Kimberly Newell

Kimberly Newell grew up in Burnaby, British Columbia, attending Vancouver Giants games at the Pacific Coliseum as a child — the same building where, decades later, she would skate out to a sold-out crowd as a goaltender for the PWHL's Vancouver Goldeneyes. The journey between those two moments wound through Princeton University, New York City's financial sector, a professional league in Russia, and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Newell was born October 4, 1995, and holds Canadian citizenship while also representing China internationally through her Chinese name Zhou Jiaying. She played her university hockey at Princeton, where she became the program's all-time winningest goaltender in the history of the women's program. After graduating, she spent roughly two years away from the game working in finance in New York before returning to professional hockey with KRS Vanke Rays of the Zhenskaya Hockey League. That return carried personal significance: she had come back to represent her Chinese heritage by playing for the first professional Chinese women's team. That chapter culminated in representing China at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Before the Olympics, Newell had dealt with an ankle injury that she carried through the Games. In 2013, she was part of the Canadian national under-18 program, winning a gold medal alongside teammates who would go on to their own prominent PWHL careers — among them Kristen Campbell and Sarah Nurse, as well as Hannah Miller.

The path to Vancouver was a different kind of return. When the PWHL announced an expansion team for her hometown, Newell entered the draft. She described the decision clearly in episode 330 of the InGoal Radio podcast ^[1]: "If I don't try, I think I might regret it." She had been coaching a local U18 AAA team at the time and attended a PWHL Takeover Tour game at Rogers Arena — a game she said drew over 19,000 fans — before the Vancouver franchise was even confirmed. When it was, the possibility of playing professional hockey in her own city became the motivation she needed.

Getting back to competitive form after another extended gap away from goaltending was the central challenge. On episode 330 ^[1], Newell walked through her preparation in detail: a phased approach that prioritized building an off-ice conditioning and strength base before gradually introducing ice sessions, sometimes as few as once per week through the summer months. She also traveled to San Jose in September to work with her strength coach and a neuromuscular therapist to develop a program specifically designed to bridge the gap between ankle rehabilitation and full athletic performance. Training camp was held in November, and she described structuring her preparation to peak precisely at that window.

Newell is also a co-founder of InPower Hockey, a goaltending development business she continued running through training camp and into the PWHL season. Her coaching work has shaped the way she thinks about movement and goaltending technique — away from prescriptive, single-method instruction toward what she describes as versatility, adaptability, and resiliency as distinct movement qualities. Episode 330 ^[1] goes deep into those concepts, including her thinking on butterfly posture, hand positioning relative to shot trajectory, and the distinction between learning mode and performance mode in a training week. It is some of the most detailed technical discussion InGoal has published from an active player.

Her Vancouver teammates in goal are Kristen Campbell and Sadie Campbell (referred to as "Soupy" in conversation), and Newell noted that all three play noticeably different styles — something she finds useful as a coaching-minded observer. Her connection to the PWHL's goaltending coach, Joey, developed through training camp, having not previously worked together directly, though Newell was familiar with the broader coaching network through her years with Sean Murray.

Opening night at the Pacific Coliseum landed hard. "I got the little chills, you know, like, running down your back," she said on episode 330 ^[1], describing the walk from the dressing room to the ice with the crowd already audible. Her parents were in the building. Former teammates and players she had coached were there. The moment connected directly to the childhood she had spent in those same stands watching junior hockey with no women's professional league on the horizon.

Newell's first appearance on InGoal Radio came in episode 179 ^[2], recorded after the 2022 Olympics, which Kevin Woodley has described as being loaded with mindset content from her experience returning to play after a long absence. InGoal Magazine has covered Kimberly Newell in two podcast appearances.