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Toronto's Garrett Billings is on pace to break multiple rookie records. (Photo: Larry Palumbo)

If the National Lacrosse League was going to handout their Rookie of the Year nod today, hands down, zero argument, it’s the Toronto Rock’s Garrett Billings.

There’s been some outstanding rookie defensive performances this year, namely the Washington Stealth’s Matt Beers and the Buffalo Bandits’ pair of Chris Corbeil and Steve Priolo, but the season Billings is stringing together looks like it’s gonna be one for the ages. Ditto for the damage Rock teammate Stephen Leblanc is doing just behind Billings in the scoring charts, the two on the path to be one of the most dynamic offensive rookie duos the league has ever seen.

Ball players like Rhys Duch, Gavin Prout, John Grant and many others have rocked the league’s scoring charts during their past rookie seasons, but rarely do you see teammates tearing things up like Billings and Leblanc currently are, the two also playing alongside one another while suiting up for the WLA’s Langley Thunder.

At their current pace, Billings is set to obliterate Duch’s all-time single season rookie points mark (89), looking to potentially even break the 100-point barrier, while both Billings and Leblanc are on pace to snap Duch’s single season assists mark (54), Leblanc averaging a helper total that would see him at 67 if he fits into the Rock’s full sked the rest of the way.

Billings, currently tied for second on the league scoring charts, could also give Paul Gait’s single season rookie goals record (47) a serious run, but he’ll need to tack on a couple extra over the Rock’s next ten, currently on pace for 45 in 2010. No rookie has ever really come all that close or even hinted at coming close to Gait’s record, that is until Billings this winter.

What might end up being even more impressive is what the Rock’s current high profile rookie duo might do as a pair, their potential combined end-of -year total up there with the greatest ever rookie tandems.

Gary Gait's 6.8 Pts per game rookie mark might be broken this year. (Photo: Jane Shafer)

The league’s highest ever rookie scoring teammates? Paul and Gary Gait with the Detroit Turbos in ‘91, the two combining for 134-total points during that first year in the MILL. If the Rock’s 2010 first-year scoring studs continue putting up the same numbers they have over the first five weeks of the season, they’ll be the highest scoring rookie partnership sine the Gaits landed in the pros. The Gaits of course did it during a ten-game regular season, and although Toronto’s two have the luxury of playing six extra games this year, their current scoring average shrunk down into the MILL’s ‘91 game sked would still have them right around what the game’s most famous twins did almost 20-years ago.

The Boston Blazers’ 2009 rookie teammates, Daryl Veltman and Gary Bining, actually came pretty close the Gaits last year, finishing ‘09 with 121-points, both B’s playing 15 games during the year.

The most impressive rookie threesome, which in today’s game is virtually never seen, came during the Buffalo Bandits ‘92 season, when Derek Keenan, John Tavares and Darris Kilgour dominated teams with a combined 131-point season (8-game season), Keenan named the league’s rookie of the year, Tavares the championship game MVP, the Bandits winning it all in a dramatic 11-10 OT win over the Philadelphia Wings.

Check back with Insider tomorrow for our weekly Rookie Rankings, and revisit our rundown of the best ever pro rookies seasons in the NLL/MILL.

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