“When you take over a team that has everything in place and they had a lot of success or whatnot, then you don’t have a lot of room to make changes,” he said Monday at the team’s practice facility in Wellesley. “And for me coming in — new faces, new players, great prospect pool, new coaching staff — it gives us a chance to put our own spin on things.”
Sparre, who spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls, got his first taste of life as a head coach when the Fleet opened training camp Monday. He was so animated on the ice that he lost his voice.
“I couldn’t ask for more, really, on a day one in terms of an energy [and] focus perspective,” he said.
Goaltender Aerin Frankel noted the intensity of Monday’s practice, which concluded with a drill that had players — Frankel and her fellow netminders included — skating sprints up and down the ice.
“He knows how to get a team to play hard for him, and I think we saw that today with the first practice,” Frankel said. “Having him to direct practice is going to keep us going in the right direction.”
The Fleet’s training camp roster consists of 17 forwards, 11 defenders, and 4 goaltenders. Twenty-one players are already signed for the upcoming season, and final rosters, which can carry a maximum of 23 active players, are due Nov. 19.
A Northeastern reunion
Chloé Aurard-Bushee was thrilled to be drafted by the New York Sirens after five stellar years at Northeastern, but she was counting the days until she could be reunited with one of her college linemates: Fleet forward Alina Müller.
When her two-year contract expired this spring and Aurard-Bushee began testing the free-agency market, she looked straight to Boston, the city where she and Muller won five Beanpot trophies and five Hockey East titles.
“After Northeastern, my heart’s always been in Boston,” said Aurard-Bushee, who was known as Chloé Aurard while playing at Northeastern and hyphenated her last name after getting married to former Emerson basketball player Ella Bushee in September.
Aurard-Bushee and Müller, who the Fleet drafted third overall in 2023, have remained close friends since their playing days under Dave Flint, and when Aurard-Bushee signed with the Fleet, the pair hopped on the phone right away to share in the excitement.
“One of the best feelings I’ve had in a while is just being out there again with Chloe,” said Müller, who signed a two-year contract extension with the Fleet in August. “I think we have a lot of history together, and it just feels natural playing with her, being on the ice with her.”
PWHL announces Takeover Tour dates and locations
The PWHL announced the return of its Takeover Tour for the league’s third season, featuring 16 neutral-site games in 11 cities across the United States and Canada.
The Fleet will play three games as part of the series: Jan. 3 against Vancouver at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena; Jan. 11 vs. Ottawa at Scotiabank Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia; and April 7 against Vancouver at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.
The game in Detroit will be a homecoming for defender Megan Keller, whose hometown of Farmington sits just a half-hour drive northwest of Little Caesars Arena.
“Any chance that I get to go back home and play in a professional setting is pretty cool to be a part of,” she said.
Tickets for the Takeover Tour will be available this week, with presales beginning Thursday, followed by the general sale on Friday at 10 a.m. in host markets.
Loose pucks
Rookie defender Haley Winn, the team’s first-round draft pick this spring, completed 19 chin-ups during the team’s fitness testing Monday morning . . . Winn joined Keller and Frankel on Team USA’s roster for the first two US-Canada Rivalry Series games this past week, which the US swept. Frankel made 26 saves Thursday night in Cleveland, a 4-1 win, and the US followed that up with a 6-1 win Saturday in Buffalo, thanks to a hat trick from former Fleet forward Hilary Knight . . . Forward Jamie Lee Rattray and her wife, Whitney, welcomed their son, Cooper, in June. The Rattrays documented their journey with in vitro fertilization on social media.
Emma Healy can be reached at emma.healy@globe.com or on X @ByEmmaHealy.
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