Welcome to Hockey Friday! This week is the first installment of a look at the goaltending status of every PWHL team by Geremy. You’ll find the rest of the teams over at The Ice Garden soon so stay tuned!
First up is the Boston Fleet.
The Boston Fleet currently have two goalies under contract in Aerin Frankel and Amanda Thiele. They didn’t draft a goalie in the 2026 PWHL Entry Draft. That leaves them with no goalie waiting to be signed as the number three. It’s not that big of an issue, as the number three goalies in the short history of the PWHL have yet to play more than a few games per season.
But the question remains: does whoever Boston brings to camp for the number three spot end up actually competing for the number two spot with Amanda Thiele? It’s a fair question to ask as Thiele has one PWHL start and has only been around for a season.
Who is left over that can compete with Thiele for the number two spot? Sandra Abstrieter hasn’t been signed to a contract yet. Maybe they look at Hope Walinski, Grace Campbell or Abby Hornung who all played in Hockey East this season, playing in the Fleet’s backyard.
At the end of the day, no matter who Boston brings into camp as their third goalie, at best they’ll be at about the same talent level as Thiele. Unless they win the lottery and find a goalie who has the best off-season of their career, catapulting them into being a premier number two goalie, Boston will be looking at a similar situation in net as last season. No rest for the wicked, no rest for the 2026 PWHL Goalie of the Year Aerin Frankel. She started 26 games last season and I wouldn’t expect that to change.
The x-factor here is new head coach François Méthot. The Fleet will be without 2026 PWHL Coach of the Year Kris Sparre. He implemented arguably the best defensive system and play we’ve seen in the short history of the PWHL. The 2025-26 Fleet had the highest Team SV% at 0.949 at all strengths and 0.956 at even-strength. Obviously, a lot of this is from Frankel. However, Amanda Thiele and Abbey Levy combined for a 0.924 SV% which is slightly above the league average SV% (0.923). Levy and Thiele also combined for a 0.500 Quality Starts% in four starts with the other two starts being replacement level.
Credit to Levy and Thiele for stopping the pucks they had to. If your depth goalies give you about average goaltending, they’ve done their jobs. A big part of that was Kris Sparre’s system. Coming into last season, Levy had a career PWHL SV% of 0.899 with her best season being the inaugural year with a 0.906 SV% and 0.500 QS%. It’s hard to ignore the Sparre effect in all the defensive numbers of the Boston Fleet players and goaltenders.
Is it enough to continue the Sparre system? Does Boston have the players to pull it off again? Can Methot bring that same commitment to the defensive game that allowed Levy and Thiele to find success?
You don’t have to worry about Aerin Frankel. It’s going to be very difficult to pull off a +0.950 SV% again, as that requires a lot of factors going in your favor. Expansion might have gutted the team enough to ensure that SV% drops. Doesn’t really matter though, as Frankel’s numbers have been at worst top three in her PWHL career. She’s a top two goalie in the world and will carry the team as far as she can.
But the weakness is, unless there’s notable improvement from Thiele or a surprise camp performance from another goalie at camp, the team will need to heavily rely on Frankel again. Maybe it works out that Methot can get the team to play great defensive hockey again. Judging by the roster configuration and draft picks, that’s the direction the team is going.
Can they reach those heights again to ensure the goalies behind Frankel are playable? Hopefully Boston won’t have to find out because odds are it won’t be pretty. However, if the team plays great again, it won’t matter who is in net. Good luck scoring.
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Links from around women’s hockey
How the Monréal Victorie are build to withstand Marie-Philip Poulin’s absense – The Ice Garden
PWHL stars inspire next generation of goalies at Hamilton camp – CHCH
Helping out at development camp is ‘special opportunity’ for Goldeneyes star Gardiner – The Province
PWHL top draft picks ‘living out dream’ at Edmonton Oilers development camp – Toronto Sun
Soccer: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer
Tennis: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer
Basketball: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports
Softball: Maren Angus-Coombs, @Maren-Angus, The IX Sports
Golf: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports
Hockey: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden
Gymnastics: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer
