With their PWHL season over, Fleet players ready to run it back, as is
WELLESLEY — With their 2025-26 season in the books, the Fleet held their end-of-season media availability Tuesday. Here are five takeaways.
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Fleet feel there’s not much they should’ve done differently
The Fleet felt they threw everything at Ottawa in all four games of their semifinal series. Some players likely have a few moments they’d like to do over, such as Alina Müller’s miss on an open net in overtime of Game 4. But by and large, they felt they dominated the series.
“There’s plays that you want back as a player in order to help your team get over that hump,” captain Megan Keller said. “But at the end of the day, I think everybody on our team left everything out there. We wanted those pucks to go in so badly, and they just didn’t.”
They outshot the Charge in the series, 142-94, but struggled to solve goaltender Gwyneth Philips.
“We really believe that we were built to win it all, so anything short of that, it never feels good,” general manager Danielle Marmer said. “Feels like we didn’t accomplish the mission.”
With expansion looming, there’s nerves (even among players under contract)
With the exception of Hannah Brandt, who is retiring (more on that later), every player made available to the media Tuesday — Müller, Keller, Haley Winn, Jill Saulnier, Jamie Lee Rattray, Aerin Frankel, Shay Maloney, and Liz Schepers — said they’d want to return to Boston next season if given the opportunity.
While coach Kris Sparre said he’d love to have everyone back to build on what they started this season, he knows that the league’s upcoming expansion by as many as four teams means that’s not possible. The Fleet are likely to lose some rising stars — as well as some more established.
Even for the eight players under contract through at least next season, they know their contracts don’t mean a guarantee to return.
Keller is the closest thing the Fleet have to a guaranteed returner. Sparre told the Globe there’s “a zero percent chance” the team would leave its captain unprotected.
“It means a lot to know that he thinks of me that way,” Keller said. “It’s mutual respect there. I would love to get the chance to play for him again.”
Strength of the locker room was a driver of success
With a first-year head coach and a shaken-up roster, the Fleet entered this season with the makings of a rebuilding team. But Sparre set out from the first day to build the team’s foundation on strong relationships — and the result exceeded his expectations. They got out to the best start in PWHL history and finished tied for first in the standings, which players said were direct results of their love for one another.
Multiple Fleet players said Tuesday that this was their favorite season playing hockey, at any level. Saulnier, 34, said she felt like a teenager again.
“Truly one of the most special groups that I’ve been a part of in the locker room,” Keller said.
Players are optimistic that feeling will persist, even after expansion.
“Whoever we’re able to bring in, the foundation is here for us,” Keller said. “We’ll be OK.”
Brandt’s career comes to an end
Brandt, who has been with the Fleet since the inaugural season, struggled to hold back tears as she took questions.
The forward played her final professional game Sunday and will hang up her skates as she heads into her third year of physician assistant school.
Brandt, a two-time Olympian and three-time World Champion with Team USA, was one of the driving forces in the creation of the PWHL. She pointed to the sold-out game at TD Garden this season as one of the most pivotal moments in her storied career.
“We didn’t know if it was going to happen during our time, but we knew some little girl was going to be able to stand on that blue line and be like, ‘Oh my God, someone did it,’ ” said Saulnier, who was Brandt’s Team Canada adversary before they became teammates and close friends. “We were the girls that just got to live that out together.”
Beyond typical bumps and bruises, Fleet generally healthy
Saulnier said her shoulder “wasn’t really in place,” but otherwise, players said they were healthy. Sparre said there were a few lingering injuries among the team but declined to give details.
Keller has a chipped tooth, which she suffered in the Fleet’s final regular-season game.
“I don’t wear a mouthguard,” she said, “so that’s on me.”
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