Aerin Frankel

Aerin Frankel grew up in Chappaqua, New York, and by the time she finished her four seasons at Northeastern University she had won the Patty Kazmaier Award — college hockey's highest individual honor — and become the inaugural recipient of the WHCA National Goalie of the Year award in 2021. She won that award a second time in 2022. As a freshman at Northeastern, 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 shut out BU since Florence Schelling accomplished it in 2011.

Frankel joined the Boston Fleet for the PWHL's first season and quickly established herself as the team's primary netminder. During the inaugural PWHL Playoffs, she started all eight games, logging 580:58 minutes and finishing first in the league in both playoff minutes played and saves made with 286. In a 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 victory in Game 2. She was a top-three finalist for PWHL Goaltender of the Year that season.

In her second PWHL season, Frankel appeared in 23 games — first in the league — and logged 1,342:18 minutes. She posted a record of 12-8-3-1 and a save percentage of .921, second among starting goaltenders in the PWHL. She recorded a shutout on February 12, 2025, against New York, helping Boston defeat the Sirens 4-0. She was a top-three Goaltender of the Year finalist for the second consecutive year.

On August 4, 2025, Frankel signed a two-year contract extension with Boston through the 2027-28 season.

Representing the United States internationally, Frankel has earned 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 earned a 3-0 shutout victory over Germany to advance the U.S. to the semi-finals. That tournament also made her the first U.S. women's goaltender to start five consecutive games at the national team level in 26 years.

In the 2025-26 PWHL season, Frankel set a PWHL record with seven shutouts in 22 starts, including three consecutive shutouts — also a PWHL record — with an overall scoreless streak of 236 minutes and 45 seconds. In between, she competed at the Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games, where she recorded three shutouts in five games, an Olympic record. Across the PWHL regular season and Olympics combined, she had posted 10 shutouts in 27 starts.

On the InGoal Radio Podcast ^[1], Frankel spoke about how she manages the attention that comes with success at the professional 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. "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." She also described an early adjustment to larger PWHL crowds: "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. And I think staying present helps a lot with that."

When asked about the foundation of her play, Frankel pointed to skating and repetition of fundamentals. "I rely a lot on my skating. It's really important for me to be a good skater," she said ^[1]. "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."

A Colin Hodd piece for InGoal ^[2] examined that approach in the context of her record-setting 2025-26 season, noting that her shutout totals came without any particular innovation — only sustained focus on foundational technique.

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