Interview with prospect Callie Shanahan — What we’re reading

Happy Hockey Friday! I’m LJ Bachenheimer from The Ice Garden with this week’s batch of updates from the wild world of women’s hockey. And it is indeed a wild world — the PWHL expansion draft was last week, free agency started on Monday, and the entry draft is approaching fast. 

With that coming up, I got the chance to speak to an exciting prospect who’s hoping to hear her name called in Ottawa on June 26. Callie Shanahan was Boston University’s starting goaltender and an alternate captain for the Terriers during her senior season in 2024-25. A Michigan native, she backstopped BU to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in ten years, posting a 0.924 save percentage and 1.81 goals against average over 30 games played, including three shutouts. We spoke about why she’s excited about the PWHL and what she thinks will help her succeed in the pro league. 

The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

LJ Bachenheimer: What made you decide to declare for the draft? How has the existence of the PWHL changed your post-grad plans?

Callie Shanahan: Since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to play professional hockey. It’s always been a dream of mine. And with the new league, it’s made that dream possible, with the opportunity to actually have it be my full-time job, unlike in the past when it couldn’t really be your full-time job. So when the [PWHL] came about, I was like, oh my gosh, I’m definitely going to declare for that and hope to play, because that’s literally been my goal since I was a little girl, to play professional hockey and have that be my job. So now that dream is hopefully going to become a reality in these next few weeks with being drafted. It’s definitely an exciting process, a little bit nerve-wracking just because of the unknowns, but definitely very exciting. 

LJB: What about the possibility of playing in the PWHL excites you the most?  

CS: Just having the opportunity to play professional hockey, honestly. It’s such an incredible honor and privilege to help grow the sport even more and be in these pioneering years for the league like this. It’s a huge development time right now for the league, and being a part of that process while the league is still newer, I think it’s such an incredibly cool opportunity. And having little girls look up to us at games and stuff, and the growth for the sport right now is just so cool. And I think it’s such a cool time to be a part of it. 

Readers of The IX save 50% on subscriptions to The Next!

The Next: A basketball newsroom brought to you by The IX. 24/7/365 women’s basketball coverage, written, edited and photographed by our young, diverse staff, dedicated to breaking news, analysis, historical deep dives and projections about the game we love.

Subscribe to make sure this vital work of creating a pipeline of young, diverse media professionals to write, edit and photograph the great game continues and grows. Your subscription ensures our writers and editors creating 24/7/365 women’s basketball coverage like what you’re reading right now get paid to do it!

LJB: What do you think will be the biggest challenge for you going from college to the PWHL?

CS: I would say the biggest jump for me to play professionally would be the speed. Obviously, there’s a jump between college and professional hockey, and the PWHL has the best players in the entire world, like it’s the best league. So definitely the speed of play is going to be increased a lot. And also the smarts of these girls, their hockey smarts are off the charts, like it’s incredible how these women are. So I think those two things, speed and reading the game, hockey smarts, that’ll be huge for me for this next level. 

LJB: I apologize if this question sounds a bit like a job interview, but the goalie competition in the PWHL is pretty stiff, though there are new opportunities with the two new expansion teams. What makes you stand out amid the goalie field in this draft class?

CS: Obviously there’s a ton of great goalies around the league, and that’s great, that’s how we want it. But I think some of my strengths are my speed, I think I’m really fast while also being aggressive. And my height too. I’m a bigger female goalie, standing at 5’10”. And I would say my calm and confident presence in the net, I don’t like to get too crazy. I can play athletic and make an athletic save when needed, but I also like to have that calm and a more technical style of play. So I think my blend of like athleticism while also having technique really helps me stand out. 

LJB: What goes through your head while you’re playing?

CS: Hopefully nothing, honestly. I play the best when my mind is blank and I’m just in the moment. It’s called a flow state, where I’m not thinking and just in the moment. But obviously that’s not always attainable, and sometimes I try to say mantras to myself. I actually write some things in my gloves. The three words I like to say are: calm, confident, and dominant. I like to say those three words to myself and keep those in the front of my mind if I’m more nervous, or if I’m not feeling as good on the ice, just to remain calm and to be confident in my abilities. Because I know that I put in the work, and to also dominate and have that mentality of ‘you’re not getting past me today.’ I like to have a free mind and that’s when I play best, whenI have nothing in my mind. But sometimes I need a little boost, so I keep those three words on the top of my mind. 

Reading list

If you want to learn more about Callie off the ice, like her favorite hype song and what she’d like to do in each PWHL city, I’ll have a follow-up article over at The Ice Garden soon.

Also at The Ice Garden, we have all the PWHL content you could possibly want. Giselle Velazquez put together a great list of the top entry draft prospects, while this roundtable breaks down what some of our writers were thinking about the expansion draft. If you’re a fan of the Sceptres or the Sirens, check out these rundowns of what your team needs before the draft, with Melissa Burgess covering Toronto and D.N. Forsythe and J. Gray sharing the state of New York. Elisha Côté also did a cool profile of Rylind MacKinnon’s journey from USports to the PWHL. And, if you have no idea who’s even on your team anymore, check out our handy PWHL signing tracker.

As if she didn’t have enough accolades, Marie-Philip Poulin was named the IIHF Female Player of the Year for 2024-25, coming in ahead of other stars like Gwyneth Philips, Hilary Knight, and Caroline Harvey. 

Get excited for February 2026, because the schedule for women’s hockey at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics has been released. The group matchups feature familiar foes and maybe some new rivalries, all in pursuit of the gold medal, to be awarded on February 19.

In what would be a big move, the AP reported Boston Fleet coach Courtney Kessel is in talks to take over as head coach at Princeton. Kessel was previously an assistant coach under Cara Gardner Morey, who is now the general manager of PWHL Vancouver.

Your business can reach over 3 million women’s sports fans every month!

Here at The Next and The IX, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women’s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, you should reach out to our team at editors@theixsports.com to discuss ways to work together in 2025.