Brad McCulley

Brad McCulley
From a Free Lacrosse Stick to a Championship Career

Position: Forward
Shoots: Left
Hometown: Victoria, British Columbia
MSL Team: Peterborough Lakers
NLL Team: Rochester Knighthawks
College: Robert Morris University

It Started With a Free Stick

Sometimes a lacrosse career begins with generations of family history.

Sometimes it begins because a kid wants a free lacrosse stick.

For Brad McCulley, it was the latter.

Growing up near Victoria, British Columbia, McCulley was at a mall with a friend when they came across a promotional booth for Juan de Fuca Lacrosse.

The offer was pretty enticing for a couple of young kids.

Sign up to try lacrosse.

Get a free stick.

McCulley signed up.

He went home and informed his parents that he was now playing lacrosse.

What nobody could have known at the time was where that free stick would eventually take him.
Across Canada.

Into NCAA lacrosse.

Into the first round of the NLL Draft.

To an NLL championship.

To the Mann Cup.

And eventually to Peterborough and Major Series Lacrosse.

Growing Up With the Shamrocks

Once McCulley discovered lacrosse, the game became an increasingly important part of his life.

He and his father began attending Victoria Shamrocks games.

For a young lacrosse player growing up on Vancouver Island, those summer nights provided a pretty good education.

Eventually McCulley wasn't simply watching the Shamrocks.

He was becoming one.

McCulley progressed through the Victoria organization and established himself as one of British Columbia's best young offensive players.

In 2016, his first season with the Victoria Junior Shamrocks, McCulley was named both the team's Rookie of the Year and the BC Junior A Lacrosse League Rookie of the Year.

The kid who had once signed up for a free stick was becoming a serious lacrosse prospect.

Lighting It Up in Junior A
McCulley's three seasons with the Junior A Shamrocks from 2016 through 2018 demonstrated his offensive ability.

Over that stretch, he accumulated:

87 goals
114 assists
201 points

That's an average of 67 points per season.

And once again, what stands out isn't simply the goal total.

McCulley could finish.

But he could also create.

That combination would eventually help take his game more than 4,000 kilometres east.

Robert Morris University

McCulley attended Robert Morris University, where he played midfield for the Colonials.

The field game presented a different challenge.

More space.

Different defensive structures.

Different responsibilities.

McCulley adapted.

Over 40 collegiate games, he scored 28 goals while continuing to develop the different elements of his game.

And he became part of a very successful Robert Morris program.

In 2018, the Colonials captured the Northeast Conference championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

McCulley would eventually share the field at Robert Morris with another player very familiar to lacrosse fans — Ryan Smith.

Years later, the two would become professional teammates again in Rochester.

More Than Lacrosse

There was another side to McCulley's Robert Morris career.

He wasn't simply succeeding on the field.

McCulley was named to the NEC Academic Honor Roll four times, from 2017 through 2020.

He studied Communication.

That balance between academics and athletics is easy to overlook when we're discussing professional players.

But four consecutive Academic Honor Roll selections tell you something about the work being done away from the lacrosse field too.

A First Look at Senior Lacrosse

In 2019, McCulley stepped into the Western Lacrosse Association with the Langley Thunder.
It was his first taste of senior lacrosse.
He didn't look overwhelmed.

McCulley led Langley with 37 points in 18 games, scoring 20 goals.

That's a significant transition for a young player.
Junior defenders are one thing.

Senior lacrosse means dealing with grown men, experienced WLA players and established NLL defenders.

McCulley demonstrated he could produce at that level too.

The National Lacrosse League was paying attention.

First Round

In the 2020 NLL Entry Draft, the Buffalo Bandits selected Brad McCulley ninth overall.

First round.

Top ten.

For a kid from Victoria who had dreamed about reaching the league, hearing his name called was the realization of a goal that had been building for years.

But being drafted doesn't guarantee anything.

You still have to make the team.

You still have to earn floor time.

And you still have to prove you belong.

Becoming a Bandit

McCulley broke into Buffalo's lineup during the 2021-22 season.

Then came his breakthrough.

In 2022-23, McCulley played 15 regular-season games and recorded:

11 goals
20 assists
31 points

Buffalo was loaded with offensive talent.

Dhane Smith.
Josh Byrne.
Chris Cloutier.
Tehoka Nanticoke.
And others.

Finding touches in that offense wasn't necessarily easy.

But McCulley found a role.

Then came the playoffs.

NLL Champion

Buffalo entered the 2023 playoffs looking to finish something it had come agonizingly close to accomplishing a year earlier.

This time, the Bandits got it done.

McCulley appeared in all six playoff games, contributing three goals and three assists.

And when Buffalo defeated the Colorado Mammoth in the deciding Game Three of the NLL Finals, Brad McCulley became an NLL champion.

The player who grew up watching summer lacrosse in Victoria had reached the top of the professional indoor game.

Coming Home

Eventually, professional lacrosse brought McCulley back west.

After his time in Buffalo, he joined the Vancouver Warriors.

That meant playing NLL lacrosse close to home.
During the summers, McCulley also returned to the organization he'd grown up watching.

The Victoria Shamrocks.

From 2022 through 2024, McCulley played 23 WLA games for Victoria, recording 25 goals and 13 assists.

And in 2024, the Shamrocks reached Canadian senior lacrosse's biggest stage.

The Mann Cup.

Playing for the Mann Cup

Victoria hosted the Six Nations Chiefs in the 2024 Mann Cup.

For McCulley, there had to be something special about that.

He had grown up attending Shamrocks games with his father.

Now he was wearing that jersey himself with a Canadian championship on the line.

Victoria ultimately fell short against a powerhouse Six Nations team.

But McCulley had gone from sitting in the stands watching the Shamrocks to representing them in the Mann Cup.

That's quite a circle.

Crossing the Country Again

In 2025, McCulley's summer lacrosse career took another turn.

He joined the Peterborough Lakers.

West Coast kid.

One of the most historic Ontario lacrosse organizations.

And another championship environment.

Peterborough has never been interested in simply participating.

The expectation is to contend.

McCulley fit right in.

During the 2025 regular season, he scored 22 goals and added 25 assists for 47 points in 24 games.

In the playoffs, he contributed another five goals and eight assists in nine games as Peterborough reached the MSL Final.

Different league.

Different teammates.

Same ability to contribute offensively.

Rochester

McCulley's NLL journey has also continued.
After Buffalo and Vancouver, he joined the Rochester Knighthawks through a trade-deadline deal in 2025.

Injuries limited him during the 2025-26 season, but his professional career has now included 40 regular-season games, 20 goals, 38 assists and 58 points.

And there was a familiar face waiting in Rochester.

Ryan Smith.

The two had played together at Robert Morris from 2018 through 2020.

College teammates.

Years later, NLL teammates.

Lacrosse has a funny way of bringing paths back together.

Giving Back to the Game

McCulley's lacrosse journey has now added another chapter.

Coaching.

In 2026, he joined the Canisius University men's lacrosse coaching staff.

It's an interesting progression.

The young kid who was once handed a free stick is now helping teach the game to another generation of college players.

McCulley also brings previous experience working with youth players, including time coaching with Performax Lacrosse and the Buffalo Jr. Bandits.

The player is becoming a teacher.

By the Numbers

Hometown: Victoria, British Columbia
Born: January 13, 1997
Position: Forward
Shoots: Left
Junior: Victoria Shamrocks
2016: BC Junior A Rookie of the Year
2016-18 Junior A: 87 goals, 114 assists, 201 points
College: Robert Morris University
College: 28 goals in 40 games
2018: NEC Champion / NCAA Tournament
Academics: Four-time NEC Academic Honor Roll
2019 WLA: 20 goals, 37 points — Langley Thunder
NLL Draft: 9th Overall, 2020 — Buffalo Bandits
2023: NLL Champion — Buffalo Bandits
2024: Mann Cup Finalist — Victoria Shamrocks
2025 Peterborough: 22 goals, 25 assists, 47 points — regular season
NLL Career Through 2025-26: 40 games, 20 goals, 38 assists, 58 points
NLL Team: Rochester Knighthawks
MSL Team: Peterborough Lakers
Coaching: Canisius University

Gary Groob's Take

I have to start with the free stick.
How can you not?

Brad McCulley goes to a mall with a friend, sees a lacrosse booth, discovers they'll give him a free stick if he signs up, and basically says, Sure, why not?

More than twenty years later, we're writing about him as an NLL champion and Major Series Lacrosse player.

You couldn't make that up.

But there's another part of Brad's story that stands out to me.

He keeps finding a way to fit.

That's important.

Look at some of the offenses he's played in.
Buffalo was loaded.

Peterborough is loaded.

When you're surrounded by elite offensive players, you're not necessarily getting the ball every possession.

You have to understand how to play with them.
When to shoot.

When to move it.

When to set the pick.

When to get out of the way.

And when your opportunity arrives, you'd better be ready.

I've watched Brad do that with Peterborough.
He isn't trying to make every possession about Brad McCulley.

He plays within what the Lakers are doing.

Then suddenly there's an opening.

The ball gets to him.

And he can finish.

We saw that during the MSL Finals against Six Nations.

Peterborough was battling an incredibly difficult Chiefs team, and Brad found space in close and buried his opportunity.

That's what good offensive players do.

There's also something I really like about the geography of his career.

Victoria.
Robert Morris.
Langley.
Buffalo.
Vancouver.
Victoria again.
Peterborough.
Rochester.

This game has taken him all over the continent.

But I keep coming back to Victoria.

Brad grew up going to Shamrocks games with his dad.

Then one day he's wearing the Shamrocks jersey himself and playing for the Mann Cup.

I think that's pretty special.

And now he's coaching at Canisius.

Maybe someday some kid Brad coaches will have his own story about the person who helped him fall in love with lacrosse.

That's how the game continues.

One player passes it to the next.

And for Brad McCulley, the whole thing started because somebody offered a little kid a free stick at the mall.

I'd say he got pretty good use out of it.

That's why Brad McCulley belongs among the Stars of MSL.

— Gary Groob