Zach Currier is a Canadian professional lacrosse player who currently plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Waterdogs Lacrosse Club The Waterdogs Lacrosse Club is a professional men's field lacrosse team in the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL). The Waterdogs are the first PLL expansion team set to play in the 2020 season. Players were selected through an expansion draft, new entr ...

of the

Premier Lacrosse League Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) is an American professional field lacrosse league, composed of 8 teams. The league's inaugural season debuted on June 1, 2019, and included a 14-week tour-based schedule taking place in 12 major-market cities. The le ...

and as a transition player for the

Calgary Roughnecks The Calgary Roughnecks are a professional box lacrosse team based in Calgary, Alberta. They are members of the Western Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL) and play their home games on WestJet Field at Scotiabank Saddledome. The t ...

of 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, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

Early life and career

A native of

Peterborough, Ontario Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...

, Currier has two older brothers, Josh, who is also a professional lacrosse player, and Andrei, and a younger sister, Grace. He is the son of Roger Currier and Michelle Dunn. He initially began playing lacrosse at the age of eight as a way to toughen him up for hockey. He attended

Culver Military Academy Culver Academies is a college preparatory boarding school located in Culver, Indiana, which is composed of three entities: Culver Military Academy (CMA) for boys, Culver Girls Academy (CGA), and the Culver Summer Schools and Camps (CSSC). Culver ...

for high school.

College career

Currier attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

where he played four years of lacrosse, playing in all situations. As a senior, he led the nation in assists (34) and points (58) among midfielders, earning first team All-American honors. Additionally, he led the Tigers in caused turnovers in both of his last two seasons. Currier graduated second all-time in ground balls at Princeton with 302.

Professional career

NLL

Currier was drafted 3rd overall by the

in 2017, winning a championship in his second season. During the 2022 season, Currier broke the NLL record for caused turnovers in a season with 62, while also collecting 237 loose balls, the most in a single season for any player who was not a primary faceoff taker, with Inside Lacrosse considering this potentially the best season ever for a transition player. He was named the NLL Transition Player of the Year Heading into the

2023 NLL season The 2023 National Lacrosse League season, formally known as the 2022–2023 season, is the 36th in the history of the NLL. The season begins on December 2, 2022, and ends with the NLL final in late spring of 2023. This is the inaugural season for ...

, ''Inside Lacrosse'' named Currier the #1 best defender in the NLL. Currier has been the president of the NLL Players' Association since 2020.

MLL

Currier was selected 6th overall by the

Denver Outlaws The Denver Outlaws were a Major League Lacrosse professional men's field lacrosse team based in Denver, Colorado, United States. They began playing in the MLL in 2006 as an expansion team. Since joining the league, the Outlaws have played in the ...

in the 2017 MLL Draft, winning the championship in his second year.

PLL

Currier elected to defect from MLL to the

ahead of the 2020 season, being taken first overall in the PLL Entry Draft by

. He won the Gait Brothers Midfielder of the Year Award in the 2021 season, as well as being a finalist for the Jim Brown MVP Award, having led the Waterdogs in scoring from midfield with 11 goals and 11 assists, as well as leading all non-faceoff specialists in the PLL in ground balls with 51.

Off the field

Currier graduated with an engineering degree from Princeton and works for

Warrior A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste. History Warriors seem to have been p ...

, helping design lacrosse equipment.

Style of play

Currier is regarded as a "throwback" player, as he is a two-way midfielder equally capable of playing offense, defense, and taking faceoffs, a rarity in modern lacrosse. The Premier lacrosse League considers Currier as the best two-way player in the world.

Statistics

NCAA

NLL

MLL

PLL

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Currier, Zach 1994 births Living people Calgary Roughnecks players Canadian lacrosse players Denver Outlaws players Princeton Tigers men's lacrosse players