The PWHL has essentially slowed down to a halt, which for fans, media, and PWHL staff I’m sure is of great relief. The league has felt like it’s been in a sprint ever since the playoffs started. There were the playoffs themselves, award finalists announcements, new expansion cities, the expansion process, awards, the entry draft, and free agency. It’s been a lot. Now, we can finally take a moment to look at the landscape of the PWHL.
I’m sure people will find no lack of articles looking at the different forward and blueliner corps of the league. Goaltending, though, is always a fun position to tackle because it can come off as a mystery position. As Velma would say, let’s solve this mystery.
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. CJ Jackson did end up playing an elimination playoff game with the Toronto Sceptres in the 2025 playoffs due to Raygan Kirk being injured. But even Klára Peslarová only got into four games with Boston—and two of those were in relief.
Now, does whoever Boston bring to camp for the number three spot end up actually competing for the number two spot with Amanda Thiele? It’s a fair question, as Thiele has one PWHL start and only been around for a season. Who is remaining who can compete with Thiele for the number two spot? Sandra Abstreiter hasn’t been signed to a contract yet. Maybe they look at Hope Walinski or Abby Hornung, who all played in Hockey East this season, in the Fleet’s backyard.
At the end of the day, no matter who Boston brings as their third goalie into camp, at best they’ll have 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 to being a premier number two goalie, Boston will be looking at a similar situation in net they did 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%. This 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 is Kris Sparre’s system. Coming into the 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 Méthot 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. That requires a lot of factors going in your favour. Expansion might have gutted the team enough to ensure that SV% drops. This 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 as usual. Frankel is the obvious strength of the Boston goaltending room.
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 Méthot 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. If the team plays great again, though, then it won’t matter who is in net. Good luck scoring.
PWHL Detroit
If you follow me on social media (@CreaseGiants), you’ll notice when it came to the New York Sirens goaltending situation that my opinion of them not drafting a goalie makes sense. General managers are naturally risk averse. Some are willing to be riskier than others. Ultimately, though, you can count on general managers to make a safe decision. In the case of the Sirens, they decided not to go into the regular season with four PWHL games among three goalies. This is what would have happened if they drafted a goalie. They signed Elaine Chuli, who has been a consistent number two goalie in the PWHL for three seasons: two seasons with Montréal and one with Toronto.
Sirens general manager Pascal Daoust is considered one of the more risk-taking general managers in the league. Detroit general manager Manon Rhéaume is looking to take that title away from him. Currently Detroit is looking at heading into the 2026-27 PWHL regular season with zero PWHL games of experience in the goaltending room. Could they sign Sandra Abstreiter or Marlène Boissonnault, who have PWHL games to their names? Sure, however if they were to do that it feels as though they would have done that over signing Alice Philbert.
I think it’s a safe assumption that Detroit is going into the season with Andrea Brändli, Alice Philbert, and an undrafted camp invite. The name everyone is going to focus on and what I’m sure gives Rhéaume confidence in this gamble is Brändli. Based on how Detroit is being built, Brändli will be counted on to be a near instant top five goalie. Her accomplishments are currently preventing everyone from going into panic mode about this team.
This past season Brändli carried the Swiss to their second ever Olympic Bronze Medal in women’s hockey, earning herself Olympic Top Goalie honours. Looking further into her past accomplishments, she’s been a top goalie in the SDHL for three seasons now, won a NCAA national championship, and has been a staple for the Swiss national team in net. Brändli has done about everything you want to see from a goalie outside of the PWHL. Now she’s going to have an opportunity to show she’s not just great outside of the PWHL. Problem is, she’s going to be under the most pressure she’s been in her career.
Yes, the Switzerland roster usually wins about one game per IIHF World Championships. They’re usually the fifth best team in Pool A, with their record and stats providing additional proof to the matter. It’s not easy playing for Switzerland, however, Worlds and the Olympics are a two-week tournament. The PWHL is a full season—one behind a team that is stacked on the wing but weak down the center. The blueline is a lot of good but not great blueliners. It’s not a team whose roster inspires feelings of good defensive play. Add in head coach Josh Sciba, who profiles as a one who wants to push the offensive game, and the odds are decent Brändli is going to be checking if she’s playing for Switzerland.
Then there’s the added issue of being paired with another goalie who has zero PWHL experience: Alice Philbert. I’m not saying Philbert is an issue herself. If Brändli struggles, the next goalie up is one whose highest level of play is four games in Pool B of the Olympics. She did play for Concordia three years ago, leading them to a USports National Championship in 2022. She’s not a nobody with no experience at any moderately decent level of women’s hockey. No one would have many concerns if Philbert ended up behind most number one goalies in the league.
Looking at the history of the PWHL and what players have said about coming into the PWHL, it’s not an easy transition. That’s why going with, most likely, three goalies with no PWHL experience is a gamble. Brändli and Philbert haven’t seen consistent action against future PWHLers since the 2022-23 season. This is why there’s so much pressure on Brändli: she has to meet the expectations of being at least a top five goalie, or Detroit is in trouble. Could Philbert or the probable camp invite step up? Anything is possible, but that’s not what you want to be counting on.
Check out Part Two to learn about Hamilton and Las Vegas’ goalie situations.
