Aerin Frankel

Aerin Frankel grew up in Chappaqua, New York, and by the time she reached her freshman year at Northeastern University in 2017, she was already leading all NCAA rookies in save percentage with a .934 mark. Four years later, she left the Hockey East program as its most decorated goaltender, having set records for save percentage, goals-against average, wins, and shutouts, and having led the Huskies to the 2021 NCAA championship game.

The honors that accompanied that 2021 season were extensive. Frankel won the Patty Kazmaier Award — presented to the top player in women's college hockey — and was named the inaugural recipient of the WHCA National Goalie of the Year award, a distinction she would claim a second time in 2022. Within Hockey East alone she collected six additional honors that year, including the conference's Goaltending Champion, First-Team All-Star, All-Tournament Team, Championship MVP, and PNC Bank Three Stars Award. As a sophomore she had posted a 28-save shutout over Boston University, becoming the first goaltender to blank BU since Florence Schelling accomplished the feat in 2011.

Frankel's national team career runs parallel to her collegiate and professional record. She has earned five IIHF Women's World Championship medals representing the United States: gold in 2023 and 2025, and silver in 2021, 2022, and 2024. During the 2023 championship run, she served as the primary goaltender and recorded a 3-0 shutout over Germany to advance the U.S. to the semifinals. That tournament also marked the first time in 26 years a U.S. women's goaltender had started five consecutive games at the national team level.

When the PWHL launched its inaugural season, Frankel was Boston's starter and carried that role into the playoffs. She appeared in all eight of the Fleet's postseason games, recording 580 minutes and 58 seconds while finishing first among all goaltenders in both minutes played and saves made with 286. In the semifinal 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 was a finalist for PWHL Goaltender of the Year and was named a PWHL Second Team All-Star for the 2024 season.

Her second PWHL season saw Frankel appear in 23 games — first in the league — and log 1,342 minutes and 18 seconds. She finished with a record of 12-8-3-1 and a .921 save percentage, second among starting goaltenders in the PWHL. On January 31, 2025, she became the first goaltender in PWHL history to record 1,000 career saves. She recorded a shutout on February 12, 2025, against New York, part of a 4-0 Fleet victory. She was a Goaltender of the Year finalist for the second consecutive year.

The 2025-26 season brought another chapter at the national team level when Frankel competed at the Olympic Winter Games in Milano-Cortina. She then returned to the Fleet and continued her regular season. In an article examining her approach to the game ^[1], Colin Hodd reported that through 22 starts Frankel had posted seven shutouts — a PWHL record — along with three consecutive shutouts and an overall scoreless streak of 236 minutes and 45 seconds, and that she had recorded three shutouts in five Olympic games, also an Olympic record. Frankel had appeared on Episode 346 of the InGoal Radio Podcast ^[2] shortly after returning from Milano-Cortina, and her comments about managing attention and staying process-focused are woven throughout Hodd's piece ^[1] — both are worth reading together for the full picture of what has driven her production this season.

On that podcast appearance ^[2], Frankel spoke in her own words about how she approaches playing in front of larger 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." She also pointed to skating as the foundation of her preparation: "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." On where her focus sits as the season moves toward the playoffs, she was direct: "We have our goal set on the Walter Cup. So that's where we've all shifted our focus to."

On August 4, 2025, Frankel signed a two-year contract extension with Boston through the 2027-28 season, keeping her with the Fleet through the foreseeable future of the league.

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