It would be an understatement to say that the Boston Fleet did not live up to expectations during the 2024-2025 season. In an ironic twist of fate, the Fleet’s regular season points percentage increased from 0.486 to 0.489, but despite a three-way tie with Ottawa Charge and Minnesota Frost, the Fleet missed the postseason because of the league’s tiebreakers (nine regular season wins).  The Fleet controlled their own destiny at home on the last day of the regular season where they were obliterated by the Frost by a score of 8-1, ending their hopes of repeating their playoff heroics from 2024.

Following this defeat and impending expansion draft, change was inevitable. On June 23^rd, Courtney Kessel resigned from her position to take the coaching job at Princeton. At the end of July, the Fleet announced that Kris Sparre would be filling the role, with Danielle Marmer highlighting the importance of his experience at the AHL level. As someone who has followed his former team, the San Diego Gulls, closer than the average PWHL fan (I am an Anaheim Ducks fan), his ability to coach and develop players is impressive. Without veering too far off topic, Tristan Luneau, Sam Colangelo, Nikita Nesterenko, and Olen Zellweger’s development under his watch serve as a case study for how Fleet players could develop under his guidance. Additionally, it is worth mentioning that the only PWHL head coach with AHL experience is Ken Klee, who despite his salacious reputation, has been tremendous at developing young players (Dominique Petrie and Brooke McQuigge were two of the league’s most efficient players last season).

In the expansion draft, the Fleet lost one-third of their top six, and their second defensive pairing. Obviously, the loss of Hilary Knight’s leadership, and league best 0.97 PPG is brutal and irreplaceable, but her exposure in the expansion draft as a 36-year-old is digestible. Hannah Bilka (0.69 PPG and 2.02 P/60) is an equally difficult pill to swallow, but both losses were more of a product of the brutality of the draft’s protection rules than poor decision making from Marmer. Emily Brown’s departure hurts the Fleet in the room as much as it does on the ice, as she was clearly the glue girl on the blue line. The last loss was Syd Bard, which leaves me conflicted. Under Kessel, we never saw the player Bard was at Colgate with her confidence and explosive first step in transition, as she was relegated to a more conservative game, the same way Sophie Jaques was in her time in Boston.

Aside from the Expansion draft, the Fleet saw the departures of Lexie Adzija, Emma Greco, Jessica Digirolamo, and Sidney Morin in free agency. In terms of on-ice impact, Morin is the biggest loss. Out of the 42 defenders who played in more than 10 games in 2024-25, the Fleet only had two defenders in the top-half of the league in terms of PPG and P/60: Megan Keller and Morin. Losing Morin makes the league’s least productive blue line even more anemic than it already was. This is not to say the Greco and Digirolamo are insignificant alongside the losses of Brown and Bard, but in a league with so many talented defensive players, their skillsets are more easily replaced.

In goal, the Fleet saw the departures of both support goalies Emma Söderberg and Klára Peslarová to pursue starting roles in the SDHL. Söderberg’s statistics during her tenure in Boston were among the worst in the league, but she had several incredible games, particularly her April 27, 2024, masterclass against Minnesota and her highlight-packed shootout win over Montréal on March 18^th this past year. Peslarová was dominant in 3 of her 4 appearances for the Fleet, and likely will return to the PWHL in 2026-27 based on what she did in 2024-25. To fill the void, the Fleet added former Sirens goalie, Abby Levy. Ultimately, Levy is a bit of a wild card after only appearing in 2 games in 2024-2025 where she did not play particularly well. However, she posted a 90.6% save percentage in 2024 in eight starts for New York, showing she is a capable support goalie in the PWHL.

In Free Agency, the Fleet addressed the departures of Greco and Digiralamo with the signings of Zoe Boyd and Rylind Mackinnon. In terms of scoring efficiency, these players are all within the same 0.10 P/60 of one another and played similar minutes and matchups across the regular season. At forward, the Fleet added Laura Kluge, Liz Schepers, and Chloé Aurard. This is one area where Kris Sparre will be put to the test. Kluge was very effective for Toronto with incredibly limited minutes, as she posted a P/60 of 2.14 despite a PPG of 0.14, this is likely an anomaly, but with proper deployment, she could be an effective middle six option. Schepers will likely replace Adzija’s role in the line-up due to their similar scoring profiles. Chloé Aurard is an exciting gamble. Aurard’s 1.21 P/60 last season was in the 30^th percentile of the league, which is incredibly unremarkable. However, if you followed her career at Northeastern, in 2022-23, Aurard’s output was top 10 in the nation above names like Abby Murphey and Casey O’Brien. The reunion with Alina Müller could have similar chemistry to a pair of Minnesota linemates from that same season in Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle. Worst case scenario, Aurard in a middle-six option for the Fleet, but there is potential that she could offset the loss of Hannah Bilka.

Moving to the draft, the Fleet didn’t overthink things. Haley Winn was a unicorn last season at Clarkson, finishing the season with a PPG of 1.21, 23% higher than the next best defender in the draft, and 71.8% higher than the next best defender who didn’t play with her. Additionally, she was third in scoring efficiency of all draft eligible players, trailing only Casey O’Brien and Kristýna Kaltounková. Winn should be a massive upgrade to their scoring from the blue line in the same way Cayla Barnes was for Montréal last season. Ella Huber, the Fleet’s second selection in the draft, was 7^th on my draft board after a tremendous season at the University of Minnesota  that saw her record 48 points in 42 games. She should immediately slot into the Fleet’s top six and could be a foil to how the Gulls used Nesterenko under coach Sparre.

At the time of writing, the rest of these Fleet picks are not signed. Olivia Mobley, their third-round pick, was a solid contributor for Minnesota-Duluth last season, and as 5’9” right-handed forward should slot effectively onto the Fleet’s third line, where her reach, frame, and puck skills should make her an impactful depth player. Riley Brengman, their fourth pick was a selection that addressed a need in terms of defensive handedness. Assuming Winn (right-handed) plays on the top pairing with Keller, and a healthy Hadley Hartmetz (right-handed) factors in on their second pair with her scoring ability, Brengman (right-handed) gives the Fleet the ability to break the Kessel-era tradition of dressing five left-handed defenders every night, and keeping their zone exits along the wall. Their fifth selection, Abby Newhook had a strong career at Boston College and will likely battle for a bottom-six roster role, but with her character and leadership ability, could quickly become a glue girl for the team. Boston’s final selection was Ohio State goalie Amanda Thiele. On paper, Thiele’s 72 wins at the collegiate level are her best statistic, as her save percentage and goals against average regressed every year over her five-year collegiate career, with her 88.7% in 2024-25 being in the 10^th percentile of all NCAA I goalies with at least 10 starts.

A theme I’ll try to refrain from circling in all inaugural six offseason recaps is that these teams completely reconstructed their rosters. With that said, the Fleet had a strong offseason. They took risks and added pieces that should allow them to be better relative to the rest of the league than they were last season. Knowing that 75% of the league is playing under the same conditions, and we won’t know how the expansion teams will fare until the games are played, the Fleet addressed their problem areas. With the coaching change and the departure of Knight, Boston will play a completely different brand of hockey than what we’ve seen from them, and with the taste of their last game still in my mouth, I look forward to it.