What’s Next For Fleet? PWHL Expansion Leaves More Questions

After falling one point shy of making the Walter Cup playoffs, the Boston Fleet enter the offseason knowing their roster will look vastly different in two months.

The PWHL is expanding by two teams — Seattle and Vancouver — prior to the league’s third season, and an expansion draft to take place before the PWHL Draft on June 24, will shake up the rosters of the current six franchises.

During an end-of-season virtual media availability on Wednesday, Fleet general manager Danielle Marmer revealed the league has yet to divulge information on how exactly the expansion draft will work.

“No, I don’t know,” Marmer said. “I’m still waiting to hear. I think these conversations are happening between the league and players’ association, but we GMs have not heard how it’s going to affect our rosters yet.”

Without knowing how many players, if any, can be protected from the expansion draft by each team, or even how Seattle and Vancouver will affect the entry draft, Marmer admitted she is preparing for any scenario when it comes to both events.

“I think it’s being totally prepared and totally flexible,” she said. “We don’t know what is going to happen, and how it’s going to alter our roster. … We’ll see how things go.”

The Fleet has several players, including all three goaltenders, Aerin Frankel, Emma Söderberg and Klára Peslarová, captain Hilary Knight and top defender Megan Keller, who represent their native countries in the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship. With the expansion draft, Boston could lose some of their cornerstones to the newest franchises.

“It’s especially sad because I really thought we had a group that could have went all the way, and unfortunately, we’re not,” head coach Courtney Kessel said during the press conference.”

Boston can expect more of the same next season with the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina in February as well as the 2026 World Championships two months later in April.

“These players who play with their national teams, they have (PWHL) contracts. The IIHF has sort of a plan that they see makes sense for what they’re trying to accomplish,” Marmer said. “I don’t know how much leverage, if any, the league has or the willingness for them to sort of change the schedule.

“These international breaks, obviously, hae affected us quote a bit. So, if we can limit the amount of times that the team breaks for those, because it’s not your depth players, necessarily, who are going to those events, it’s your best players — the players that you need to be healthy and playing their best hockey by the end of the season.”

The Fleet lost a few players to losing players to injuries during the international breaks. Hannah Bilka was hurt during the Rivalry Series in February, and both Alina Müller and Frankel suffered injuries during the World Championships last month. Müller was unable to play for Boston in their final three games and Frankel was sidelined for two before being cleared for the finale.