-month-old son Jace.
Since NLL clubs play the majority of their matches on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays, Shattler could stay in Calgary during the week and catch a 50-minute flight to Saskatoon for Rush home contests or join his teammates with further trips for their road games.
“Instead of having nine home games, they were all away games for me,” Shattler said, adding the Rush organization was kind enough to fly out his family to a number of Saskatchewan’s home contests.
Shattler had been named the NLL’s MVP in 2011 after he averaged five points per game, racking up 75 points, including 29 goals, in 15 regular season outings. He was also chosen as the league’s Transition Player of the Year that season.
Though he still managed to collect 71 points in 18 games during the 2017 season, the Roughnecks’ brass was unsure whether Shattler fit into its 2018 plans.
Rush general manager Derek Keenan, who also doubles as Saskatchewan’s head coach, was more than happy to make Shattler an offer to join his squad.
“He put a lot of faith in me,” Shattler said of Keenan. “He knew where he wanted me to play and what he expected of me.”
Shattler responded with another decent season. He earned 60 points (24 goals and 36 assists) in 17 regular season matches. And then he upped his game in the post-season leading the Rush to a championship.
This marked the third league championship for the Rush in the past four years. The organization, previously called the Edmonton Rush, relocated to Saskatoon after winning its first NLL crown in 2015.
The franchise defended its crown in 2016.
Shattler’s connection to the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory stems from the fact his grandfather was from there.
Though his mother Donna maintains a cottage on the First Nation located on Manitoulin Island, Shattler who moved to Calgary at age 20, has not been there since his teenage years.