Gwyneth Philips

When Gwyneth Philips hiked to the top of a mountain during the 2025 offseason, she had no cell service — and missed the PWHL expansion draft entirely. By the time a stray bar or two of signal found her at the summit, her phone lit up with a cascade of texts telling her the roster around her had changed completely. She put it in airplane mode and came back down the mountain. That moment, as recounted on Episode 316 of the InGoal Radio Podcast ^[1], captures something about how the Athens, Ohio native has approached her career.

Philips, born September 17, 2000, plays for the Ottawa Charge wearing number 33. She catches right and stands 5'7". Before she was a professional, she spent five seasons at Northeastern University, from 2019 to 2024, where she served as an alternate captain in her final year. She left Northeastern holding the NCAA record for career save percentage at .958, and during the 2023–24 season alone she set program records for wins (34), games played (38), and minutes played (2,272). The Hockey Writers Collective Association named her National Goaltender of the Year in 2023, and she was a Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award Top-10 Finalist in both 2023 and 2024. She earned All-American First Team recognition at the end of both the 2022–23 and 2023–24 seasons.

Her first PWHL start came on December 19 in Minnesota, the fifth game of Ottawa's inaugural regular season, where she allowed four goals on 43 shots in a 5–2 loss. Her third career start, on January 21, produced a 1–0 shutout of the Minnesota Frost — her first professional win. A second shutout followed on April 2, a 4–0 win over Lowell against fellow American goaltender Aerin Frankel. She finished her rookie regular season with an 8–5–1 record, two shutouts, a 2.11 GAA, and a .919 save percentage, earning a spot on the PWHL All-Rookie Team and a finalist nomination for both Rookie of the Year and Goaltender of the Year.

Then Emerance Maschmeyer suffered a season-ending injury on March 11, and Philips took over. She started 16 consecutive games — eight in the regular season, eight in the playoffs — going 9–3–4 across that stretch. In the postseason, she blanked Montréal in Game 3 of the opening round with 26 saves in a 1–0 win to give Ottawa a 2–1 series lead. She never lost a playoff game in regulation. Her final playoff line was 4–0–4 with a 1.23 GAA and a .952 save percentage, and she led all goaltenders with 257 saves — more than 100 ahead of second-place Maddie Rooney of Minnesota, who stopped 150. At the end of it, Philips became the first goaltender to receive the Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP award.

Ahead of her second PWHL season, Philips was one of three players the Charge protected in the expansion draft. As she described on Episode 316 of the InGoal Radio Podcast ^[1], she found out about the draft's outcome — including that Maschmeyer had been left unprotected and landed with Vancouver — while standing on a mountaintop with barely a signal.

Her national team résumé has moved quickly alongside her professional career. She represented the United States at the 2024 and 2025 IIHF Women's World Championships, winning gold at the 2025 edition. In the gold medal game of that tournament, she entered in the third period after Aerin Frankel was injured, with the score tied, and was the goaltender on the ice when the United States won in overtime. She then started two games at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics and did not allow a goal in either, finishing as a gold medalist with Team USA.

Colin Hodd's piece on Episode 316 of the InGoal Radio Podcast ^[1] explores how Philips manages the offseason — what she does away from the rink, why she does it, and what it means for how she returns to the game. InGoal Magazine has covered Gwyneth Philips in one InGoal article.

Off the ice, Philips played lacrosse, volleyball, flag football, and basketball in high school, and has more recently taken up rock climbing and cycling. She spends time camping, hiking, biking, boating, and skiing, and takes her French Bulldog, Paris, along on most of her trips. After the 2025 Walter Cup Final, her first major purchase was a camper; she drove out to California and spent roughly 20 days camping, documenting the journey on her TikTok account (@gwynethphilips). Her father, Guy Philips, raced in the Porsche series back in Ohio, and Gwyneth grew up doing go-kart racing. "I love hockey more than anything," she told InGoal ^[1], "but I also love to do things outside. It keeps me fresh. I think it really helps a lot with my game too."