Aerin Frankel

Aerin Frankel grew up in Chappaqua, New York, and by the time she left Northeastern University in 2021, she had become the inaugural winner of the WHCA National Goalie of the Year award — an honor she would claim again the following year. She won the Patty Kazmaier Award that same season, added six Hockey East honors in a single year, and led NCAA rookies in save percentage with a .934 mark during her first college season in 2017. As a sophomore, she recorded a 28-save shutout over Boston University, becoming the first goaltender to blank BU since Florence Schelling had done so in 2011.

From Northeastern, Frankel joined the United States national program, eventually earning five IIHF Women's World Championship medals — gold in 2023 and 2025, silver in 2021, 2022, and 2024. During the 2023 tournament she served as the primary goalie and made history as the first U.S. women's goaltender to start five consecutive games at the national team level in 26 years. Her performance in the 2023 run included a 3-0 shutout of Germany to advance the U.S. to the semi-finals.

When the PWHL launched, Frankel was in the Boston Fleet net from the start. During the inaugural PWHL playoffs she started all eight of Boston's games, logging 580:58 minutes and leading all playoff goaltenders in both minutes played and saves made with 286. In the semi-final series against Montréal, she made 109 saves on 111 shots across the first two games, including 56 saves in a 2-1 triple-overtime win in Game 2. She was a finalist for PWHL Goaltender of the Year in each of the league's first two seasons (2024 and 2025).

In her second PWHL season she appeared in 23 games — the most of any goaltender in the league — finishing with a 12-8-3-1 record and a .921 save percentage, second among starting goaltenders. She recorded a shutout against New York on February 12, 2025, in a 4-0 Fleet win. On August 4, 2025, she signed a two-year contract extension with Boston through the 2027-28 season.

The 2025-26 season brought a level of statistical concentration that drew wider attention. In 22 starts for the Fleet, Frankel recorded seven shutouts — a PWHL record — including three consecutive shutouts, itself a PWHL record, with an overall scoreless streak of 236 minutes and 45 seconds. As Colin Hodd detailed in No Weird Tricks Required: Aerin Frankel and the Power of Goalie Basics, that total includes an Olympic-record three shutouts across five games at the Milano-Cortina Games, where she won gold with Team USA, bringing her shutout count across both stages of the season to 10 in 27 starts. Hodd noted that Frankel had recorded only one shutout in each of her prior two PWHL seasons despite finishing second and third in league save percentage in those years.

In a conversation on Episode 346 of the InGoal Radio Podcast Episode 346: Olympians: gold-medal winner Aerin Frankel from Team USA and Rei Halloran from Team Japan., Frankel discussed the focus that has shaped her approach at both the professional and international level. "I think for me, just being able to stay present and focus on what I can control, which is only myself and my preparation and not everything that's going on," she said. On playing in front of larger crowds after joining the PWHL, she described an adjustment: "At first, I was nervous playing in front of bigger crowds. I think now I've just kind of learned to just focus on my own game." On technique, she pointed to skating as foundational: "I rely a lot on my skating. It's really important for me to be a good skater — it's something I still work on and I think you can never be good enough of a skater." She described her approach to those fundamentals as continuing to work on "stuff that my goalie coaches have given me over the years that maybe might seem elementary."

Returning from Milano-Cortina with the Fleet still in regular season, she kept her attention on the team's stated goal. "It's been awesome. I had so much fun playing in my first Olympics with my team and being able to bring home gold was incredible," she said. "And now I'm really excited to be back with the Fleet and the PWHL and being back in our season. [We] have our goal set on the Walter Cup."

InGoal Magazine has covered Aerin Frankel in one podcast appearance and one InGoal article.