On today’s episode of The IX Sports Podcast, host Maya Smith breaks down the game that made the Boston Fleet the first to clinch a spot in the PWHL. Then, Smith catches you up on the last influx of roster news that came in before Monday’s trade deadline. Finally, in an exciting milestone, Smith welcomes the show’s first guest PWHL player onto the program. Malia Schneider of the Vancouver Goldeneyes joins the show to talk about the PWHL takeover tour and what it’s like to be a reserve player.
First, Smith discussed how the Boston Fleet used the momentum the have been building to earn their spot in the 2025-26 PWHL playoffs, despite having missed the playoffs entirely just one year ago.
“This season is almost more impressive, considering they missed the playoffs last year,” Smith explained. “And this clinching game was even more amazing because they decided not to start Aerin Frankel, who has three back-to-back shutouts, and not even to start Abbey Levy, who is their backup goalie, but to start Amanda Thiele, who is the third string goaltender in Boston, and she got it done. They beat the Minnesota Frost and clinched that playoff spot.”
“Now the PWHL is interesting. If you’ve never been here for the playoffs before, the first finishing team in the regular season gets to choose their opponent for the first round. So this does not mean that Boston will be that number one seed coming out of the regular season, but it’s a great head start for them. It’s a great start to know that they are locked in and they can sort of figure out how they’re going to approach the playoffs going forward. And it’s a huge confidence booster for them to know that Aerin Frankel actually doesn’t necessarily the only reason that they’ve been winning. … for them to be able to show that they can win and they can beat the highest scoring team in the PWHL, the Minnesota Frost, with their third-string goaltender in net, that is just huge for them,” Smith continued.
Related reading: Montréal Victoire clinch third straight PWHL postseason berth
Then, Smith turned to the trade and roster freeze deadlines that passed earlier this week. She explained how most teams appeared satisfied with their current rosters, leading to just one trade between the New York Sirens and Minnesota Frost. New York sent defender Jincy Roese to Minnesota, in exchange for forward Denisa Křížová. This marks the third team Křížová has been with this season, who started the season in Vancouver.
“Really, this is a deal that I think benefits both teams. I’m not sure we’ll see a winner or a loser, and I’m not sure that we really have historically with PWHL trades,” Smith said. “Essentially, New York announced this week that Kristýna Kaltounková is out on long term injured reserve. They have a couple injuries there, so really they just needed a forward to be able to fill kind of that mid-range level of forward spot. Obviously, it’s very hard to replace the first overall pick, but other players can kind of move around in the lineup, so they just needed some solid offense, and they brought in Křížová for that.”
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“And then on the flip side, we saw Natalie Buchbinder go down with an injury earlier this month, and so Minnesota was looking for somebody to fill that kind of third or fourth pairing defender, and Jincy Rose is a reliable defender. She’s not the best defender out there by any means, but she can definitely fill that missing piece for Minnesota and shore up their back end as they fight for a playoff spot and then hopefully, assuming they make the playoffs, into the playoffs as well, depending on how long Buchbinder is out.”
Tune in to hear more analysis from Smith about the trade between the Sirens and Frost, and the impact of players returning from their overseas seasons, which recently finished up. Stick around to hear Smith’s interview with Malia Schneider, reserve forward for the Vancouver Goldeneyes, about the impact of the PWHL takeover tour and what it’s like being a reserve player.
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