The Boston Fleet had significant changes this offseason watching double digit figures of players leave town, and needing to replace their head coach. New bench boss Kris Sparre wants the incoming roster to embody Boston with a gritty style of play.
The Boston Fleet underwent significant change this offseason.
Captain Hilary Knight signed with the Seattle Torrent during the expansion process. First round pick Hannah Bilka was selected by Seattle in the expansion draft. Head coach Courtney Kessel departed for a new head coaching position with Princeton.
The team also watched Emma Soderberg, Klara Peslarova, Sydney Bard, Jessica DiGirolamo, Emma Greco, Emily Brown, and Sidney Morin depart for new teams, while Amanda Pelkey and Jillian Dempsey announced their retirements. It's significant change.
With that change, incoming head coach Kris Sparre recognizes his team will need to be a gritty, physical, hard to play against team. It's something he welcomes, particularly as he feels it embodies the city of Boston.
"We want to embody the city that we're in, Boston, which is a tough gritty style of play really through all professional sports," Sparre said in a press conference following the opening day of Fleet camp. "Not only that, I think the players feel that they want to be a very difficult team to play against as well, so when we're aligned like that it's a good thing."
This offseason Boston added free agent signings including defenders Zoe Boyd and Rylind MacKinnon, and forwards Liz Schepers, Laura Kluge, and Chloe Aurard, all of whom will go a long way toward Boston's desired identity.
The Boston Fleet will play a pair of PWHL preseason games November 15 and 17 against Montreal. The Fleet open their 2025-26 PWHL regular season November 23 at home in Lowell, also against the Montreal Victoire.