Nearly a month after the 2026 PWHL draft, most roster movement has settled for the time being. Most of the biggest names have already determined where they are playing this coming winter, and a lot of roster holes have already been filled.

However, I find myself with one nagging question:

What’s up with the Boston Fleet? More specifically, who’s going to score for them?

The franchise finds itself at a tipping point that could see it gain a lot of new fans. They recently announced that they will be playing the 2026–27 season at Agganis Arena in Boston proper. Compared to Tsongas Center in Lowell, which is an hour outside the city, Agganis is much easier to get to for the average person who may otherwise not want to attend a game.

The move to Agganis is undeniably a big deal for solidifying the Fleet as part of Boston sports culture. Yet, the team doesn’t currently have an offensive centerpiece to anchor the franchise and capture the attention of potential new fans.

Context: The 2025-26 Season

If there was one thing that the otherwise dominant Boston Fleet of last season were criticized for, it was that they didn’t score a lot. In the regular season, they managed to find the back of the net 74 times, third in the PWHL. Their power play efficiency ranked 5th in the league at just 14%.

These numbers aren’t bad in a vacuum, but for a team that was fighting for first place in the league, and that occupied that position comfortably for much of the season, they are bafflingly low.

Against playoff competition, this lack of scoring was completely exposed. In four games against the Charge, they scored just seven times. Their power play went one for 16, an efficiency of just 6.3%.

Major Losses on Scoring

As a result of its offensive struggles, the team chose to prioritize protecting the back end that they heavily relied on during the expansion process, including Captain Megan Keller, 2026 Goalie of the Year and MVP Aerin Frankel, and 2026 Rookie of the Year Haley Winn.

While the obvious choice, it left the scoring threats on an already offensively shaky team wide open, and Boston took big hits to its forward group.

Namely, they lost Alina Müller, who had 56 points for the Fleet over three seasons, and Jessie Eldridge, who scored 10 points in just 11 games with Boston after being traded from Seattle midseason. Müller also contributed on three of Boston’s seven playoff goals last season before she signed a contract with PWHL Hamilton in the expansion process. Meanwhile, Eldridge left Boston for Montreal in free agency.

Draft Day Confusion

The struggles Boston had with finding the back of the net and the caliber of forwards they lost led many to believe that the team’s front office would prioritize drafting forwards. This turned out not to be the case.

Despite already having two of the best defenders in the league, the Fleet used their first, third, and sixth-round picks to bolster the blueline. Note that they gave their second-round pick to Detroit to re-acquire Ella Huber. This means that they only drafted two forwards, in the fourth and fifth rounds.

Boston had the 10th overall pick, which means they missed out on the best tier of talented forwards available. However, this draft class was deep. By that 10th pick, they still had their choice of names such as Petra Nieminen (taken 12th overall), Elisa Holopainen (taken 19th overall), and Elyssa Biederman (taken 30th overall).

The recent signing of forward Taylor House, who recorded no points in 29 regular season games with the Charge last season, does little to assuage those who are concerned about the state of the Fleet’s forward core.

So What Could This Offence Look Like?

First of all, it’s worth mentioning that a lot of Boston’s scoring in the last season did come from their blueline. Megan Keller had seven goals and 15 assists for 22 points, which led Fleet scoring. Her D partner Haley Winn wasn’t far behind, with 19 total points—5 goals and 14 assists. Having an active blueline isn’t a bad thing, and there’s almost no doubt that this is going to remain a key part of Boston’s attack. But it helps to have forwards that you know can bury a shot.

That in mind, take a look at Boston’s forward depth chart, as projected by The Hockey News.

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
Ella Huber	Susanna Tapani	Abby Newhook
Jill Saulnier	Shay Maloney	Sophie Shirley
Loren Gabel	Liz Schepers	Olivia Mobley
Taylor House	Laura Kluge	Jaden Bogden
Jenna Goodwin

There’s one thing that sticks out immediately. Of the returning forwards on this roster, only two had more than 10 points on the season: Susanna Tapani and Abby Newhook.

Tapani had nine goals and nine assists for 18 cumulative points in the 25–26 season. Over three seasons in the PWHL so far, she has scored 49 points.

Newhook, selected in the 5th round by Boston in the 2025 draft, had an impressive rookie campaign, especially for such a late pick. She scored seven goals and tallied seven assists en route to a selection for the All-Rookie Team at the 2026 PWHL Awards.

Apart from them, this group leaves a lot to be desired. No one on the projected second line scored 10 points in the last season. The third and fourth lines don’t look much better, and the newly drafted rookies are—if this is to be believed—not going to be trusted with much playing time-out of the gate.

Is There Room for Change?

Tentatively, yes. It’s not worth losing all hope for Boston’s offence yet. While losing head coach of the year Kris Sparre certainly felt like a huge blow, it’s possible that the systems of newly-hired François Méthot are able to better utilize depth pieces than the Fleet of 2025–26.

There’s also one big name left in free agency who could alter a franchise and has yet to sign a contract for the 2026–27 season: Kendall Coyne-Schofield.

The Pitch for Coyne-Schofield in Boston

It seems crazy at first glance for first-ever the captain of the Minnesota Frost to jump ship to the first team that Minnesota beat in the Walter Cup Finals, but every day that goes by without the Frost re-signing their captain is a day they’re less likely to reach an agreement.

The Frost are perfectly fine on offence without Coyne-Schofield. They still have Taylor Heise and Kelly Pannek, both coming off thirty point seasons. Their top-six also features Grace Zumwinkle and newly-drafted SDHL phenom Viivi Vainikka.

So, if Coyne-Schofield looks poised to leave Minnesota, where would she go? Let’s go down the list:

The new expansion teams just had their pick of veteran players and she never signed with them. That crosses them off.

Vancouver and Seattle still have some big names left over from last expansion, plus the best players in the last draft class. They may not have room for her.

Montreal, as much magic as they seem to be working in free agency, probably can’t afford another huge name.

New York has a powerful core already with Fillier, O’Brien, and Kaltounková. They’re probably not on the market for another forward.

Ottawa seems to want to move forward with hometown hero Rebecca Leslie as their main face of the franchise.

That leaves the Sceptres and the Fleet as serious contenders for Coyne-Schofield, and the Fleet have the edge.

Why This Feels Realistic

In Boston, Coyne-Schofield would be re-uniting with Olympic teammates Aerin Frankel, Haley Winn, and Megan Keller.

Also, the Fleet have reportedly been shopping for a high-impact forward. They were rumored to be in conversation with Abby Roque before she re-signed in Montreal. The organization knows that if there’s anything that they need right now, it’s someone on their front lines who can score 20 points in a season.

Plus, if Boston wanted to save salary and a space on their roster for a big free agent signing like Coyne-Schofield, it makes sense why they wouldn’t have selected any of the forwards available to them in round one of the draft.

The Bottom Line

Coyne-Schofield wouldn’t fix all of Boston’s problems. Even with her added in, the Fleet’s depth looks shaky on paper, especially in the bottom-six. Still, the power of a player with her resume can’t exactly be overstated, especially given the position the Fleet are in.

With or without Coyne-Schofield, Boston is still probably going to be a defence-first team. As they should—they have the pieces and experience to do that very well. But it might be the case that she’s the X Factor who takes their offence from “Who’s going to score?” and back into serious contention.