Kimberly Newell

Kimberly Newell grew up in Burnaby, British Columbia, attending Vancouver Giants games at the Pacific Coliseum as a kid — the same building that now houses her PWHL team, the Vancouver Goldeneyes. The full-circle nature of that geography runs through her return to professional hockey as directly as anything else in her career.

Newell played collegiate hockey at Princeton, where she became the winningest goaltender in the program's women's hockey history. Before her professional career took shape, she represented Canada at the U18 level, winning gold in 2013 alongside teammates who would later become PWHL colleagues — including Emerance Maschmeyer, Hannah Miller, and Sarah Nurse. She subsequently stepped away from hockey for two years to work in finance in New York City before returning to the ice for KRS Vanke Rays in the Zhenskaya Hockey League. That return was motivated in part by the opportunity to represent her Chinese heritage as a member of the Chinese national team — she also goes by the Chinese name Zhou Jiaying. She represented China in the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, playing through an ankle injury that she has continued to manage and rehabilitate since.

The decision to pursue a spot on the PWHL's expansion Vancouver Goldeneyes was, by her own account, specific to the city. "I think it all comes back to why I'm doing this in the first place," Newell said on episode 330 of the InGoal Radio podcast. "This time it's to represent my hometown of Vancouver, which growing up, it just wasn't something that I ever thought would ever happen. And so to literally be living through it and to be able to be a part of that is just incredible." ^[1] She described watching a PWHL TakeOver Tour game at Rogers Arena — which drew over 19,000 fans — as the first moment she seriously considered the possibility.

Between her Olympic appearance and the Goldeneyes' inaugural season, Newell remained active in the hockey world as a coach, working with a U18 AAA program in Vancouver and co-founding InPower Hockey. That coaching background shaped how she approached her physical return to competitive goaltending. She maintained a base level of fitness by playing beer league as a skater rather than a goaltender, and she described the process of rebuilding as deliberate and phased — focused on conditioning and mobility off the ice before progressively increasing on-ice sessions, with skating limited to once or twice a week through much of the summer. In September ahead of the Goldeneyes' first training camp, she traveled to San Jose to work with a strength coach and neuromuscular therapist to address the residual effects of her ankle injury and bridge the gap between rehabilitation and competitive performance.

The coaching work also informed how she thinks about goaltender movement. On episode 330 ^[1], Newell described a framework built around three qualities — versatility, adaptability, and resiliency — and discussed how years of breaking down technique for younger goalies clarified her own understanding of why movement decisions differ from goaltender to goaltender. She also spoke about the mental side of preparation: the discipline of shifting from a detail-oriented learning mode in practice to a clear, trust-based performance mode on game days.

Opening night at the Pacific Coliseum carried particular weight. "As we were walking to that gate on the end to skate out," she said, "I got the little chills running down my back. I could hear the crowd and the announcer. There were so many people that I had coached or worked with or that I just knew that played hockey — so many people in the local community that were there wanting to celebrate and support women's hockey. That was so special." ^[1]

Newell first appeared on InGoal Radio in episode 179 following the 2022 Olympics, discussing mindset and her return to professional play ^[2]. InGoal Magazine has covered Kimberly Newell in two podcast appearances.