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‘I can’t thank Boston enough’: Hilary Knight says goodbye to the city where her career began
"I’m leaving behind an amazing city that my career was able to flourish in from even before the PWHL existed."
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It didn’t take long for Boston to feel like a second home to Hilary Knight. Now, more than a decade after she arrived, she’s saying goodbye.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 2012, Knight packed up the family Subaru and drove across the country to an unfamiliar city with the goal of playing professional hockey, which at the time felt like a pipe dream. Opportunities for women to play after college — especially in the US — were limited, and for the select few who made it, it was a grind.
But Knight saw a future for the sport, and Boston, she felt, was the perfect place to start her career.
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Knight played three seasons each with the Boston Blades and Boston Pride, and after captaining the Boston Fleet for the past two seasons, Knight is shipping out of Boston, perhaps for the last time.
The Fleet opted to leave their captain unprotected during the PWHL expansion process, and she signed a one-year contract with Seattle, where she’ll help build a team from the ground up.
“I don’t want to minimize the opportunity in Seattle and how excited I am to be closer to home and really build on a foundation for Pacific Northwest hockey development,” Knight told the Globe.
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“But in the same breath, I’m sad, as well. I’m leaving behind an amazing city that my career was able to flourish in from even before the PWHL existed . . . I can’t thank Boston enough — the group of players that we had the last two years, the staff, the fans. It was an incredible experience.”
Knight played for the CWHL’s Blades from 2012-15, then moved to the NWHL’s Pride for three years. She left Boston in 2018 and played for the CWHL’s Montreal Canadiennes until the end of the 2019 season, when she joined the PWHPA and bought a house in Minnesota.
When the PWHL came calling in 2023, Knight was all-in on returning to Boston. She sold her house and began her journey to the East Coast.
“I was two feet in,” she said. “I really wanted to build something important in the city.”
Knight, Aerin Frankel, and Megan Keller signed on as Boston’s foundational players, and Knight was named the inaugural captain. While she struggled on the stat sheet in the league’s first year (six goals, five assists in 24 games), Knight was critical in building the team’s foundation.
“There’s no doubt that Hillary Knight is the No. 1 person you want in that locker room,” coach Courtney Kessel said. “She did exactly what we were hoping for and was exactly what you need when you’re starting something from the ground up.”
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Knight had a breakout year in the league’s second season, finishing as a finalist for the MVP award after her 29 points in 30 games tied for the league lead.
But it’s no secret that Knight, 35, is getting older. She announced in May she plans to make the 2026 Milan Olympics her fifth and final Games, and though she said she plans to continue competing in the PWHL after 2026, there’s no telling how many seasons she has left.
For that reason, the Fleet decided to place their chips on their younger players, protecting Frankel, Keller, and Alina Muller, while leaving Knight open to poaching.
“Not protecting Hilary Knight was the hardest decision that I’ve made in my professional career to date,” Fleet general manager Danielle Marmer said.
With a résumé as long as Knight’s, it was all but guaranteed she’d be a goner.
“My job is to put the best product on the ice with the players that I have,” Kessel said. “And Danielle Marmer’s job is to think about the longevity of this program and what the Boston Fleet will look like in three, five, 10 years from now. It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure.”
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Knight understands why the Fleet chose to prioritize youth.
But that didn’t make it easy.
“It was really difficult because I did jump two feet in, right?” Knight said. “You could say, ‘Oh, that’s just how it is in pro sports,’ but at the end of the day, we don’t make millions of dollars, so you’re really betting on yourself a lot of times.”
The wound is still fresh, but Knight is excited for what’s next. When the league announced Seattle as an expansion city, she thought to herself that whoever got to play there would have an “unbelievable” experience. She’s looking forward to being closer to her family in Idaho, and she’s excited to have a hand in shaping the future of women’s hockey.
As Knight prepares for the next step, the city that became her second home and the fans who welcomed her to it remain at the front of her mind.
“The fans are just so special, and it’s something that I’m getting emotional talking about because that’s the dream, right?” Knight said. “The dream is them coming to watch us play, and us getting to feel that support. It’s such a special city. It’s such a special group of people that love us and support us, and I’m forever grateful for that.”
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