Aerin Frankel

Aerin Frankel grew up in Chappaqua, New York, and by the time she left Northeastern University in 2021, she had established herself as one of the most decorated goaltenders in Hockey East history. As a freshman in 2017, she led all NCAA rookies in save percentage at .934. As a sophomore, she recorded a 28-save shutout over Boston University, becoming the first goaltender to blank BU since Florence Schelling accomplished the feat in 2011. By her senior year, she had won the Patty Kazmaier Award — college hockey's top individual honor — along with six Hockey East awards in a single season, including the conference's Goaltending Champion, First-Team All-Star, All-Tournament Team, Championship MVP, and PNC Bank Three Stars Award. That same year, the Women's Hockey Coaches Association introduced the National Goalie of the Year award, and Frankel was its inaugural recipient. She won it again in 2022.

Frankel, who catches left and stands 5'5", wears number 31 for the Boston Fleet. She signed a two-year contract extension with Boston on August 4, 2025, keeping her with the club through the 2027-28 season.

Her international record spans five IIHF Women's World Championship medals: gold in 2023 and 2025, and silver in 2021, 2022, and 2024. During the 2023 World Championship, she served as the primary goaltender and made a shutout start against Germany to advance the United States to the semifinals. That tournament made her the first U.S. women's goaltender to start five consecutive games at the national team level in 26 years.

In the PWHL's inaugural playoffs, Frankel started all eight games for Boston, logging 580:58 minutes and making 286 saves — both first overall among all playoff goaltenders. In a second-round series against Montréal, she stopped 109 of 111 shots across the first two games, including 56 saves in a 2-1 triple-overtime win in Game 2. She finished second in the PWHL in save percentage among starting goaltenders in her first year as Boston's starter, and the following season appeared in 23 games with a 12-8-3-1 record, ranked first in the league in both games played and minutes (1,342:18), and was a finalist for the PWHL Goaltender of the Year award for the second consecutive year.

The 2025-26 season brought a run of performances that produced records at both the league and Olympic levels. In 22 starts for the Fleet, she recorded seven shutouts, a PWHL record, including three consecutive shutouts — also a PWHL record — and an overall scoreless streak of 236 minutes and 45 seconds. At the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, she added three shutouts in five games, an Olympic record. Across 27 starts in those two competitions combined, she had recorded 10 shutouts.

Colin Hodd explored what drives that run in No Weird Tricks Required: Aerin Frankel and the Power of Goalie Basics, tracing it not to any novel technique but to fundamentals. "I rely a lot on my skating. It's really important for me to be a good skater," Frankel told InGoal. "It's something I still work on and I think you can never be good enough of a skater. I think it's super important for goalies." On the question of drills or systems, she was equally direct: "Crease movement stuff and just stuff that my goalie coaches have given me over the years that maybe might seem elementary, but I think you're never too good of a skater. So for me, just continue to work on the basics."

Managing the attention that comes with success has been its own area of focus. "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," she said No Weird Tricks Required: Aerin Frankel and the Power of Goalie Basics. "Just thinking about myself and my teammates and not really getting too wrapped up in what's going on outside the glass, just really focusing on what's inside. Just learning to play my game, regardless of what the atmosphere is." On the broader subject of pressure, she added: "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. I think the better you get and the brighter the lights are, the bigger the stage, there's more people looking to talk about you and your team."

Frankel appeared on the InGoal Radio Podcast in Episode 346 Episode 346: Olympians: gold-medal winner Aerin Frankel from Team USA and Rei Halloran from Team Japan., recorded after her return from the Olympic Games, where she described her Olympic experience and the Fleet's objectives heading into the remainder of the season. "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 No Weird Tricks Required: Aerin Frankel and the Power of Goalie Basics. "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. So that's where we've all shifted our focus to."

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