Connor Shellenberger just handed in the most complete attackman season the PLL has seen since the league turned on the lights. MVP. Attackman of the Year. Championship ring. If you’re still asking whether Shellenberger belongs in the conversation about the league’s best offensive player, the 2025 season answered that question so loudly you shouldn’t need to ask again.
A Season That Checked Every Box
There’s a difference between having a great year and having a great year on a great team in a championship run. Plenty of guys pile up numbers on squads that flameout in the playoffs. Shellenberger didn’t just produce during the regular season — he carried that production into October when the Atlas went 7-3 to finish atop the East Division and then dismantled the Philadelphia Waterdogs 13-11 in the semifinals before closing out the Denver Outlaws 14-13 in one of the tightest championship games the PLL has staged.
That’s the blueprint. Consistent throughout the regular season. Dangerous in the playoffs. Decisive when it mattered most. Shellenberger didn’t disappear when the lights got brighter — he got sharper. That’s what separates the award-winners from the guys who just win awards.
What a Complete PLL Attackman Actually Looks Like
The PLL attackman position has evolved fast. The days of a guy who just camped behind the cage and fired bounce shots are over. At the highest level of the professional game, the elite attackman is a playmaker, a finisher, a pace-setter, and a defensive liability eliminator — all at once. Shellenberger plays all of those roles.
He creates for others. He converts the opportunities he creates for himself. He works within the Atlas system without shrinking from the moments that require him to take over. And critically, he does it without being a black hole. The Atlas offense had Jeff Teat operating alongside him — Teat went home with Finals MVP honors after the championship game — and the fact that both players had breakout moments in the same system says everything about Shellenberger’s unselfishness. A ball-hog doesn’t produce a Finals MVP on the wing next to him.
That dual-threat offensive identity — Shellenberger as the engine, Teat as the finisher who explodes at the right moment — is the Atlas blueprint. Coach Tim Soudan won Coach of the Year across the way in Denver, but the Atlas offensive architecture deserves its own recognition. They built a machine that could win ugly or win pretty, and at 14-13 in the championship, they won both at the same time.
Where Shellenberger Fits in the PLL Star Hierarchy
Let’s not overcomplicate this. Shellenberger is the face of the PLL’s offensive game right now. He came out of Virginia as one of the most decorated college attackmen in ACC history, and the transition to the pro game — which swallows plenty of college stars whole — went exactly as the optimists predicted. He accelerated instead of plateaued.
Where does he rank all-time in PLL history? That conversation is still young enough that it’s more interesting than settled. The league is seven, eight seasons deep. The sample size is growing. But in terms of active players, Shellenberger just planted his flag at the top of the mountain. You’d have to work hard to make a case for anyone else as the most valuable offensive piece in the league right now.
The MVP vote isn’t always clean — sometimes it goes to the best player on the best team, sometimes it goes to a counting-stats monster on a mediocre squad, and sometimes the voters genuinely nail it. This year they nailed it. Shellenberger was the best player on the best team, and his numbers backed the narrative. That’s a clean result.
The Atlas Are the Standard Now
New York went 7-3 in the East, survived a 13-11 semifinal, and then held off Denver’s best shot in a 14-13 championship that went down to the wire. This is a franchise that just won its first-ever PLL title, and they did it with a system that starts with Shellenberger and doesn’t apologize for it.
The rest of the league spent 2025 watching the Atlas figure out what a championship roster looks like. The answer: build around a genuinely elite attackman, surround him with weapons who aren’t afraid to deliver in big moments, and coach them up to play complete lacrosse rather than just freelance offense. Denver’s Logan McNaney won Goalie of the Year. The Outlaws were good enough to reach the final. They just ran into the Atlas — and into a Shellenberger who had no intention of finishing second.
The 2025 PLL MVP wasn’t a consolation prize or a popularity contest. It was the right call on the right player at the right moment. Shellenberger earned it on the biggest stage available, and now every attackman in the league knows exactly what the benchmark looks like. Keep up.