Canada’s St. Clair caps off stellar season with MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Award

Dayne St. Clair added to his case to become Canada’s No. 1 on Monday when he was named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year.

The Minnesota United ‘keeper beat out New York City FC’s Matt Freese and the Vancouver Whitecaps’ Yohei Takaoka in voting by MLS clubs’ technical staff, first-team players and select media.

St. Clair had 29.4 per cent of the combined vote with Freese at 17.32 per cent and Takaoka at 15.49.

St. Clair was the clear winner in the media portion of the vote (47.46 per cent to Takaoka’s 11.30 and Freese’s 5.65) while Freese and Takaoka topped the player portion (both at 20.37 per cent compared to 18.52 for St. Clair) and Freese led the club vote (25.93 to St. Clair’s 22.22 and Takaoka’s 14.81).

“This has definitely been my most consistent and my best year, without a doubt in my mind,” St. Clair said. “But I also know that I haven’t reached my peak yet. I think I still have more to go and I know that I can still be better than I have (been).”

It’s the latest honour in a season that saw St. Clair voted onto the MLS all-star team.

The 28-year-old from Pickering, Ont., joins Pat Onstad as the only Canadian to win the MLS goalkeeper award. Onstad, now the Houston Dynamo’s president of soccer, won in 2003 and ’05 as a member of the San Jose Earthquakes.

Maxime Crepeau, St. Clair’s rival for the Canadian starting position, finished fifth in the voting in 2021 while Greg Sutton was fourth in 2008.

St. Clair says he tries to stay in the moment when it comes to the national team ahead of next year’s World Cup.

“A World Cup, especially a home World Cup on top of that, that’s what dreams are made of,” he said. “Especially the first game being in Toronto where I grew up, that’s something I know will never come again in my lifetime. So it’s really one opportunity at it.

“And I know that this season, leading up obviously to next season, will have a large part in determining how big of a role I play for the team there.”

St. Clair, who backed up Milan Borjan at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, has won 17 caps for Canada with eight clean sheets.

The 28th-ranked Canadian men close out their 2025 schedule with games against No. 23 Ecuador and No. 50 Venezuela on Nov. 13 and 18 in Toronto and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., respectively.

St. Clair and Minnesota visit Seattle on Monday in Game 2 of their best-of-three first-round playoff with the Sounders. Minnesota won the opener in a penalty shootout (3-2) after a scoreless draw, with two Sounders hitting the woodwork.

Playing behind a Minnesota team sporting the third stingiest defence in the league (conceding an average of 1.15 goals a game), the seven-year MLS veteran recorded regular-season highs in saves (113) and shutouts (10), while also tying his regular season-high of 15 wins. He led the league in saves percentage (77.9 per cent) and recorded the second-best goals-against average (1.00).

Among starting goalkeepers, St. Clair finished the regular season tied for seventh in wins, fourth in saves and tied for fourth in shutouts.

The Loons held the opposition to one goal or less in 23 of their 34 regular-season outings. That included a 3-1 win at San Diego FC on Sept. 23 that saw St. Clair make a career-high 12 saves.

“We have a very defiant style of play and that includes all guys giving their all to defend and then being able to attack from those defensive moments,” said St. Clair.

Minnesota, which finished fourth in the West at 16-8-10, set single-season records for wins (16) and points (58) and goals allowed (39). It also posted its best-ever road record (8-3-6) while its total of eight losses on the season was another franchise best.

St. Clair joins Vito Mannone (2019) as the second Minnesota United player to win the award.

Minnesota selected the six-foot-three ‘keeper in the first round (seventh overall) in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft out of the University of Maryland.

St. Clair finished his collegiate career at Maryland by winning the NCAA title, going five games at the tournament without conceding a goal. He ended his time as a Terrapin on a 500-minute shutout run.

St. Clair was 15 when he made his debut in the Canadian youth program in 2013 with coach Robert Gale. He made his senior debut at 24 in a 7-0 win over Aruba in a World Cup qualifier in June 2022.

St. Clair started out as an outfield player, making the move to goalkeeper at age 14. He developed at Ajax FC under Dario Gasparotto, now a staff coach at FC Durham Academy, before joining Vaughan Soccer Club.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2025.

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press