It’s been five years since the New England Black Wolves missed the playoffs.

A model of consistency since moving from Philadelphia to Connecticut in 2015, they still haven’t quite made it to that next level. With as much talent as they have assembled, this could be the year they make a move in the always-changing Eastern conference.

“Now we finally have a season of all these guys together for a while,” said Black Wolves general manager Rich Lisk. “Two to three years, and my goal is to keep the core group of guys together for as long as possible. With expansion, you lose a couple here and there, but the nine to 11 guys who are here, and on multi-year deals, so that will start really showing.”

The National Lacrosse League has two expansion franchises in 2019-20, with the additions of New York and the new Rochester Knighthawks. If the Knighthawks sound familiar, they should: The previous edition moved to Halifax, much like the Cleveland Browns going to Baltimore and then Cleveland getting an expansion team, so everyone has a different roster makeup with a new player pool.

New England still has a lot of the same faces, with an offense led by last year’s leading scorer Callum Crawford. There’s potential throughout the rest of the forwards. Reilly O’Connor and Stephon LeBlanc are proven goal-scorers in the league, but if any of them pick up their pace to go alongside Crawford, the Wolves offense could be lethal.

“Callum Crawford looked awesome our first week (of training camp),” said Lisk. “So have Stephon and Reilly. Then our young guys, it’s cool to see them step up and mature. They’re not first-year guys anymore, they’re not second-year guys, now they’ve taken that next step.”

Five of their top six scorers are back, including a full season of Joe Resetarits, who is becoming one of the best American players in indoor lacrosse history.

Expectations are, reasonably, high.

“We only had half a year of Joe Resetarits,” said Lisk. “Now we have a full year of Joe. Reilly took a huge step of where he was, had a really good first year with us, took a dip back then really took a step forward last year.”

Rookie Andrew Kew dropped to No. 3 in the draft after New York surprisingly passed on him, making New England’s left side even stronger. Dereck Downs got better as the season went on as a rookie, and as a second-year player could have some more responsibility.

“Downs broke out as a fifth-round pick in the draft,” said Lisk. “But he had 16 goals for us.”

Tyler Digby leaves a hole after going to New York via expansion, so the Wolves will have to try to find a way to build some physicality into their offensive game. Andrew Suitor’s departure via trade to New York also leaves them without some of that presence on the backend.

This could be the year New England takes a leap. They finally have had a core for a while, so it’s time for expectations to match their talent.

Here is a look at the league by region:

East

Georgia is the prime of the East behind Lyle Thompson and the always dynamic Swarm offense.

Philadelphia didn’t have the same expansion success as San Diego, but was certainly a decent lacrosse club. They could presumably take a step up this season.

Digby and Kieran McArdle are the big guns on the expansion New York squad, built with primarily American talent.

North

Toronto could make a move with the addition of Dan Dawson, even though Kieran McArdle is gone. Where they might suffer is transition man Brock Sorensen being out for the year with an Achilles injury from summer competition.

Halifax — formerly the Knighthawks — could be an intriguing team. The goaltending position has been iffy since they lost Matt Vinc, but offensive depth from Cody Jamieson, Austin Shanks and Kyle Jackson should give the Thunderbirds a boost.

The Knighthawks 2.0, meanwhile, have a decent group of Shawn Evans, Curtis Knight and Holden Cattoni to lead an expansion team. As we learned with San Diego last year, a first-year club can have some success.

The Bandits should be a favorite to make it back to the NLL finals behind Vinc and Dhane Smith.

West

The Saskatchewan Rush have been the most consistent franchise in sports this past decade as the first-place team in the West since 2013.

Vancouver has been mired in mediocrity for some time and their scoring has struggled. The West is competitive, so the Warriors might be doomed for another dismal season. A big season from emerging scorer Mitch Jones could make things interesting.

San Diego made noise in its first season a year ago, and behind Jeremy Noble leading the offense could be a player again.

Behind Dane Dobbie, Curtis Dickson, Rhys Duch and Zach Currier, there’s no reason Calgary can’t repeat as NLL champs.

Dillon Ward is arguably the top goalie in the league leading a Colorado team that has felt one step away for the past half-decade.