Nicole Hensley

Nicole Hensley was the first goaltender selected in the PWHL's inaugural draft, and by the time she left Minnesota after three seasons, she had won the Walter Cup twice — in 2024 and 2025. In June 2026 she signed with expansion PWHL Las Vegas through 2027-28, joining a franchise that named her to its first training camp roster alongside former Frost teammates Mae Batherson and Kendall Cooper.

Hensley grew up in Lakewood, Colorado, and was a three-time winner of the Colorado Sportswoman of the Year award (2013–15), earning induction into the Colorado Sportswomen of the Year Hall of Fame in 2015. Her path to the PWHL ran through the United States national program, where she became a two-time Winter Olympian — winning gold at the 2018 Games and silver at the 2022 Games. On the world championship stage she earned six medals across six tournaments: gold in 2016, 2017, and 2023, and silver in 2021, 2022, and 2024.

Those Walter Cups completed a résumé that places Hensley among the PWHL's Triple Gold Club — one of 14 players in the league to hold Olympic gold, a world championship gold, and a Walter Cup. In her two playoff runs with Minnesota, she went 4-4 in eight starts, posting a 1.57 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage, per ^[1].

Before the PWHL, Hensley played in the PHF with Buffalo in 2018-19 and was part of the PWHPA. On InGoal Radio Episode 242 ^[2], recorded during the PWHL's first season, she described the shift to a fully professional environment in direct terms: "Two years ago, we're practicing at, like, 06:30 in the morning so that we can have numbers at these skates so people can be there and then go do their job to get paid. So we went from that to this being a full-time job." She spoke at length about game-day preparation — consistent routines, her practice of taping a stick when she first arrives at the rink, the role of music on the drive in, and how she learned to treat pre-game nerves as energy rather than a signal to suppress. She also traced the ice-cream-cone stitching on her Brian's equipment to a low moment in a morning session with goalie coach Luke Banker in St. Louis, a story she told on that same episode ^[2].

David Hutchison's October 2026 piece in InGoal ^[1] placed Hensley's move to Las Vegas in the context of the league's expansion to 12 teams and surveyed every goaltender across all 12 training camp rosters.

InGoal Magazine has covered Nicole Hensley in one podcast appearance and one InGoal article.