Few players in the National Lacrosse League have become more adept at reading opposing offences and moving the ball back up the floor than Saskatchewan Rush transition player Jake Boudreau.
Entering his fourth professional season, it’s the interceptions with his stick and the quick counterattacks which give him the energy to elevate his game each season.
“Picking one off is definitely the best,” said Boudreau.
Boudreau and the Rush are set to kick off their 2025-26 NLL season on Saturday night, squaring off against their biggest rivals in the Calgary Roughnecks at SaskTel Centre to get their year underway with a bang.
Over the course of training camp, the Rush have taken to the floor with a much smaller exhibition roster with the majority of spots on the team taken up by returning veterans from the squad which reached Game 3 of NLL Finals against the Buffalo Bandits.
Despite a pair of pre-season losses to the Toronto Rock and the Roughnecks, Boudreau believes the team has been able to get up to speed for the opening faceoff against Calgary.
“We started off pretty easy and each week we’ve been ramping it up, ramping it up and ramping it up,” said Boudreau. “In our exhibition games we got better as we went too and the last practice was really good, so I think everyone is on board for now.”
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Boudreau is coming off a career-best third season with the Rush, netting 10 goals and 29 points in 17 games before finishing fifth in team playoff scoring with six goals and 12 points in six games of action.
Leading Saskatchewan in loose balls collected both in the regular season and the playoffs, the seventh-overall pick in the 2021 NLL Draft added it’s a credit to the work he’s put in over the years and the trust his coaches have in him.
“Honestly I’m just trusting myself and spending a lot of time working on that stuff over the last three years,” said Boudreau. “The system that we play in, the coaches and the team, kind of frees everyone up with no hard feelings trying to make a play.”
Boudreau’s breakout 2024-25 campaign arrived at the same time as Saskatchewan’s most consistent season in years, tying with the Bandits for a 13-5 regular season record before their memorable playoff run to finishing one win shy of a championship season.
Now starting at 0-0 again, he added there are lessons to be learned from the team’s performance last spring which can be taken into this season as the Rush begin their path towards finishing the job and lifting their first NLL Cup since 2018.
The Rush (0-0) will host the Roughnecks (0-0) in a ‘Battle of the Prairies’ to open their respective seasons with a 7 p.m. start Saturday at SaskTel Centre.
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