San Jose PWHL team signs inaugural player, focusing on goal prevention

San Jose’s professional women’s hockey team wasted no time locking up a starting goalie on the first day it could sign players.

Corinne Schroeder, who was usurped as Seattle’s starting goaltender last season, signed a two-year deal with the PWHL San Jose franchise on Friday to become the first player in team history.

Schroeder, who played collegiately at Boston University and Quinnipiac, started 17 games for the Torrent last season and won five games. She posted a .915 save percentage and 2.56 goals-against average.

The 26-year-old played her first two professional seasons with the New York Sirens before the Torrent added her in expansion last year, making this her second consecutive brand-new PWHL squad.

She is tied for third in PWHL’s three-season history with five shutouts, and fifth with a .921 save percentage. She was also a finalist for the league’s goaltender of the year award after the 2024 season.

Player salaries are not made public, but the league minimum salary last season was $37,131.50, while top players make up to $126,090. The Hockey News reported that Schroeder made $60,000 with Seattle last season.

San Jose also added Olympic gold medal defender Rory Guilday to shore up the blueline in front of Schroeder. Guilday was a first-round pick by Ottawa in 2025 and scored one goal with eight assists last season.

The 23-year-old was also third in the PWHL last season with 53 hits in 30 games.

The San Jose squad is currently in the midst of Phase 2 of the PWHL expansion signing period, which began on Friday and will continue until Monday. This period will allow the four expansion teams – San Jose, Hamilton, Detroit and Las Vegas – to each sign up to five players to create the foundation of their teams.

Only players identified on an expansion team’s initial 20-player “exclusive negotiation target list” are eligible to be signed, meaning head coach and general manager Troy Ryan named Schroeder as a player the club was interested in earlier this week.

Schroeder was under contract with Seattle but left unprotected from that list. Her deal with San Jose overrides that existing contract with the Torrent, who can lose a maximum of three players are under contract for next season in this phase of expansion.

Schroeder, who hails from Manitoba, was named a finalist for NCAA Women’s Goalie of the Year in 2022 with Quinnipiac.

Now that the team has a goalie and a defender in place, San Jose can sign three more players by Monday before participating in the league’s general free agency and then the amateur draft on June 17.

A source told Bay Area News Group that San Jose also appears likely to add Minnesota defender Kendall Cooper. The sixth overall draft pick in 2025, Cooper had 17 assists in 17 games with the Frost last season.