Sirens Management Eyes New Direction This Season

General manager Pascal Daoust has hinted that captain Micah Zandi Hart might leave the Sirens this summer. After two consecutive seasons of missing the playoffs and overshadowed by the Women’s Professional Hockey League, a change seemed necessary.

Daoust aims to guide the team toward a younger core, focusing on a rebuild through the draft. Zandi Hart, who is 28, even considered returning to Vancouver to be near her family, including her cat. Speculation about her future in New York circulated, but in the end, she decided to stay, driven by a desire to see the team’s rebuild through. She hopes to help the Sirens aim for playoff success.

Current Rookie of the Year and Forward of the Year, Sarah Fillier, shares Zandi Hart’s optimism regarding the team’s potential. “I signed a two-year contract extension because I think we have good things here that we can build on and hopefully chase a championship,” Fillier remarked.

When the Sirens kick off their season Saturday night in Ottawa, fans will notice a vastly changed team. They are younger, faster, and potentially more skilled than last year, with a strong desire to reverse their postseason drought.

“I feel like everyone in that locker room, including the staff, is hungry for more than just the last spot we finished this year,” Fillier expressed. “And I think our draft class has really jumped on that as well. Just hungry to corner teams and get points. But yeah, I think we have high expectations for our group.”

Defender Jaime Bourbonnais echoed the sentiment, noting, “We’ve been able to set the bar pretty high for ourselves. … We feel like we’re a really big contender this season.”

This summer marked a significant shift for the Sirens, with only 13 players returning from the previous season. They lost key forwards Alex Carpenter and Jesse Eldridge, along with their top goaltender Colin Schroder, to Seattle in the expansion draft, while Vancouver picked forward Gabby Rosenthal.

In a strategic move, Daoust traded defenseman Ella Shelton to Toronto for the No. 3 pick in this year’s draft. The Sirens then selected forward Kristina Kartuunkova with the first overall pick, drafted forward Casey O’Brien third from Wisconsin, and added forward Ann Czarkowski from Clarkson in the second round.

The new trio will join Fillier, the 2024 first overall draft pick, to form a promising young core. Zandi Hart will again take on her role as team captain.

However, the Sirens aren’t only changing their roster; they’re also redefining their playing style under head coach Greg Fargo. “We want to play a really aggressive game,” Fillier mentioned. “We have a lot of speed. We don’t have the biggest forward group or the tallest, but we have a lot of speed and skill. … So just being aggressive, being on the edge, being relentless on the forecheck and hopefully getting a lot of pucks in the back of the net.”

Bourbonnais highlighted the intensity of training camp, saying, “The pace is fast. We got a lot of really good draft picks and good players like forward Kristin O’Neill and defender Jincy Roese. It’s going to be really cool to see everyone come together and gel. I have really high expectations for this group and I think the fans should be excited too.”