Plenty of heads turned last week when newly formed PWHL Hamilton announced they were appointing Kris Sparre as head coach: He’d just spent a season in the same position with the Boston Fleet.
The Boston women’s hockey organization could have wallowed in the surprise departure of their coach who led Boston back to the playoffs after missing the prior year. But instead the Fleet got right back to work and introduced new head coach François Méthot on Thursday.
Méthot played professionally for 17 years and was most recently the general manager and head coach of the Rochester Jr. Americans of the junior hockey North American Hockey League. Joining as the team’s third head coach in three seasons, he said he was excited about the organization’s foundation and culture.
“It would be foolish for me to come in and say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna change everything and do it my way,’” Méthot said. “I think you need to be adaptable in the game. A lot depends on how the roster shakes up. You cannot be rigid. You can’t.”
Now, as the Fleet navigate the waters of a new coach and league expansion to 12 total teams, Méthot’s leadership could make a big impact on the future of a franchise still looking to hoist its first Walter Cup.
With the departure of Sparre — who left in part to be closer to his home and family in Canada — Fleet general manager Danielle Marmer had to once again have to go through the process of hiring a new head coach. But, since this is the third head coach she’s hired as the team heads into its fourth season, she framed that as an asset: She knew which questions to ask.
“I wanted it to be a quick process. I wasn’t going to sacrifice the quality of the candidate just to go through it quickly. And it just happened to work out that I connected with François. We had a pretty immediate connection and alignment in our vision for this organization,” she said. “And I think we became really drawn of this idea of working together and taking this program to the next level. And so I didn’t need to spend a lot of time looking around after that. I wanted him to be part of this process as we move into this expansion phase.”
Four new PWHL teams are launching in Hamilton, Detroit, San Jose and Las Vegas this upcoming season. The Fleet announced that they are protecting goalie Aerin Frankel and defenders Megan Keller and Haley Winn from being signed by another team during the league’s expansion process.
And Méthot won’t be a new face to at least one of Boston’s young core members: He coached Winn as a teenager. His experience developing and training high-level players like her is part of what drew Marmer to Méthot.
“His familiarity with pro players in our league, training the best athletes in our game on the men’s and women’s side, that’s why I think he’s going to be a great fit to continue building off of what we accomplished last season,” Marmer said.
The Fleet don’t yet know what their roster will look like heading into next season. But despite that uncertainty, Méthot already knows what expectations he has.
“The goal is to put ourselves every single year in a position to aspire for a championship,” he said.
Méthot, Marmer and crew won’t have a lot of time adjust. The signing period for expansion teams starts Friday, and the PWHL Draft is set for June 17.
