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We were laughed at by readers last year when we continuously included Minnesota Swarm captain Ryan Cousins in our Top 20 Player Ranking, but after being named the NLL’s first back-to-back Defender of the Year last season, who’s laughing now?

Cousins might not be the most technically perfect pure D guy out there (although he’s up there and recovers better than most), but he brings more intangibles to his game than maybe any other defender available today and is one of the NLL’s most important non-offensive players in a league that often fails to recognize past its O Gods.

Cousins has steadily become one of the game’s most respected captains, also gaining the admiration of his peers after being voted by players in one of our player polls as last year’s best defender.

The former Toronto Beaches two-way stud also didn’t do too bad when it came to being clutch on the O side of the floor in 2008, scoring two game winners, both in OT thrillers against Toronto and Portland.

Cousins was one of a very small handful of defenders to even score a game winner last year and was the only defender to score a hat-trick last season, that coming in a wild 18-17 win against Rochester.

The NLL’s version of Nicolas Lidstrom, who’s won six James Norris trophies (NHL’s best defender), might be coming into the 2009 season slightly less than 100% after having minor knee surgery almost a month back. In a recent blog post on the Swarm’s site, Cousins says, “The last few weeks have been very intense for me personally as I have been rehabbing my knee following minor surgery 3 weeks ago.”

“I have been in the gym every day, riding the bike like someone is chasing me and I can’t get away. There is nothing more that I want than to put on the Swarm jersey and go to war! I will be ready soon.”

Interesting fact: Cousins is not only the NLL’s first back-to-back Defender of the Year winner, he’s also the only one to have won the honour twice. Cousins joins a pretty star studded list of players in this league that have been honoured multiple times with a piece of end-of-year hardware. The others? Answers below…

MVP
Gary Gait – 6 times
John Tavares – 3 times

Goaltender
Bob Watson – 3 times
Steve Dietrich – 2 times

Sportsmanship
Gary Gait – 2 times

Defender
Ryan Cousins – 2 times

Playoff MVP
Colin Doyle – 3 times
Gary Gait – 2 times
John Tavares – 2 times
Dallas Eliuk – 2 times

Does Cousins belong in the NLL Insider Top 50? Hit the boards and let us know what your Top 50 looks like heading into the 2009 NLL season…

#50 Matt Roik, San Jose Stealth
#49 Jon Sullivan, Minnesota Swarm
#48 Billy Dee Smith, Buffalo Bandits
#47 Steve Toll, Rochester Knighthawks
#46 Jarett Park, New York Titans
#45 Bruce Murray, Colorado Mammoth
#44 Shawn Evans, Rochester Knighthawks
#43 Peter Lough, Toronto Rock
#42 Matt Vinc, New York Titans
#41 Jeff Shattler, Calgary Roughnecks
#40 Craig Point, Minnesota Swarm
#39 Scott Ranger, Calgary Roughnecks
#38 Brian Langtry, Colorado Mammoth
#37 Sean Pollock, Minnesota Swarm
#36 Jake Bergey, Boston Blazers
#35 Pat O’Toole, Rochester Knighthawks
#34 Kyle Sweeney, Philadelphia Wings
#33 Luke Wiles, Toronto Rock
#32 Ryan Boyle, New York Titans
#31 Chris White, Buffalo Bandits
#30 Jordan Hall, New York Titans
#29 Shawn Nadelen, Philadelphia Wings
#28 Cam Woods, Toronto Rock
#27 Mike Accursi, Buffalo Bandits
#26 Dan Carey, Colorado Mammoth
#25 Pat Maddalena, New York Titans
#24 Andy Secore, Edmonton Rush
#23 Ryan Ward, Minnesota Swarm
#22 Tracey Kelusky, Calgary Roughnecks
#21 Josh Sanderson, Calgary Roughnecks
#20 Shawn Williams, Rochester Knighthawks
#19 Blaine Manning, Toronto Rock
#18 Nick Patterson, Minnesota Swarm
#17 Eric Martin, San Jose Stealth
#16 Scott Evans, Rochester Knighthawks
#15 Scott Self, Edmonton Rush
#14 Anthony Cosmo, Boston Blazers
#13 Geoff Snider, Philadelphia Wings
#12 Lewis Ratcliff, Toronto Rock
#11 Ryan Cousins, Minnesota Swarm

Hit this link for NLL Insider’s Top 50 archive and keep checkin’ back every week as we countdown the top 50 best in the pro game, with #1 being named just before the NLL season kicks off.

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