Dayne St. Clair continues excellent 2025 campaign with MLS Goalkeeper of the Year win
Dayne St. Clair’s outstanding 2025 club season has continued this week, as he was named MLS’s Goalkeeper of the Year on Monday.
A huge honour for St. Clair, who has been excellent for Minnesota United this year, this is a credit to the work he’s done all year long, however.![[fb Charts] Dayne St. Clair (1)](https://storage.googleapis.com/canpl/assets/c80b7f94-5e25-4381-ba70-8eea8dae0f2d.png)
Here's how St. Clair's 2025 numbers compare to fellow MLS goalkeepers - as seen here, he was excellent when it came to his shot-stopping (FBref)
Certainly, his numbers speak for themselves - not only did he keep 10 clean sheets in 30 appearances in MLS regular season played, which tied him for fourth in the league in that category, but he also led the league in save percentage (79.9%), was fourth in saves with 111 and was second in post-shot Expected Goals saved above average with +9.7.
As a result, he ended up winning this honour quite comfortably, which is quite surprising, considering the quality of the candidates he was up against, which included finalists Yohei Takaoka of the Vancouver Whitecaps and Matt Freese of New York City FC. 
Ultimately, though, St. Clair’s resume had the sort of variety that appealed to a multitude of voters, as he was excellent in 2025 when it came to the eye test, the base stats test, and the advanced numbers test, which isn’t always the case for most goalkeepers - especially in the modern game.
What that shows, though, is why he’s such a deserving winner, as he’s joined a pretty rare club of CanMNT players with this honour. 
For all of the success Canadian players have had in MLS in the league’s history, especially in recent years, individual honours have surprisingly been hard to come by for them.
When looking back at past award winners, Cyle Larin, who won the 2015 Rookie of the Year (which has since become the Young Player of the Year), appears to be the last Canadian before St. Clair to have won an individual award - otherwise, Tajon Buchanan’s inclusion in the 2021 Best XI is the only other individual designation a Canadian has earned over that span (St. Clair is at least expected to crack the Best XI this year given his status as the league’s top goalkeeper).
Granted, there are many reasons for that - the big one is the influx of high-quality international talent that dominates MLS - but the reality is that in the instance where Canadian players are competing with other players for awards, they’ll usually be overlooked unless they have an ironclad case, like St. Clair’s this year.
Funnily enough, Buchanan’s actually a great example of this - in 2021, while he was named in the league’s Best XI, he actually failed to win the league’s Young Player of the Year award, which he was eligible for (and finished second in), which instead went to young American striker Ricardo Pepi.
No one was better.
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) December 2, 2021
Meet your 2021 MLS Best XI. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/xdN2zWdBhu
The big reason for that, of course, is that Pepi was 18, whereas Buchanan was 22, but given that the criteria for the award is the “best young player under 22”, that shouldn’t have factored into the vote. Instead, Pepi seemed to earn a nod for his potential, even though Buchanan was named among the best players at his position in the entire league.
And there are other countless examples of Canadian players who have been unable to earn individual awards despite strong seasons - Maxime Crépeau had a claim to being MLS’s best goalkeeper when he was at LAFC a few years back, while the likes of Mark Anthony Kaye, Kamal Miller and Alistair Johnston are just a few of many Canadians who have had fantastic individual seasons that were ignored over the last half-decade or so.
What that shows, though, is how tough it can be to earn these sorts of individual honours - even young stars like Alphonso Davies and Ismaël Koné never earned individual honours while in the league, and they’re now impact contributors for clubs in the top European leagues - showing the difficulties Canadian players have faced in that regard.
With that context in mind, it just gives an idea of why St. Clair’s GKOTY win is so important, and comes at a pretty darn good time for him, too.
MLS GK OF THE YEAR? 🧤
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) November 3, 2025
🇨🇦.
Congratulations to CanMNT GK Dayne St. Clair! 👏 pic.twitter.com/prD7rJW48w
Of course, his big goal right now (other than winning MLS Cup) is to earn the starting role for the CanMNT heading into the 2026 World Cup, as he remains locked in a fierce battle with Crépeau for that #1 job.
On paper, St. Clair’s current form has given him a big edge, but he’s yet to carve out an advantageous position given Crépeau’s continued good play for Canada - although St. Clair has put in some of his best performances for Canada as of late, too.
Because of that, the next six months are going to be crucial for both goalkeepers, who both happen to be free agents at the end of this year.
No doubt, Crépeau will be on the move, given that he’s lost his starting spot at the Portland Timbers, which has given St. Clair a further edge in recent months, but St. Clair faces a much tougher conundrum, as he remains a locked-in starter and star for Minnesota United - and that status has only been reaffirmed by this award.
It's a goalkeeper, it's a brick wall, it's Dayne St. Clair pic.twitter.com/0Md3sGgGqc
— x - Minnesota United FC (@MNUFC) November 3, 2025
At the same time, given that he’s still only 28, he could make the move to Europe (Tom Bogert recently reported that he is attracting European interest, and he has the passport to facilitate such a move), and there will also certainly be MLS teams willing to give him a hefty raise on the $631 875 he made last year (which was 16th in the league among goalkeepers).
Naturally, Minnesota could give him that raise, which seems to be a likely solution (should he stay in MLS), but a return to Minnesota comes with one risk - their tactical identity is in direct opposition with what the CanMNT aim to do under Jesse Marsch.
That identity has meshed well with St. Clair, who has been a big reason why Minnesota’s defensive, counter-attacking system has worked as well as it has this year, but one can wonder if he considers a move to a team that plays more of an aggressive system closer to what the CanMNT plays.
▪️ Led the league in save percentage
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) November 3, 2025
▪️ Career high in saves and shutouts
▪️ Sole goalkeeper in 2025 with a goals against average of 1.00 or lower and 75%+ save rate
What a season it's been for Dayne St. Clair! 💪 pic.twitter.com/kuLp3Hm7FN
For example, returning to Crépeau, his career took off when he moved to LAFC from the Vancouver Whitecaps in 2022, as he was able to thrive in a ball-possession team that played to his strengths, and one can wonder if a similar move could be in the cards for St. Clair this winter (ironically, the Whitecaps would be an excellent fit, and are also dealing with the reality that Takaoka is out of contract).
No doubt, though, no matter what lies in store for St. Clair, whose attention remains locked in on Minnesota’s ongoing playoff run, it’s worth celebrating what this GKOTY award means for him - especially when considering how it could impact his future.
Ultimately, this is a big win for a player who has worked hard to get to where he is, and that’s one of his best at his position in MLS, and that’s a great story from a Canadian perspective, which is more than worth celebrating.
