A massive free agency swing after a near-MVP level rookie season.
March 6, 2026 by Alex Rubin and Charlie Eisenhood in News
Daan De Marrée, the 2025 UFA Rookie of the Year and unanimous All-UFA First Team selection, is leaving Chicago and signing with the New York Empire for the 2026 season.
Just 24 years old, De Marrée already has a list of accolades nearly too long to list. The 2025 Club Men’s Division Player of the Year is also the three-time defending European Men’s Player of the Year. His 20-goal, 24-assist, four-block, zero-turnover line at USA Ultimate Club Nationals last fall cemented his place in ultimate history–nobody else in the last decade of stat-keeping has notched a 20-20 stat line, let alone doing so without a single turnover. Many ultimate pundits consider De Marrée to be the world’s best player.
“We are ultra excited to have Daan joining the team,” said Empire General Manager Matt Stevens. “He does everything at an extremely high level and will push the entire roster to be better. Perhaps most impressive is that he touches the disc a ton, puts up gaudy looking stats, and all the while plays within himself and is a selfless teammate.”
In his UFA rookie season with the Chicago Union last year, he scored 28 goals and threw 43 assists while posting just eight turnovers to lead the league in plus/minus. Though he only played in three-quarters of the season, his impact was so great that he finished as a runner-up to Belgian countryman Tobe Decraene for last season’s MVP award.
With the WFDF World Ultimate Club Championships set for this summer in Ireland and De Marrée’s Mooncatchers club among the title favorites, De Marrée was initially thinking that he might step away from the UFA this season to focus entirely on his club season. But, once new Empire signing Alex Atkins connected him with the team, he had to consider the opportunity.
“It took a probably two months, a lot of thinking, and comparing the different cities and opportunities,” De Marrée said. “I honestly didn’t really know what to do for a while. Then one random day I just made the decision, and ever since then, I’ve felt very comfortable with that choice.”
The New York Empire have a history of bringing in highly-priced and highly-prized free agents. The team’s financial might and history of success has convinced players like Atkins (2026), Max Sheppard (2025), Calvin Brown (2025), John Randolph (2022), Antoine Davis (2022), Jack Williams (2019), and Ben Jagt (2017) to move to New York and suit up for the Empire.
“The Empire are known for being an excellent professional organization,” De Marrée said, “and I’m excited to experience what that feels like – to be treated as a professional athlete and to have the best resources possible.”
New York won titles in 2019, 2022, and 2023 and made the title game in 2021. Despite their recent success, New York lost the East Division title game each of the last two years and has not been to Championship Weekend since 2023. After Boston’s 2025 title run, the Empire spent this offseason courting more firepower to compete in their division with their sights set on yet another title.
“Daan’s athleticism and conditioning are second to none and he is relentlessly efficient,” said Stevens. “With the Union in 2025, he put up an outrageous +83 in 10 games. His contributions were massive on both sides of the disc, an attribute that will fit right into the Empire’s history of exceptional two-way players.”
De Marrée expects to play in most games this season. He is moving to New York but will spend some time in Europe as well training with Mooncatchers ahead of WUCC. De Marrée is still finalizing his USA visa to ensure he can live in the US for much of the season. All in all, he expects to only miss at most one or two games, and there is the potential that he plays every single one. “There will be quite a bit of traveling and a lot of ultimate,” De Marrée said.
