September 30, 2025
By Evan Lepler

While reasonable minds can certainly disagree about postseason awards, all can concur that there were plenty of interesting developments among the 2025 UFA honors, which were revealed by the league across various releases over the past couple days. 

Firstly, at the top of the pyramid, the league crowned a new MVP, as Boston’s Tobe Decraene, at just 22 years old, became the youngest to win the award in the UFA’s 13-year history. Buoyed by a brilliant performance at Championship Weekend—where he set a new record with 16 assists in two games for the Glory en route to the title—Decraene surged past several other worthy contenders in perhaps the closest and most competitive MVP race we’ve witnessed this decade.

Decraene also happens to be the first player born outside the United States to earn the UFA’s top individual award, a fact made even more astonishing considering that the second-place finisher in the MVP race also hails from Belgium, a nation smaller than Maryland that has only very recently emerged as one of Europe’s premier frisbee powers. Daan De Marrée joined his countryman Decraene on the MVP podium after a stellar debut season for the Chicago Union, for which he also earned Rookie of the Year honors. Looking ahead, it would surprise virtually no one if De Marree replicated Decraene’s path, taking the MVP in year two after becoming the top rookie in year one. 

Outside of the MVP race, it’s fascinating to note the churn among All-UFA performers from one year to the next. Only two of the seven individuals on the 2025 First Team—Jeff Babbitt and Allan Laviolette—were back-to-back representatives in the most elite tier. But digging even deeper, there was some decent continuity from 2024 to 2025. In fact, more than half of the 21 players across the three All-UFA squads were also all-league honorees in 2024. Along with Babbitt and Laviolette, the other nine stars who’ve been All-UFA in each of the past two years are Will Brandt, Tobe Decraene, Travis Dunn, Anthony Gutowsky, Brett Hulsmeyer, Ben Jagt, Evan Magsig, Garrett Martin, and Austin Taylor.

Among this group, though, Babbitt, Dunn, and Jagt are in a different stratosphere. It’s the sixth consecutive year that each of these standouts have been named either First, Second or Third Team All-UFA. Dunn and Jagt have actually been recognized in seven straight years, dating back to 2018, while Babbitt has been All-UFA in seven of the past eight seasons.

Meanwhile, an early-season hamstring injury was certainly part of the reason why Jack Williams slipped a little bit in 2025. An All-UFA performer in each of the previous five years, Williams did not appear on any ballots after a still-solid but less-spectacular-than-normal season. 

Looking at the All-UFA honors from a team perspective, it was a tad surprising to realize that nearly 60 percent of the All-UFA performers—12 of the 21, in fact—came from just four franchises. Atlanta, Boston, Oakland, and Salt Lake each had three players honored. Beyond this quartet, New York was the only other team with multiple All-UFA selections, while seven others each had one player apiece. 

Overall, exactly half of the league’s 24 teams had at least one player make an All-UFA team, though a pair of playoff teams—Colorado and DC—are conspicuously absent from the league’s most prestigious list. Meanwhile, Carolina and Seattle were the two non-playoff squads that still saw an individual rise to the all-league level. Curiously, the Flyers and Cascades were both Championship Weekend participants in 2024 before falling shy of the playoffs entirely in 2025.

Speaking of Championship Weekend, the Minnesota Wind Chill merit a brief discussion after getting just one player into the All-UFA club after the team’s dramatic march all the way to the finals. This stands in pretty striking contrast to the other three semifinalists, who each had three players presented with All-UFA stature. 

The Wind Chill were definitely a tough team to evaluate. Their season included a couple rough performances against Chicago, but they also were unbelievably resilient and clutch during their run of three playoff victories. More than anything, though, the Wind Chill were a genuinely deep and balanced group. It’s hard to isolate anyone as the team’s top star because so many guys impacted winning in such important ways. 

On my personal ballot, I spent way too long vacillating between Paul Krenik and Tristan Van de Moortele as the most deserving Wind Chill contributor, ultimately landing on Krenik due to his dual-threat impact throughout the playoffs. I also understand why other voters believed Brandt’s O-line quarterbacking responsibilities deemed him most worthy. If others felt like Justin Burnett, Gordon Larson, or Bryan Vohnoutka should have also been considered, there’s certainly a case for that trio too. 

Among the snubs, I believed that Philly’s Sean Mott was most deserving of recognition. I had the Phoenix’s ironman on my Second Team, but he only mustered honorable mention from the entire panel. Khalif El-Salaam, Scott Heyman, and Christophe Tremblay-Joncas were others that I had on my ballot who landed outside of the top 21. 

Another strange coincidence: the three individuals who finished the season ranked second in the three most prominent statistical categories were all excluded from the top three All-UFA teams. Montreal’s Quentin Bonnaud was right behind Madison’s Anthony Gutowsky, the league leader, in goals scored, but settled for Honorable Mention. Same story for Detroit’s Jake Felton, who only trailed Carolina’s Allan Laviolette in the assist department. Colorado’s Noah Coolman notched a First Team All-Defense nod, but his 24 blocks—which actually tied him for the league lead with Babbitt—did not compel enough voters to include him either, and he joined the other two on the Honorable Mention chart. 

Speaking of defense, only two of the 14 individuals who were named to the All-Defense Teams were repeat honorees from a year ago. Atlanta’s Lukas McClamrock and Minnesota’s Justin Burnett, who were actually teammates in 2024 with the Hustle, were the pair of players recognized for their defense for the second straight season. For Burnett, it was his third consecutive year receiving an All-Defense distinction, making him the only player in the league who’s been in this position each of the past three seasons. 

On the All-Rookie front, two Toronto Rush imports joined De Marree on the top team of UFA newcomers, making it three international players on the First Team for the second straight season. In 2024, DC’s Elliot Bonnet (from France) and Seattle’s Aaron Wolf (from Germany) were All-Rookie performers, joining Decraene on the First Team. This year, Tom Blasman (from The Netherlands) and Arvids Karklins (from Latvia) complemented De Marree, the Belgian Rookie of the Year, amongst the UFA’s premier additions. 

Another nugget that jumped out: among the 14 players who received First or Second Team All-Rookie recognition, half of them came from the West Division. This group includes four members of the Oakland Spiders—Leo Gordon and Adam Rees on the First Team, Carter Lankford and Saul Wildavsky on the Second Team—along with two Seattle Cascades and one member of the Salt Lake Shred. 

Furthermore, Philly’s Sam Grossberg and Austin’s Carson Armstrong, who are both still teenagers, were the two youngest players to make the All-Rookie teams. 

Lastly, the Houston Havoc, Indianapolis AlleyCats, Oregon Steel, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds, and Vegas Bighorns were the five UFA teams that were left completely empty-handed in the 2025 Awards chase. These five franchises—which combined to go 12-48—had no players receive any votes for All-UFA, All-Defense, or All-Rookie teams. 

While there will forever be reasonable disagreements with the final choices, I do believe that the 2025 Awards do a quality job representing the overall flavor of the season. Compared to seasons past, it felt like there were more true contenders, both teams that were propelled by their stars and others who were greater than the sum of their parts. International additions were another huge preseason storyline, and the foreign phenoms clearly made their mark on the North American landscape in more significant ways than ever before.

League-wide, the level continued to rise, a reality that speaks to the continued evolution of our sport. Between the innovative strategies, increased training intensity, and the rising skills showcased by the new generation of ultimate athletes, it’s truly been a joy to watch.

And all signs suggest it will only keep getting better in the years ahead.