Nicole Hensley

Nicole Hensley was the first goaltender selected in the PWHL's inaugural draft, and she went on to win the Walter Cup twice with the Minnesota Frost — in 2024 and 2025 — before signing with expansion PWHL Las Vegas through the 2027-28 season.

Born in Lakewood, Colorado, Hensley has represented the United States at two Winter Olympics, winning gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and silver at the 2022 Beijing Games. On the world championship stage, she has collected six medals with the U.S. Women's National Team: gold in 2016, 2017, and 2023, and silver in 2021, 2022, and 2024. Those Olympic and World Championship golds, combined with her two Walter Cups, place her among the 14 players in the PWHL's Triple Gold Club. Earlier in her career, she was a three-time Colorado Sportswoman of the Year (2013–15) and was inducted into the Colorado Sportswomen of the Year Hall of Fame in 2015.

When Hensley joined Las Vegas, she brought playoff credentials shaped across those two Minnesota title runs: in eight playoff starts, she went 4-4 with a 1.57 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage. In Las Vegas she reunites with former Frost teammates Mae Batherson and Kendall Cooper ^[1].

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

On InGoal Radio Episode 242, recorded in January 2024 during the PWHL's first season, Hensley spoke at length about what the new league represented after years of earlier professional women's hockey ^[2]. She described the shift as "night and day" — from early-morning practices squeezed around day jobs to a full-time professional structure with athletic trainers, massage therapists, and chiropractic care available on a consistent basis. "Two years ago, we're practicing at, like, 06:30 in the morning so that we can have, you know, numbers at these skates so people can be there and then go do their job to get paid," she said. "So we went from that to, you know, this being a full time job." ^[2]

The episode also covered how Hensley manages pressure and preparation — from her consistent pre-game routine built around music and keeping her mind occupied, to the way she came to embrace pre-game nerves rather than fight them. She discussed working with sports psychologists, her self-described perfectionist streak, and the reset ritual she uses after allowing a goal ^[2]. The ice cream cone stitched onto her Brian's equipment — a story that began as a joke with goalie coach Luke Banker — also comes up in that conversation ^[2].

The article in which Hensley's Las Vegas signing and camp roster spot were announced also traces her place in the expanding PWHL landscape as the league grew to 12 teams ahead of the 2026-27 season ^[1].