Ann-Renée Desbiens: The Undisputed Queen of PWHL Fantasy Hockey.
There are players you question in fantasy hockey. You weigh the risk, consider the matchups, examine the workload, and make your best educated guess. And then there are players where the debate simply does not exist. Where the numbers are so dominant, the situation so ideal, and the track record so consistent that the only conversation worth having is how high you are willing to draft her.
Ann-Renée Desbiens is not the question. She is the answer.
The Montréal Victoire netminder just completed the most dominant goaltending season in PWHL history. In 2025–26, Desbiens finished with a league-leading 19 wins, a 1.11 goals-against average, a .955 save percentage, and seven shutouts. All league bests, all historic. She was named PWHL Goaltender of the Year for the second consecutive season. She was protected by Montréal in the expansion draft alongside only Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey. The clearest possible organizational signal that she is untouchable, irreplaceable, and central to everything the Victoire are building.
And then the playoffs…..playoffs?…playoffs?
Desbiens led all playoff goaltenders with two shutouts and a .944 save percentage. In the Walter Cup Final against Ottawa, she was nothing short of perfect. Holding the Charge to 23 shots in the clinching Game 4 and not letting a single one past her, delivering a championship shutout that cemented her status as the greatest goaltender this league has ever seen. Poulin lifted the Walter Cup. But Desbiens built the foundation it was lifted from.
The fantasy case for 2026–27 is airtight on every level.
Desbiens is 31 years old and signed through next season on a two-year contract extension she inked alongside Poulin and Stacey in the summer of 2025. Stability that every fantasy manager covets. The Victoire finished first overall this season with 62 points, led the entire PWHL in goals against with just 41 allowed over 30 games, and are now Walter Cup champions with their core fully intact. The structure in front of her is elite. The goaltending is elite. The team is built to win again.
Regression? The word does not apply here. Desbiens has posted back-to-back Goaltender of the Year seasons, improving her GAA from 1.86 in 2024–25 to 1.11 in 2025–26 while simultaneously raising her save percentage from .932 to .955. She is not declining. She is ascending. And with the expansion draft stripping depth from the teams around her while Montréal’s core remains protected and intact, the competitive advantage the Victoire carry into 2026–27 is significant.
Ann-Renée Desbiens is the best fantasy goaltender in the PWHL…and next season, she is going to prove it all over again.
Statistics sourced from the PWHL official records, The IX Hockey, and RinkHive, June 2026.