October 29, 2025
By Daniel Cohen
With offseason signings starting to trickle in, now feels like as good a time as any to do a retrospective on the biggest free agency moves from last offseason. The following seven teams made some of the splashiest signings leading up to the 2025 season—here’s how they all turned out.
Boston signs Tobe Decraene, adds depth across championship lineup
The signing of 2024 Rookie of the Year and eventual MVP Tobe Decraene is arguably enough to give Boston the top grade, but we shouldn't overlook the depth that Boston added on both offense and defense heading into their championship season. Ryan Dinger, Sebastian Rossi, Calvin Stoughton,, and Albert Yuan all suited up for Boston for the first time in 2025, while Henry Babcock returned to the team after four years away. These guys were more than just role players; Rossi consistently blanketed tough matchups downfield, Dinger, Stoughton, and Yuan all finished among the top 10 Glory players in scores, total yards, and plus/minus, and Babcock was a top-three thrower on the D-line.
Decraene of course stole the show in 2025, becoming the first player to earn Championship Weekend MVP honors and be named league MVP in the same season. He formed one of the most formidable duos in the league alongside Babbitt, and at just 22 years old, he looks to be the future of this league. With the amount of buy-in, depth, and top-end talent in Boston, expect them to be in a great spot to make another title run in 2026.
Grade: A+
Minnesota brings in Justin Burnett and James Pollard
The Minnesota Wind Chill brought in two huge names last fall from outside the division, signing two-time All Defense selection Justin Burnett from Atlanta and former Phoenix star James Pollard. Adding two D-line studs to an already dominant defense turns out to be a recipe for continued success; Pollard quickly carved out a role as one of the team’s two primary pullers alongside Cam Lacy, while Burnett’s shutdown defense and clutch performances in key games led to a runner-up finish in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Burnett tied his career high in blocks with 21, most on the team, while Pollard finished third on the team with a career-high 16 takeaways.
Both guys had clearly impactful years and somehow leveled up this defense beyond their championship caliber play in 2024; the Wind Chill set a new franchise record by breaking their opponents on 45.5 percent of their D-points, the third-best single-season mark for any team in league history. Minnesota has been defined by their defense in recent years, and it’s offseason moves like this that will keep them at the top of the league ranks.
Grade: A-
Chicago signs Belgian star Daan De Marrée and multitude of UFA veterans
Heading into the 2025 season, it felt like there was little debate that the Chicago Union won the offseason. There were more notable new additions to the Union roster than any other team in recent history, highlighted by the return of former Union standouts like Nate Goff and Pawel Janas, the addition of UFA vets like Will Wettengel, Xavier Payne, and Brandon Van Deusen, and the signing of international star and eventual Rookie of the Year Daan De Marrée. Many of the additions were as advertised—Wettengel and Payne received All Defense honors, De Marrée lit the league on fire with one of the most dominant statistical stretches we’ve ever seen, Van Deusen and Janas combined for 55 assists—and yet with sky-high expectations, it felt like the potential was never fully reached.
After an undefeated 12-0 regular season, the Union fell to the reigning champion Wind Chill in the Central Division Championship Game, failing to make it to Championship Weekend for the third straight season despite their most talented roster in years. The pieces were there, but the big-game performances in the game that mattered most were not. Still, this article is about free agency moves, and getting the MVP runner-up and countless talented role players deserves a high grade (just maybe not the highest).
Grade: A
New York retools with Brown, Fay, Shapiro, and Sheppard
Ever since they lost Jeff Babbitt and Ryan Osgar in the same offseason, the New York Empire have been looking to reignite the spark that led them to win three championships in four seasons. The offense had been lacking explosiveness, the defense turned from a strength into a weakness, and the overall mojo just wasn’t there. While New York deserves credit for going out and getting a handful of UFA vets last offseason in Max Sheppard, Everest Shapiro, Oliver Fay, and Calvin Brown among others, the results unfortunately speak for themselves; New York finished with their lowest win-total since 2017 and for the second straight season, they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
Had Brown stayed healthy all year, this may have been another story/grade—Brown was exactly the thrower they’ve been missing on offense since Osgar’s departure—but even in games Brown played, the Empire went 4-3. Sheppard never quite found his footing in his first season away from Pittsburgh, Shapiro and Fay were decent depth pieces, but overall these additions weren’t enough to truly move the needle for a team that’s been trending downward since they took home the 2023 trophy. They’re likely going to need some splashier signings in 2025 to challenge Boston in 2026, so this’ll be another offseason to keep an eye on New York as they look to right the ship and make a push to reclaim the East.
Grade: C+
Toronto brings in loads European star power
I’m not sure we’d ever seen an offseason quite like Toronto’s, after they went out and got four big-name international stars to cross the Atlantic and play with the Rush in 2025. Toms Abeltins, Tom Blasman, Arvids Karklins, and Connor McHale all played seven-plus games for the Rush this past season (38 games combined), so the commitment level was decent, but in the end it was more of the same for a Toronto team that finished 3-9, below .500 for the fifth straight season. On the bright side, the collective star power was enough to keep them in virtually every game, as they finished with their best point differential since 2021; Blasman and Karklins formed one of the most exciting one-two punches in the league on offense, while McHale proved to be a versatile two-way handler and Abeltins a capable counterattack leader on the D-line.
It remains to be seen whether the Rush look to run it back in 2025 with all the international talent, or if they get a bit more selective in who they extend for year two. Last year’s signings definitely injected some much-needed excitement and a bit of momentum into the franchise, but this past year showed that top-end talent without much chemistry or depth can only take a team so far in a single season. I’ll be keeping an eye on the continued Rush reboot to see what kind of free agency encore they have in store for 2026.
Grade: B-
Atlanta signs Cam Brock, Alec Wilson Holliday, and Sean Connole
Following the retirements of Matt Smith and Bobby Ley, the Atlanta Hustle offense had some holes to plug last offseason. All-time UFA goal leader Cameron Brock, 2024 goal leader Alec Wilson Holliday, and Salt Lake’s all-time yardage leader Sean Connole were three high-profile signings that directly addressed Atlanta’s needs. While none of them felt like the featured components of Atlanta’s attack—Austin Taylor, Adam Miller, Hayden Austin-Knab, and Brett Hulsmeyer largely ran the show in 2025—they gave the offense an extremely deep rotation that allowed the Hustle to overpower defenses throughout the season. The trio averaged a season stat line of 2,200 total yards, 32 scores and 6.7 throwaways, and Wilson Holliday ended up leading the team in goals with 38 on just 163 points played; he led the entire league in goal-scoring efficiency, averaging about one goal in every four points played.
It was a disappointing end to Atlanta’s first season as South Division Champions, but this was once again the most efficient offense in the league thanks to a productive offseason addressing their key losses. I wouldn’t say they elevated their ceiling, but maintaining their efficiency with fairly significant switch-ups to the rotation is deserving of an above-average grade.
Grade: B
San Diego gets Khalif back, draws in SoCal talent
The tides are constantly shifting in SoCal between San Diego and LA, as both rosters contain a significant amount of players that have played for both teams throughout their careers. There were several moves in the 2024-2025 offseason that swung things in San Diego’s favor, but it was likely the signing of Khalif El-Salaam (fresh off a Championship Weekend appearance with Seattle) that gave the Growlers the offseason momentum necessary to overtake LA in 2025. El-Salaam built on a super productive 2024 campaign with multiple statement games throughout the 2025 season, including a three-assist, five-goal, 500-plus yard explosion in the Growlers’ first round playoff win over Austin. He showcased his trademark versatility on both sides of the disc and consistently elevated San Diego’s ceiling while saving his best performances for the biggest games of the year.
The re-additions of Jesse Cohen and Marcel Osborne after several years away from the team were perfect need fits, and Daniel Brunker found a consistent groove as a thrower in his first year with San Diego, setting a new career high in assists. The Growlers outscored their opponents by 24 goals in their first year in the South Division, their highest point differential since 2021, and seeing the retooled roster click from start to finish earns them one of the top grades on this list.
Grade: A
