NY Sirens bring ‘fresh take,’ stability into PWHL season opener

New York Sirens general manager Pascal Daoust is excited for his team’s potential this season.

Then again, what GM, coach, player or fan isn’t at this point of the year, before game results start to count?

But Daoust’s excitement is not rooted in blind optimism alone.

An eventful past few months for New York’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team has set it up for better success in its sophomore season, which begins this weekend.

Not only do the Sirens have a team name — and, perhaps more importantly, an established identity for fans to rally around — but they also boast a new star player, new coach and new home arena.

“We are writing our brand new [Sirens chapter] with a new environment,” Daoust said this week. “It’s on us to get that page to be as great as we want it to be.”

If there was any consolation for New York’s dud of a debut campaign during the PWHL’s inaugural season, it was the rights to the No. 1 pick in the draft.

The Sirens selected former Princeton star Sarah Fillier, who dazzled for the Canadian Olympic gold-winning team in 2022.

The Sirens also moved on from Howie Draper and hired former college coach Greg Fargo, who has a knack for player development as shown in his 12 years at Colgate, where he launched the Raiders program into national prominence.

The Sirens also finally have a place to call home at Prudential Center and have been practicing at a training facility that’s just eight miles away.

All the offseason changes have led to entering training camp early this month with a “totally fresh take on the season ahead,” team captain Micah Zandee-Hart said.

“I’m really looking forward to the year ahead,” she said. “There’s an energy about our group. Obviously, yeah, we’re motivated to do better than we did last year, and I think every team in the league is motivated to win a championship. But overall, we’re just focusing on the day-to-day right now to be prepared for Dec. 1.”

The Sirens started the league’s inaugural 2023-24 season well, winning four straight games before sputtering to a last-place finish in the PWHL standings with a 5-4-3-12 record.

Forward Alex Carpenter and defender Ella Shelton were two of the more reliable skaters.

Carpenter scored a team-high eight goals and tied for second-most points in the league with 23.

Shelton, the No. 4 pick of the 2023 draft, recorded 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists).

Goaltender Corinne Schroeder held up as well as she could in the crease, but a porous defense didn’t provide much help.

Schroeder posted a .930 save percentage while facing a league-high 34 shots per game.

It also probably didn’t help that New York bounced between three locations for home games.

They played in Bridgeport, Conn., at UBS Arena in Belmont Park, home of the NHL’s Islanders, and at Prudential Center.

The different home venues may have been part of the reason the Sirens averaged 2,496 fans in the 12 games they hosted.

The team being based at a training facility in Connecticut also led to players sometimes driving two-plus hours to games.

The constant movement between arenas in different states diluted home-ice advantage, Zandee-Hart said.

That won’t be the case this time around.

Essex County Codey Arena, the former practice facility for the New Jersey Devils, is the Sirens home base this season and all home games will be played at Prudential Center.

“It [takes] a ton of energy traveling that players had to go through last season that they won’t have to do this year,” Daoust said. “So this is a huge improvement. We’re giving them the best environment to perform. And it’s on us, and it’s on them, to make sure that we reach our full potential.”

Added Zandee-Hart: “I can notice it in our team — just everyone has a calmer presence and is kind of excited to build their routines out and have somewhere that we can call home.”

Over the past few weeks, Daoust has become increasingly more comfortable with the team’s depth and versatility, but he knows there’s plenty of work to be done still.

“Having all the ingredients on the table doesn’t mean that your recipe will play the best,” Daoust said. “You need to cook, and you need to taste, and you need to make sure that you’re going to have the best meal. But it doesn’t mean that [if] you mix all the ingredients it will give you the best meal. It’s on them to accept a role, to accept the mission, to roll and to push and to walk and to pull in the same direction, and we’ll see which group can do that.”

The Sirens are scheduled to start their season Sunday against the defending champion Minnesota Frost.

New York’s home opener is set for Dec. 18 against the Toronto Sceptres.

Games will be more accessible for fans to watch at home after the Sirens inked a deal with MSG Networks to broadcast their games.

“We’re really excited,” Zandee-Hart said. “Every year is a new year, especially in our league. … [We’re looking forward to] what we can do to be the best we can be this year.”