Kimberly Newell

Kimberly Newell grew up in Burnaby, British Columbia, watching WHL Giants games from the nosebleed seats at the Pacific Coliseum. Decades later, she skated out of that same building as a goaltender for the PWHL's Vancouver Goldeneyes — her hometown's first professional women's hockey team.

The path to that opening-night skate was anything but direct. Newell, born October 4, 1995, played collegiately at Princeton, where she became the program's all-time winningest goaltender in the history of Princeton women's hockey, according to host Kevin Woodley on InGoal Radio. After graduating, she moved to New York City to work in finance, stepping away from competitive hockey for two years before returning to play professionally for KRS Vanke Rays in the Zhenskaya Hockey League. That return had a specific purpose: representing her Chinese heritage as a member of the first-ever Chinese professional women's team. She carries the Chinese name Zhou Jiaying and went on to represent China in the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing — an experience she discussed in depth on episode 178 of the InGoal Radio podcast ^[1].

The road back to pro hockey a second time was equally deliberate. When the PWHL announced Vancouver as an expansion market, Newell was working as a goaltending coach with a U18 AAA program and had attended a PWHL Takeover Tour game at Rogers Arena — a sellout of more than 19,000 fans. "When it got announced, I was like, wow. Like, maybe I should give this a real shot. Like, who knows what's gonna happen? But if I don't try, I think I might regret it," she told Woodley on episode 330 of InGoal Radio ^[2]. She has been clear that the location was the deciding factor — representing Vancouver specifically, not simply returning to pro hockey.

The physical preparation for that attempt was methodical and phased. Newell had entered the PWHL draft while managing lingering effects of an ankle injury sustained before the 2022 Olympics. Through the summer, she limited her on-ice sessions to once or twice a week, building an off-ice base first — strength, conditioning, and mobility — before ramping up to three or four skates per week by September and October. In September she traveled to San Jose to work in person with a strength coach and neuromuscular therapist to develop a program bridging the gap between clinical rehab and competitive performance. She also has been building her coaching platform through InPower Hockey, a business she co-founded, and has said she intends to continue that work alongside her playing career.

The intellectual framework Newell brings to goaltending was a central topic of the conversation on episode 330 ^[2], where she walked through her approach to movement quality in detail — covering the concepts of versatility, adaptability, and resiliency as distinct athletic properties, and discussing how the shift from the technical to the performance mindset requires a goalie's brain to move between conscious learning and unconscious execution. She also discussed working with the Goldeneyes' goaltending coach on the shift, or press — a technique she had developed extensively during her time in Russia — and the importance of understanding why one movement option might suit a given situation over another.

On the 2013 U18 World Championship, Newell was part of a gold-medal-winning Team Canada squad that also included teammates Hannah Miller, Sarah Nurse, and Emerance Maschmeyer — the same Maschmeyer who would later become her playing partner in Vancouver. The two had also crossed paths at a U18 national team camp early in their careers.

Opening night at the Pacific Coliseum landed differently than any previous professional moment. "I got the little chills, you know, like, running down your back. I was like, I'm getting nervous now. Like, I can hear the crowd," Newell told Woodley ^[2]. Her parents were in attendance, along with many players and families she had coached in the local hockey community.

Newell wears number 35 for Vancouver and catches left. She stands 5-foot-9.

InGoal Magazine has covered Kimberly Newell in two podcast appearances.