Boston Fleet goaltender Aerin Frankel won the Billie Jean King MVP trophy and goalie of the year honors as the Fleet dominated the PWHL awards ceremony Tuesday night in Detroit.
The PWHL formally closed its third season with Boston taking four major individual honors. Frankel became the first goalie to win the league's MVP award, while teammate Megan Keller was named defender of the year, Kris Sparre coach of the year and Haley Winn rookie of the year.
Frankel Adds MVP To Goalie Of The Year
Frankel, 27, set a PWHL record with eight shutouts and tied Montreal's Ann-Renee Desbiens for another league mark with 19 wins, according to ESPN. Frankel did it in 26 games and helped Boston finish with 62 points, an 18-point jump from the previous season.
Her season also included elite rate numbers. ESPN reported that Frankel finished second behind Desbiens with a 1.17 goals-against average and a .953 save percentage. She beat out Desbiens and Ottawa Charge goalie Gwyneth Philips in the goalie of the year vote.
Boston reached the playoffs for the second time in three seasons before losing to Ottawa in the semifinals. That keeps the awards story in the right lane: this was not a championship coronation, but it was a clear league-wide recognition of the Fleet's regular-season jump.
Fleet Take Four Major Awards
Keller led all PWHL defenders with 22 points, including seven goals and 15 assists, ESPN reported. She also carried a broader 2026 hockey backdrop after scoring the gold medal-clinching goal for the United States in a 2-1 overtime win over Canada at the Milan Cortina Games.
Winn, 22, was the second pick in last year's draft and finished tied for second among PWHL rookies with 19 points, five goals and 14 assists in 30 games. Sparre won coach of the year in his first season with Boston after arriving from the American Hockey League's San Diego staff.
Sparre is already moving on from Boston to take over the PWHL expansion franchise in Hamilton, Ontario, according to ESPN. That detail gives the coach award a sharper edge: he helped build the Fleet's surge, then exits before the next season begins.
Pannek Prevents A Boston Sweep
The only major award outside Boston went to Minnesota's Kelly Pannek, who was named forward of the year. Pannek led the league with 33 points and joined Desbiens as an MVP finalist.
The awards were determined by a vote of media members, PWHL general managers and coaches, and the PWHL Players Association, ESPN reported. That voting base matters because the results were not a single-team announcement or a fan poll.
The night also underlined how much U.S. women's hockey shaped the league's third season. Frankel, Keller, Winn and Pannek were all gold medalists in Milan, and ESPN reported that five more U.S. players were projected to go in the first round of Wednesday's PWHL draft.