Billie Jean King MVP 2025-2026: Ann-Renée Desbiens, Aerin Frankel, or Kelly Pannek

Most Valuable Player can be interpreted in a few different ways, namely: Most Valuable Player in the League vs. Most Valuable Player for their team. Both of those can bring about arguments of who is deserving. What if the MVP is on an already strong team? Are their achievements less impressive? What if the MVP is on a team that got eliminated in round one of the playoffs? Should they be discarded for failing to even fight for the championship?

This year has two goaltenders and one forward nominated for MVP. This is both a blessing and a curse for trying to decide on a player; At least we can compare the goalies head-to-head to choose one from that pair. But to then compare the two positions will take a bit more abstracting of what it means to be the “most valuable”.

Goaltenders

By the numbers

Desbiens and Frankel are very close when it comes to raw stat comparisons, with Desbiens edging out Frankel on most percentage based categories. But by raw numbers, Frankel had to face 45 more shots across the regular season and was still able to keep it close.

Comparing Defensive Help

As explored in my Goaltender of the Year post, simply trying to compare goaltending stats does not paint the full picture. That post also compared the assistance the netminder got from her defensive squad, showing a vast difference between Montreal and the rest of the league. That post largely focused on the complete lack of help Philips received from her defensive squad over at Ottawa. But the next standout was Frankel’s impressive performance in net with a defense at the low-end of average. Frankel boasts the second best save percentage with the second worst defense in the league when it comes to blocking shots.

Penalty Kills

To try to take the emphasis off of the gap in defense, we will look more into performance when on a penalty kill. Being down a defender, more pressure is put on the goaltender and makes them prove their stuff. Surprisingly, the stats here actually flip with Desbiens facing far more shots against. However, their GSAx and save percentages become nearly identical, showing that when put up to the test both Desbiens and Frankel are at the top of the league (and it’s not close).

Stolen Wins

To even further put the onus on the goaltender, what if we looked at games where the whole team underperformed? This section compares “Stolen Wins” where the expected goals against is greater than the expected goals for, meaning it takes exceptional goalkeeping to keep her team in the game. Both Frankel and Desbiens show that they truly have the team on their backs, even when the team can’t produce goals.

Desbiens Has The Edge

At this point I’ve tried dissecting games to see if there is true differentiation between Frankel and Desbiens. Diving into situations that isolate goaltender performance, they often are hand in hand at the top of the charts. Frankel stands out in that she often overcomes the lack of shot-blocking help from her defense, where Desbiens has the best defense in the league by a mile. But Desbiens separates herself in goal suppression: her GSAx (goals saved above expected) sits clearly ahead of Frankel’s, marking her as the noticeably more impactful of the two at stopping more than her share. And at the end of the day, Desbiens won the Walter Cup and Frankel didn’t.

What about Pannek?

Now that we’ve named Desbiens the most valuable goaltender, how does Pannek match up?

As explored in The Forward of the Year post, Kelly Pannek is the clear forerunner for that award. But when compared to Desbiens, does she have enough influence on the ice to contend for MVP?

Looking at Pannek’s stats, she leads the league in point contribution even off of noticeably fewer attempts. Where she falls behind is in recorded hits, but that is made up for by her physical presence in front of the crease, recording the lowest average distance to net per goal. Meaning she is up front and center, out-muscling defenders to get shots on goal.

Moving into a play-based angle, Pannek’s ability to create scoring chances is also at the top of the league. She is only second to Alex Carpenter in the Playmaker category, and is an incredible faceoff winner. Even when she is not officially credited with a point, Pannek finds a way to make goals happen.

Carrying the Team

Mirroring our assessment of Desbiens and Frankel stealing wins away from opponents by overperforming, we look at Pannek’s ability to score goals when her team needs her. While the numbers look impressive for her involvement in winning close games, her case is actually lowered by the fact that Minnesota’s offense is near the top of the league. In no scenario were the Frost outcompeted in expected goals, meaning the offense was almost always firing. Pannek did however have an outsized contribution in securing points where the offense may have been active but not necessarily converting those shots.

The next look into her team impact is how the Frost do when she is on vs off the ice. Pannek shows that when on the ice she improves both the offensive and defensive side of things, with a +0.7 xG/60 when on the ice compared to the rest of her team. While informative for comparing Pannek to the rest of her team’s performance, it is difficult to properly align this to Desbiens’s as Pannek is not playing the whole game.

Muddying the Waters

As mentioned above, Pannek is a top tier point contributor for the Frost. The difficult part for her case though is that Minnesota has several top tier forwards, including a co-nominee for Forward of the Year in Taylor Heise. So despite her stats being impressive, it appears to be a conjoined effort of the team — on a stacked forward group, Pannek isn’t the clear xG+ leader.

Desbiens for MVP

So how do we draw the winner? Desbiens outshines every other goaltender, but has a great defense to help her out. Pannek leads the league in creating goal scoring opportunities, but is backed up by a stellar offensive squad that actually converts their chances.

My vote goes for Desbiens.

Consistent performances, leading penalty kill saves, and the ability to carry her team when needed, Desbiens does it all.