Seals extend contract with Baptiste for three years

July 29, 2024 – National Lacrosse League (NLL)
San Diego Seals Press Release

The San Diego Seals have signed faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste to a new three-year contract, defenseman Peyton Rezanka to a one-year deal and awarded the franchise tag to recently acquired transition player Zach Currier.

“It’s great to get all three guys on the same page,” said Seals General Manager and Head Coach Patrick Merrill. “Trevor and Zach in particular are going to be a formidable duo for teams to compete with in the midfield and we’re excited to see them play together.”

Baptiste, 5-10, 225 pounds, is widely regarded as the best faceoff specialist in the world and joined the Seals via a trade with the Philadelphia Wings prior to the 2023-24 National Lacrosse League season. Baptiste made an immediate impact with his new club, setting a new single-season team record and finishing the regular season ranked third in the league in faceoff wins (308). Baptiste’s 71% faceoff win percentage ranked third in the league (min. 250 faceoffs taken), while he also set a single-season team record for loose balls (177), a mark that ranked third in the NLL.

Baptiste, a 28-year-old native of Newark, New Jersey, will play in his sixth NLL season in 2024-25. He has 1,529 career faceoff wins and has an impressive career percentage of 70.0% (1,529 of 2,185).

Baptiste played collegiately at the University of Denver, where he was selected to the All-America team four times and the All-Big East team. He was also named Big East Midfielder of the Year four times and was an NCAA champion in 2015.

Currier joined the Seals in a trade with the Calgary Roughnecks on July 13. Currier is considered by many lacrosse experts to be the best two-way player in the world. He has played in 111 career games (including playoffs), scoring 50 goals and recording 79 assists (129 points). He has also collected 1,277 loose balls during his career and in 2022 set the NLL single-season record with 62 caused turnovers.

Currier, the third overall pick in the 2017 NLL Draft, won a championship with Calgary in 2019. He is a two-time NLL Transition Player of the Year and a two-time All-NLL first-team and second-team selection.

Rezanka is a 6-foot-1, 200-pound defenseman from San Diego who played four games for the Seals this past season.

These are the final steps in a busy off-season for the Seals, which also saw them give striker and captain Wes Berg a new three-year contract on July 18.

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