Former Laker Matt Vinc Hanging Up his Pads After Legendary Career that Spanned Two Decades
/By Scott Arnold
After 20 seasons in the National Lacrosse League, Matt Vinc is stepping away from the game with a résumé that puts him among the greatest goaltenders in lacrosse history, and Peterborough was a significant part of that remarkable journey.
Matt Vinc hoists the Mann Cup after helping the Peterborough Lakers capture one of four national championships during his time with the club. (Photo via Instagram @ptbolakerslax)
Vinc announced his NLL retirement last week, closing the book on a career that included six championships, eight Goaltender of the Year awards and a collection of league records that may stand for a very long time.
For lacrosse fans in Peterborough, though, Vinc’s legacy is about more than what he accomplished between the pipes in the NLL.
It is also about seven seasons wearing Lakers colours.
The St. Catharines native joined the Peterborough Lakers in 2014 and remained with the club through 2022, appearing in the MSL Final in every season he played. Those years produced four Mann Cup championships, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022, including a historic run of three consecutive national titles before the Lakers returned in 2022 to complete the four-peat.
That stretch helped cement one of the greatest eras in Lakers history, and Vinc was there for every one of those championship seasons.
His final Mann Cup with Peterborough was particularly memorable. The Lakers fell behind Langley 2-0 before storming back to win four of the next five games and capture the championship.
Matt Vinc celebrates a Mann Cup championship with his family during his time with the Peterborough Lakers. (Photo via Instagram @ptbolakerslax)
While Peterborough fans will remember the saves, championships and imposing presence in the crease, Vinc's NLL career was on an entirely different scale.
He finishes as the league's all-time leader in regular-season wins by a goaltender, with 182, while also holding the career records for saves and minutes played. The NLL credits him with 11,824 regular-season saves and 17,836:49 between the pipes.
He was named NLL Goaltender of the Year eight times and won three consecutive championships twice, first with the Rochester Knighthawks from 2012 through 2014, then with the Buffalo Bandits from 2023 through 2025. That makes Vinc the goaltender behind both three-peats in NLL history.
And somehow, even after all of that, Vinc's final NLL chapter ended with another championship.
At 43, he helped Buffalo complete its own three-peat in 2025 before returning for one more season. Now, after two decades in the league, he has decided it is time to step away.
Vinc's farewell message was fittingly less about the records than the people who shared the journey with him.
He thanked his coaches, front-office and medical staffs, teammates and fans, while saving his deepest gratitude for his family, who he said had been by his side throughout it all.
“I love this sport and look forward to supporting the next generation of players,” Vinc wrote.
For Peterborough, that next generation will always have a pretty special example to look back on.
The Lakers years were only one chapter in Matt Vinc's extraordinary career. But for those who watched him patrol the crease at the Memorial Centre, they were seven seasons, and four Mann Cups, worth remembering.
And now, after 20 seasons, six NLL championships and enough saves to fill a record book, lacrosse's most accomplished goaltenders is finally hanging up his pads.
via instagram @nllbandits
