If all goes to plan, according to Fleet goalie coach Lenny Mosca, “the best goalie in the world” — by his assessment, at least — will start the majority of Boston’s PWHL games this season. Aerin Frankel has won the starting job by a landslide in each of the past two seasons and was named a finalist for the Goalie of the Year award this past season after leading the league with 23 starts, 1,342 minutes played, and 591 saves. But with three significant international tournaments scheduled during the 2025-26 PWHL season, that workload may not be sustainable, which means younger players could find ways to carve out playing time. Across the league, teams will have to create contingency plans as their top players will represent their countries at the Rivalry Series in November and December, the Milan Olympics in February, and the Women’s World Championship in April. With the added games comes more potential for injuries and fatigue. “There’s going to be a lot of extra games played this year … and the goal on the end of the Fleet is we need [Frankel] to be rocking come May,” Mosca said. “We want her to play as many games as she can, but … obviously we need someone to step up and take a little bit of that load away.” Frankel missed two games late in the 2024-25 season after suffering an upper-body injury in the gold medal game of the World Championship. She returned for the final game of the regular season, a win-or-go-home contest against Minnesota to decide who would snag the final playoff spot, and allowed an uncharacteristic three goals on 10 shots in the first period before being pulled. Frankel’s injury last season points to the potential need for load management, and the departure of two Fleet goalies from last season could present an opportunity for a new crop of netminders. Emma Söderberg, who played 14 games for the Fleet over two seasons, and Klara Peslarova, who played four games in her lone PWHL season last year, signed this offseason to play in the Swedish professional league, leaving two roster spots open. The Fleet signed former Boston College goalie Abbey Levy to a one-year contract in free agency and selected Amanda Thiele, a fifth-year player out of Ohio State, in the sixth round of the PWHL Draft. The Fleet also extended a training camp invite to goalie Kaitlyn Ross, who played five years at Canada’s Mount Royal University and has also been a catcher on the Canadian national women’s baseball team since 2017. Losing Söderberg and Peslarova, who had professional and international experience prior to the Fleet, means Boston’s goalie group has gotten significantly younger, but Mosca isn’t concerned. Thiele finished her stint at Ohio State as the winningest goaltender in program history with 73 victories, backstopping the Buckeyes to the 2022 NCAA title and leading them back to the national championship game in 2025. Levy is coming off her second pro season with the New York Sirens after a five-year college career split between Minnesota State and BC, where she achieved a career-best .947 save percentage in 2022-23, ranking second in Division 1 and setting a single-season program record. “No matter what, we have someone in that net that’s played important games before,” Mosca said. With Frankel and Levy signed, the competition for the third and final goalie spot will be stiff, and Mosca anticipates his Nos. 2 and 3 will continue to battle all season for playing time. “You look at some of these goalies [in the PWHL], and they’re the best in the world, so it’s definitely a tough position to crack,” said Ross, who racked up a career .945 save percentage in USports, Canada’s version of the NCAA. “[The Fleet] opened up some opportunities for me to showcase myself and get myself out there and maybe crack a roster.” And while Frankel will maintain her starting role, she expects Levy — her former high school teammate at Shattuck St. Mary’s and onetime college rival in Hockey East — will push her in practice. “There’s always going to be competitiveness in the PWHL, and that’s what makes it so special, just the depth of talent that we have,” Frankel said. “That’s why we have the fan support that we do. That’s why we have the competitive games that we do.”