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In a summer of change, Boston Fleet believe they have a franchise fixture in place with Haley Winn
"We expect her to be able to play in every situation.”
After a late-season collapse had Boston on the outside looking in at the playoffs this spring, the Fleet were decimated by offseason departures.
The arrival of two new PWHL franchises in Seattle and Vancouver led to several franchise fixtures leaving Boston — headlined by captain Hilary Knight and promising rookie Hannah Bilka.
In total, five defenders from the 2024-25 club in Sydney Bard, Emily Brown, Emma Greco, Jess DiGirolamo, and Sidney Morin left in free agency — while head coach Courtney Kessel also left her post to take over as Princeton’s head women’s hockey coach.
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Even with Boston retaining several key players like Alina Muller, Megan Keller, and Aerin Frankel, Fleet GM Danielle Marmer has a daunting task in front of her when it comes to establishing a new core of talent for Boston’s PWHL franchise.
But as the Fleet look to establish themselves as a stout defensive club under first-year head coach Kris Sparre, Marmer believes that Boston has a new building block in place in rookie defender Haley Winn.
“She skates the game so well, and I think that’s going to be an asset in this league where everything’s happening fast,” Marmer said of Winn, who was selected by the Fleet with the second pick in the 2025 PWHL Entry Draft. “Her ability to get back to pucks and retrieve pucks quickly — she has so much poise with the puck, makes a really great first pass, gets up in the rush and can contribute on offense.
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“Shots get through from the point. Her production in college is pretty impressive, and we expect that to continue. Pucks won’t go in the net quite as easily as they may have in college, but we expect her to be a part of that. She can run a power play, and then she’s defended against the best players in the world already to this point. And so we expect her to be able to play in every situation.”
Winn — a dynamic defender who both stuffed the stat sheet at Clarkson University while also logging heavy minutes — officially put pen to paper on a three-year deal with the Fleet on Wednesday that will keep her in Boston through the 2027-28 season.
“This is a dream come true to just be able to play hockey for a living as a career, and to be able to do it in Boston, I’m just so excited,” Winn said Wednesday morning.
Even with an established star defender in Keller still in place, Marmer stressed that adding an impact player to Boston’s blue line in the draft stood as a top priority — especially after so much turnover at that area on the depth chart.
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“With the expansion draft and free agency — we needed to fill out our back end, and needed somebody who could play at a really high level,” Marmer noted. “And Haley, coming from Clarkson, which is an elite program, elite coaching staff, and then also her time with the national team — she has proven ability to play with the best players in the world, so she’s going to be able to come in right away and make an impact.
“The thing that’s most exciting for me, for Haley, is she’s going to get so much better in this league too … We talk about the adjustment from college hockey to the pros, but I think she’s going to have an easier time than most making that adjustment, and then her game is going to take off from there, as well.”
The 22-year-old Winn is expected to be handed heavy responsibilities right out of the gate this fall, given her versatile skillset. A four-year standout at Clarkson, Winn was a consistent playmaker from the back end, recording 131 points (37 goals, 94 assists) in 151 games with the Golden Knights.
During the 2024-25 campaign, Winn earned ECAC Player and Defender of the Year honors as a First Team All-American with Clarkson, also receiving a nod as a Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award finalist after ranking second among NCAA defenders with 46 points (14 goals, 32 assists) over 38 games.
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Even though it’s to be expected for Winn to go through some growing pains at the pro level, the Rochester, New York native does have some experience playing alongside a few of her Fleet teammates — as she has already competed in three IIHF Women’s World Championships on a Team USA roster that also featured players like Keller and Frankel.
That familiarity with several top talents should help Winn ingratiate herself to a Fleet team looking to re-establish itself after such a seismic offseason.
“I’m so excited. I’ve heard amazing things about all the fans,” Winn said. “So I’m just excited to be able to honestly do what I love in front of them and try to obviously bring home what we are going to work for all season with the Walter Cup.”
Even if the Fleet might be in a state of transition after losing so many top talents this summer, Marmer believes the franchise is on the right track — especially with Frankel, Muller, and Keller also all signed through the 2027-28 campaign.
“The change is bittersweet, right? We had some amazing players come through this organization, and have been a part of building this — and so to see them go off into other markets is a little bit sad,” Marmer said. “But really excited for the opportunity that they’re going to have.
“And with change comes opportunity. And I’m really excited for players in our locker room, players in this most recent draft, who are going to have the opportunity to step up and maybe wouldn’t have had that opportunity had some of those players [remained].”
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