Christian Del Bianco is apparently rust proof.
Playing his first National Lacrosse League game in 328 days, Del Bianco stopped 48 shots and looked completely in synch spearheading the Vancouver Warriors’ transition game in a 13-8 win over the Toronto Rock at Rogers Arena Friday night.
The Warriors landed the 27-year-old netminder from Coquitlam in a blockbuster deal with the Calgary Roughnecks at Monday’s National Lacrosse League trade deadline. It’s the biggest swap in the loop in several years.
Del Bianco had been holding out all season, telling the Roughnecks that he was tired of travelling for both home and road games and wanted to play closer to his Lower Mainland home.
Del Bianco is arguably the best player in the game. He was the NLL’s 2023 most valuable player. The Warriors promoted the addition feverishly all week on social media, and they drew an announced crowd of 9,990 Friday, which was a season high for them.
The night lived up to the hype, which was an accomplishment in itself.
“It’s hard to not say that there’s some pressure there, “ Del Bianco explained afterwards. “I was joking around with my fiancee and some people that are close to me and they were saying, ‘It’s OK if you don’t have your best night,’ but you obviously want to deliver.
“A lot of people took a risk to get me here and I understand the organization gave up a great person in Brayden Laity to get me, so I owe it to everyone to go out and do everything I can to perform.”
The Warriors have made the playoffs just once in the past 10 years. They’ve missed out all five seasons since the Vancouver Canucks bought them and moved them from the Langley Events Centre to Rogers Arena.
Bringing in Del Bianco is a further statement about how the Canucks’ brass wants a contender and wants it as soon as possible. This is their Roberto Luongo trade.
Laity, 21, is a promising defender who was a favourite of GM/coach Curt Malawsky. Vancouver also gave up three draft picks in the deal, including two first rounders. As well, there are future considerations that will be announced at a later date.
Friday’s win moved Vancouver to 6-7, and left them in ninth place as of Saturday morning with five games left on their regular season schedule. The top eight teams make the postseason and the standings are a snarled traffic jam. The 7-5 Colorado Mammoth were holding down fourth spot at last count.
Aden Walsh, 24, had been carrying the netminding load for Vancouver prior to the deal and he had given the Warriors solid efforts all year. Walsh is a legitimate starter in this league and bound to climb from there in years to come. Del Bianco is as good as it gets in goal right now, or at least in that conversation.
Toronto is struggling this season, sitting at 4-9 after Friday and having already traded away starting goalie Nick Rose to Calgary. The Rock did have push early Friday, and were thwarted by Del Bianco.
For example, he neatly stood his ground on a wide-open Josh Dawick at the lip of the crease with 7:48 remaining in the first and the Warriors holding a 2-1 lead. The Warriors went up 3-1 a couple of minutes later and never looked back.
Vancouver had an 8-2 cushion at halftime and Del Bianco had made 28 saves.
His save percentage on the night was 85.7 per cent. Rose leads all starters on the season at 80.2 per cent. Del Bianco’s nine-year career mark is 79.0 per cent, and he was 81.0 per cent in his MVP year in 2023.
“The hype makes sense,” Warriors forward Dylan McIntosh, 25, said of the Del Bianco addition. “Having Christian back there is a huge confidence boost. It takes pressure off the offence.”
Forward Keegan Bal added: “He’s the best player in the world. Anytime you get a player like that on your team it’s pretty special.”
Vancouver’s bugaboo this season have been with a sporadic offence, and the undersold portion of the Del Bianco addition story is just how well he moves the ball and creates fast break opportunities.
Malawsky jumped to the Warriors from Calgary ahead of last season. He knows what Del Bianco is capable of better than anyone. It felt very much like Malawsky opened up the reins Friday and Vancouver ran the floor better than they have all season.
Del Bianco had 19 assists last season to lead all goalies in the NLL. The next best was eight. Del Bianco had 19 assists in 2023 as well. The No. 2 guy in that category recorded nine.
Malawsky had built those Calgary teams around athletic defenders who could beat opponents down the floor, and Vancouver has a crew that can do the same, led by Owen Grant, Reid Bowering and Jeff Cornwall.
Del Bianco had an assist on a Brett Mydske goal at 12:36 of the first quarter that made it 2-1.
“It tires out their offence, because they have to sprint back and chase those breakaways,” McIntosh said of Del Bianco’s long-bombing ways. “And then we’ve got guys pushing the ball up the and they’re deadly when they get their shots. It just takes our game and our team to another level.”
Malawsky added: “Christian is so smart. He knows when to push the ball.”
Bal had four goals and nine points for Vancouver. Adam Charalambides added three goals and six points and McIntosh, who was making his season debut, supplied two goals and one assist.
Tom Schreiber had two goals and one assist for Toronto.
McIntosh was inserted into the Vancouver line-up because they had a right-handed forward spot open up at Monday’s deadline thanks to another trade. Johnathan Peshko went from the Warriors to Albany FireWolves as part of a four-team swap that landed Vancouver a package headlined by the Ottawa Black Bears’ first-round pick in the 2026 NLL Draft.
The Warriors have another righty forward waiting in the wings, too, with the Ryan Sheridan (knee) close to making his season debut. They acquired him in the Panther City dispersal draft this summer.
Del Bianco had announced on social media last summer that he wasn’t going to re-sign with Calgary, but they gave him their franchise player tag, which turned him into a restricted free agent.
Teams only get one franchise tag, so moving Del Bianco at the deadline gave Calgary a chance to keep their current team together, add assets and have that franchise tag to use on another player next off-season if need be. They carried a 7-6 record into a Saturday game with the 9-2 Buffalo Bandits.
The Warriors and Roughnecks don’t play again this regular season, but, with so much to be decided, a playoff match-up isn’t out of the question. And that would amazing theatre.
Vancouver’s home to the Georgia Swarm (7-5) next Saturday. They finish off the regular season with a trip to Buffalo, a home game against Albany (4-9), a visit to Toronto and a home game with the Philadelphia Wings (5-7). That’s on April 19.
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