This week on The IX Sports Podcast Hockey Edition, host Maya Smith is joined by The Ice Garden’s Boston Fleet beat reporter, Lydia Murray, to discuss the state of the team following expansion and the PWHL Entry Draft.
The team lost all but three of their defenders from last year through the expansion process, Murray explained.
“So it’s going to be a big load for those three, especially Megan Keller and Haley Winn, who already led the league in minutes played last season and are probably going to do so again, which, is that the best thing for them? Probably not, but it is what it is,” Murray said.
The Fleet signed Amanda Boulier, who Murray called “a good two-way defender” in the offseason. But, Murray said, “She’s never played for the fleet. It’s going to be a different system. She’s going to need time to adjust. … But then you say they still have two to three more spots that they need to fill, and where are they gonna come from?”
The team also lost its coach, Kris Sparre, in the offseason. Sparre won Coach of the Year in his first and only year with Boston last season.
“But he will be coaching PWHL Hamilton this year. It seems like mostly because it’s closer to home for him, which totally makes sense. But what impact does that have on this team that was really successful last season, minus a Walter Cup?” Smith said.
“Such a hard question to answer because looking back at last season, nobody expected what happened with the fleet. Nobody expected Sparre to be able to turn them around the way he did. He was a complete unknown. So what he did was just it was phenomenal and it was so surprising and for them to lose him after just one year is a tough blow,” Murray said.
At this point, the pair agreed, it’s hard to know. The Fleet have had three coaches in four years. There is some expectation that François Méthot, who was hired to coach the Fleet in June, will be able to stick around more long-term.
The pair also discussed the gaps in the Fleet’s offense, which was not explosive last year either. To close out the show, on the new “Future Considerations” segment of the show, Smith and Murray discuss ongoing investigations into some of Mark Walter’s businesses. (Walter owns the PWHL).
“I don’t think there’s a risk of them folding, but it’s just a the latest chapter in a very messy saga of women’s hockey and money,” Murray said.
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