Pat Kavanagh Requested Trade Before Deal with Denver

The Boston Cannons and head coach Brian Holman were surprised when Pat Kavanagh — who, for a long time, was considered a top-three pick in the 2024 Premier Lacrosse League College Draft — was still available with the No. 6 pick.

Half a year later, Holman surprised everyone else when he traded Kavanagh to the Denver Outlaws in exchange for the No. 3 pick in the 2025 draft and a second-round pick in the 2026 draft.

While the first big move of the offseason caught fans off guard, Holman shared that he didn’t just wake up one morning with an epiphany. Instead, this was a trade that was requested by the player and took weeks to complete.

“[My task is to] make our team better and try to help this young man get what he wants out of it and put him in the best possible position that he can succeed,” Holman said. “At the end of the day, it was obvious to me the best way for Pat to succeed was for him to not be on the Cannons and give him the freedom to go do what he needs to do.”

Holman said when the Cannons drafted Kavanagh, it was a matter of selecting the best player available. Holman was excited to add him, but Kavanagh didn’t fit a positional need; Boston had Asher Nolting at the X and Marcus Holman on the right. Kavanagh isn’t a lefty, so that wasn’t a natural fit, either.

Throughout the season, Kavanagh was in and out of the lineup thanks to a right groin strain and left toe injury. He appeared in six games and totaled 12 points on eight goals and four assists.

When the season ended, Holman held meetings with individual players via FaceTime with the goal of understanding what the players wanted to accomplish and how he could help.

Holman said Kavanagh asked where he envisioned the Notre Dame alum playing in 2025. Holman said he would play midfield until Marcus Holman, who is closer to the end of his career than the beginning, retired.

Kavanagh said he no longer wanted to play midfield.

“I said, ‘Let’s take a break,’” Holman said. “’You’re going to play sixes with the U.S. team. A lot of our guys are on that team. Go do that, and we’ll reconvene when you come back.’”

When they reconnected, Kavanagh asked to be traded. Holman told Kavanagh he’d look to find somewhere he could be happy. The stipulation was he wasn’t going to trade him just to trade him. He needed fair compensation in return, and if he didn’t like what was offered, Kavanagh would remain with the Cannons and play midfield.

While he wished Kavanagh would have given the situation more opportunity to develop, Holman respected Kavanagh’s honesty.

“Honesty is the number one pillar in our organization,” he said. “The fact that he can have that straight up, open, honest conversation with me saying, ‘Hey, this is how I feel, Coach. This is what I’m looking for,’ I’m really proud of that, too, versus him saying that behind the scenes or saying it to someone else or maybe not having the courage to come forward and say it.”

Holman immediately thought of two teams in the market for an X attackman. He called Denver head coach Tim Soudan.

Soudan was enamored with Kavanagh’s grit, toughness, riding and playmaking abilities at Notre Dame and considered taking him with the No. 1 pick at the time, but the allure of selecting Brennan O’Neill was too strong.

“He’s a chill guy that, when he steps on the field, he flips that switch, and he’s the most competitive guy,” he said. “When I watched him play in college, I was like, ‘Holy crap. We need to get this guy on our team.’ His compete level is contagious with everyone around him.”

Since joining the PLL, the Cannons have had just one first-round draft pick, which was used on Kavanagh. The team had previously traded every other first- round pick. In a Kavanagh deal, Holman was looking to accumulate draft picks to build a competitive, sustainable roster.

Dangling Kavanagh in trade talks intrigued potential trade partners, but the initial asking price of a second-round pick and a player was immediately rebuffed. He sat on it for a week before going back to the conversations, asking for a first-round pick instead. He was again told no.

But Soudan had a change of heart.

“The first rounder was easy for me,” Soudan said. “The second rounder was tough. But at the same time, we have a whole year to get a second rounder back, and we’ll deal with that.”

Ultimately, Soudan and Holman both walked away happy, which Holman said is the sign of a great deal.

Now, the first domino of the offseason has fallen. Free agency won’t begin until February, and the draft won’t be until May.

Getting this deal done early in the offseason gives both coaches time to evaluate and begin conversations about how to utilize their assets.

The Cannons have already re-signed Marcus Holman, Ethan Rall and Matt Campbell. Brian Holman said this move gives the team some flexibility to attack their needs at left-handed attack and defensive depth in free agency and the draft.

“Adding another pick, especially in the first round, gives us flexibility to get a dynamic lacrosse player, whether it’s an O guy or a D guy, and fill a void maybe at that left-handed attack spot, and at the 12th pick, maybe we take the best player available,” he said. “It just gives us more ammo. At the end of the day, you have pick number three and pick number four, and you have two second-round picks in 2026. That might give you some more flexibility for trades that we have not had at all.”

One thing Soudan is particularly excited about is the possibility of playing the previous three Tewaaraton Award winners – Kavanagh, O’Neill and Logan Wisnauskas – together at the same time.

While the questions about how O’Neill and Wisnauskas fit together on the left side were never fully answered because of Wisnauskas’ injury, Soudan is adamant it can and will work.

“It’s easier to play Logan and O’Neill out there with Pat Kavanagh on the field,” Soudan said. “A lot of that has to do with where Pat will feed from. He’s a playmaker from all over the field. He doesn’t just end up at X all the time.”

In addition to what Kavanagh brings on the field, Soudan said acquiring him sends a message to the league that they want to push for a championship. He said that can hopefully help them sign additional free agents, noting the team needs to bolster its aging defense.

Like Soudan is excited to have Kavanagh, he was also a fan-favorite in Boston, and many Cannons fans voiced their displeasure on social media.

Holman’s message to them, though, is to live by one of the team’s other pillars of belief: trust.

“I think our track record over the last two years has been worthy of their support. We’ve won as many games as anybody over the last two years. We’ve won a Championship Series, which nobody gave us any chance of winning,” he said. “I ask them to trust me, trust that I’m doing what I believe is the right thing to do to put our team in a position to play for championships and be our best version.”