Matt Vinc

Matt Vinc

Born	(1982-06-09) June 9, 1982 St. Catharines, Ontario
Nationality	Canadian
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight	220 pounds (100 kg)
Shoots	Right
Position	Goaltender
NLL draft	6th overall, 2005 San Jose Stealth
NLL team Former teams	Buffalo Bandits Rochester Knighthawks Colorado Mammoth New York/Orlando Titans San Jose Stealth
MSL team Former teams	Peterborough Lakers St. Catharines Athletics Six Nations Chiefs Brampton Excelsiors Victoria Shamrocks WLA
Pro career	2006–
Nickname	Vino

Matt Vinc (/vɪns/ VINSS; born June 9, 1982, in St. Catharines, Ontario) is a Canadian professional lacrosse goaltender who plays for the Buffalo Bandits in the National Lacrosse League and for the Peterborough Lakers of the Major Series Lacrosse.

He was a member of Team Canada He is also a teacher and lacrosse coach at Denis Morris Catholic High School in St. Catharines.

Junior career

Vinc had an outstanding junior career. He played for the St. Catharines Athletics in the OLA Junior A Lacrosse League from 1999 to 2003. His accomplishments playing for the A's include:

• 1 OLA Jr.A regular season MVP award
• 3 OLA Jr.A playoff MVP awards
• 3 OLA Jr.A championships (2001–2003)
• 3 Bob Meleville Memorial Awards (lowest team total goals)
• 2 Minto Cup National championships (2001, 2003)
• 1 Minto Cup MVP Award
• B.W. Evans Award (Top Graduating Player).

High school career

Vinc played high school field lacrosse at Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School, along with fellow future professional lacrosse players Billy Dee Smith, Craig Conn, and Sean Greenhalgh. In five years, he helped the Holy Cross Raiders to win 2 gold medals, 1 silver, and 1 bronze at the OFSAA field lacrosse championships. This would begin a dynasty for the Holy Cross lacrosse program to excel in Niagara and Ontario competition.

College career

Vinc is also a graduate of Canisius University, where he played long-stick defense and was named the college's Male Athlete of the Year.

NLL career

Vinc was acquired by the San Jose Stealth in the 2005 NLL entry draft in the first round (sixth overall). In the 2006 NLL season, Vinc played sparingly with the Stealth. Following the season, he was acquired by the New York Titans in the 2006 NLL expansion draft. In 2007, he took over the starting goaltender role for the Titans. In 2009, Vinc guided his team to a 10–6 record for a three way tie for first place in the Eastern Division with the Buffalo Bandits and the Boston Blazers. The Titans were awarded the Eastern Division regular season championship by way of tie breakers. On May 9, in the Eastern Division playoff championship game, Vinc stopped 41 out of 44 shots and kept the high-powered offense of the Buffalo Bandits to only three goals as the Titans defeated Buffalo 9–3. Vinc allowed 1 more goal than the National Lacrosse League playoff record of 2 goals against in a game, which was set by Bob Watson, and the Toronto Rock defeated the Philadelphia Wings 13–2 during a 1999 semi-final playoff game.

Vinc became a member of the Orlando Titans when the franchise moved to Florida for the 2010 season. When the team folded after that season, Vinc was chosen first overall in the dispersal draft, sending him to the Colorado Mammoth. As he teaches high school in St. Catharines, Ontario, however, he did not want to play in Colorado. In October 2010, he was thus traded to the Rochester Knighthawks in a significant trade that sent Vinc and transition player Matt Zash to Rochester in exchange for superstar attackman John Grant, Jr. and defenseman Mac Allen. Draft picks were also exchanged.

Vinc has won a league record eight Goaltender of the Year awards:

• 2010 with the Orlando Titans
• 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2018 with the Knighthawks
• 2019 and 2022 with the Bandits

Heading into the 2023 NLL season, Inside Lacrosse named Vinc the #2 goalie in the NLL.

Statistics

NLL

Reference:

Matt Vinc		Regular Season								Playoffs
Season	Team	GP	Min	W	L	GA	GAA	Sv	Sv %	GP	Min	W	L	GA	GAA	Sv	Sv %
2006	San Jose Stealth	1	14:14	0	0	4	16.86	5	0.556	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
2007	New York Titans	13	712:15	3	9	157	13.23	419	0.727	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
2008	New York Titans	16	888:06	9	5	168	11.35	562	0.770	2	105:51	1	1	23	13.04	52	0.693
2009	New York Titans	16	916:11	9	6	173	11.33	609	0.779	3	182:16	2	1	25	8.23	110	0.815
2010	Orlando Titans	15	902:04	10	5	143	9.51	608	0.810	2	112:44	1	1	24	12.77	68	0.739
2011	Rochester Knighthawks	16	933:16	10	6	152	9.77	585	0.794	1	60:00	0	1	10	10.00	44	0.815
2012	Rochester Knighthawks	16	938:30	7	9	191	12.21	583	0.753	3	180:00	3	0	32	10.67	134	0.807
2013	Rochester Knighthawks	16	955:29	8	8	162	10.17	662	0.803	3	180:00	3	0	28	9.33	93	0.769
2014	Rochester Knighthawks	17	947:45	12	3	151	9.56	595	0.798	4	240:00	2	2	40	10.00	126	0.759
2015	Rochester Knighthawks	17	1,003:58	10	6	161	9.62	655	0.803	3	180:00	2	1	31	10.33	111	0.782
2016	Rochester Knighthawks	17	890:00	5	9	172	11.60	592	0.775	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
2017	Rochester Knighthawks	16	902:06	6	9	171	11.37	592	0.776	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
2018	Rochester Knighthawks	18	960:12	9	6	182	11.37	651	0.782	5	299:45	3	2	57	11.41	227	0.799
2019	Buffalo Bandits	18	1,036:24	14	2	173	10.02	705	0.803	4	238:57	2	2	37	9.29	160	0.812
2020	Buffalo Bandits	11	627:24	7	4	113	10.81	476	0.808	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
2022	Buffalo Bandits	18	1,063:35	14	4	179	10.10	747	0.807	6	359:59	4	2	65	10.83	238	0.785
2023	Buffalo Bandits	18	1,047:39	14	4	182	10.42	742	0.803	6	347:03	5	1	51	8.82	249	0.830
2024	Buffalo Bandits	16	962:39	11	5	182	11.34	652	0.782	5	304:01	5	0	42	8.29	224	0.842
		275	15,701:47	158	100	2,816	10.76	10,440	0.788	47	2,790:36	33	14	465	10.00	1,836	0.798
Career Total:		322	18,492:23	191	114	3,281	10.65	12,276	0.789

GP–Games played;Min–Minutes played;W–Wins;L–Losses;GA–Goals against;GAA–Goals against average;Sv–Number of saves;Sv %–Save percentage;