Chris Gray. Kyle Bernlohr.
Two big time names that PLL fans know and love, but dominant on opposite sides of the field. Both announced their retirement from the league this week. While Bernlohr’s announcement didn’t come as a big shock, Gray has most fans in disbelief.
Kyle Bernlohr, the 35-year-old Whipsnakes goalie, posted to Instagram on Wednesday to announce that he would be retiring from the PLL. Bernlohr has played professional lacrosse for 9 years now, and has seen great amounts of success throughout his college and professional career. In 2017, he won the MLL championship with the Ohio State Machine, and in 2019 and 2020 he won back to back PLL championships with the Whipsnakes. He has been named an All-Star 6 times (2017-2019 and 2021-2023), and retires 13th all-time in career saves and 11th all-time in saves per game average. In 2020, Bernlohr put up the best save percentage (63%) in the league, and did one better in 2022 where he led the league in both save percentage and saves against average. That year he also won Goalie of the Year, and is the only player to take that award from Blaze Riorden’s otherwise perfect sweep of the award since the PLL’s inception in 2019.
This retirement announcement doesn’t come as a huge surprise though, as the Whips goalie spent most of this past season on the sidelines as the backup goalie to young star, Brendan Krebs. Lacrosse goalie is a brutal, physically demanding position for anyone, but at 35 years old, Bernlohr’s body is probably not up to the caliber to compete with the young guys we are seeing hold the starting position for many of the other PLL teams.
In much, MUCH, more shocking news, Chris Gray announced his retirement just two days after Bernlohr did.
Having finished his collegiate career as a graduate student in 2022, he played just 3 seasons in the PLL. Gray was a dominant attacker in college and tried to carried his success into the professional game. He is currently the NCAA all-time points leader, with 401 career points, on 204 goals and 197 assists, and is 10th in points per game average (5.6), and was a two-time Tewaaraton Award Finalist. The 5’7 attacker was drafted second overall in 2022 to the New York Atlas. Gray had a fiery first two seasons in the PLL with the Atlas where he recorded 71 points in 20 games and was named an All-Star both years.
He was then traded to the Redwoods following the 2023 season and looked like a different player. His availability was inconsistent as he only appeared in 8 games and when he was physically there, he didn’t really seem all the way there. Over those 8 games, he only put up a meager12 points. Some fans suspect an inability to balance work and lacrosse life. Professional lacrosse today is still not a big enough, or more importantly, well-paying enough, of a professional sport to build a life around. Many players that soley make their money through lacrosse play in multiple leagues year-round, and run small camps, individual trainings, or coach teams on top of playing. Chris Gray seems to be an unfortunate example of this, as what once was a dominant player retires after just 3 years of professional lacrosse.
