[eigenket]

There are many protocols for quantum key distribution/exchange so it's hard to answer fully without knowing which one you're talking about. That said their are protocols, like the one invented by Artur Ekert in 1991, which use entanglement in an essential way to transmit the key. Even in the absence of an evesdropper the protocol will not work without entanglement. It escapes the no-communication theorem by also requiring some classical communication.

[quantadev]

Right, if you expand the scope of the discussion to other areas other than sending bits, there are various ways entanglement is used in various protocols. But none of them utilize entanglement to be able to get a bit from Alice to Bob faster than light can go.