After the expansion process was finished, the Boston Fleet entered the 2025 PWHL Draft with more questions than answers.

The team lost captain and women's hockey legend Hilary Knight. Then they lost their first round pick from 2024, Hannah Bilka. Boston's losses were capped by shutdown defender Emily Brown and rookie Sydney Bard.

Luckily when they stepped to the stage at the 2025 PWHL Draft to make the second overall pick, general manager Danielle Marmer saw the answer to many questions the team had. That answer came in the form of Clarkson and Team USA defender Haley Winn.

"Haley's a complete player. She is someone who is, I mean, it's great for Megan Keller going to be able to take the load off of her a little bit, but she can do absolutely everything and anything you need," said Marmer. "Like when we think about who's going to score goals for us, like Haley Winn can be an answer. Who's going to defend against (Marie-Philip) Poulin? Haley Winn's the answer. Who's going to run our power play? Haley Winn's the answer. So she's someone who can can do so much for us. She's just such a smart hockey player makes such good decisions and plays at the highest level and knows how to compete at this level."

Winn was a First Team All-American for Clarkson and played a top four role on Team USA's blueline as they won gold at the 2025 World Championships in Czechia.

With Clarkson, Winn set career highs of 14 goals and 46 points in 38 games last season.

The 21-year-old will be one of the youngest players in the PWHL next season, and will be a core component of USA's Olympic roster.

Boston also selected Ohio State defender Riley Brengman in the draft.