MONTREAL - Laurent Ciman of the Montreal Impact is Major League Soccer's defender of the year.

The stylish Belgian international beat out Kendall Waston of the Vancouver Whitecaps and Matt Hedges of FC Dallas in voting by the media, MLS players and MLS club management.

"This is a great achievement to win this award, but we have to work harder to get even better next year." Ciman said in a statement Wednesday. "This is a nice individual honour, but I have to credit my teammates who were just as good."

Ciman drew 34.55 per cent of club votes, 25.35 of media votes and 21.02 of players' votes for a weighted total of 80.92. Waston, a Costa Rican international was second, at 61.28 and Hedges third at 54.89.

Ciman played in 27 regular-season matches in his debut season in North America, helping Montreal surrender 14 fewer goals in 2015 compared to 2014.

He also scored two goals, added two assists and finished second on the team with 2,405 minutes played.

He was selected to the 2015 MLS all-star game, wearing the captain's armband during the second half against England's Tottenham.

Ciman joined Montreal in January from Belgium's Standard de Liege.