Sirens general manager Pascal Daoust gave captain and star defender Micah Zandee-Hart a potential out this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After New York missed the playoffs and finished in the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League cellar for the second consecutive season, changes were inevitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Daoust wanted to take the team in a younger direction and rebuild through the draft. Zandee-Hart, 28, had the potential to go home to Vancouver and be with her family \u2014 including her cat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rumors swirled about Zandee-Hart\u2019s future in New York, but she ultimately chose to stay because she wants to see this rebuild through. She wants to help the Sirens make the playoffs and beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Micah Zandee-Hart of the New York Sirens skates during PWHL training camp on November 11, 2025 at Richard J. Codey Arena in West Orange, New Jersey. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Reigning Rookie of the Year and Forward of the Year Sarah Fillier sees the same potential in this group as Zandee-Hart does.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI signed a two-year extension because I think we have something good here that we can build and hopefully go chase after a championship,\u201d Fillier said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When the Sirens open their season Saturday night in Ottawa, they\u2019re going to look completely different.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u2019re younger, faster and perhaps more skilled than a year ago \u2014 and desperate to change the narrative around a team that\u2019s yet to reach the postseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone in that locker room, and staff included, feels like everyone\u2019s hungry for more than last place this year,\u201d Fillier said. \u201cAnd I think our draft class really has hopped on that, too, just being hungry to hunt down teams and scrap for points. But yeah, I think we have high expectations for our group.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Sirens\u2019 Sarah Fillier takes a shot as Toronto Sceptres\u2019 Kali Flanagan defends during the third period of a PWHL hockey game in Toronto, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. ( AP<\/p>\n
Added defender Jaime Bourbonnais: \u201cWe are able to set our bar pretty high. \u2026 I do feel like we\u2019re really big contenders this season.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Sirens went a completely different direction with their roster this summer. Only 13 players return from the previous season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Sirens lost two of their top forwards, Alex Carpenter and Jessie Eldridge, along with No. 1 goalie Corinne Schroeder to Seattle in the expansion draft. Vancouver selected forward Gabby Rosenthal in that draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Daoust also traded defender Ella Shelton to Toronto for the No. 3 pick in this year\u2019s draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Sirens selected Colgate forward Krist\u00fdna Kaltounkov\u00e1 first overall in this summer\u2019s draft. They also drafted forward Casey O\u2019Brien out of Wisconsin with the No. 3 pick and led off the second round by taking forward Anne Cherkowski from Clarkson.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Sirens forward Krist\u00fdna Kaltounkov\u00e1 (98) and center Casey O\u2019Brien (26) react on the ice during the third period of scrimmage, against the Minnesota Frost, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025 in West Orange, New Jersey. Noah K. Murray for NY Post<\/p>\n
The trio joins Fillier, the top pick in the 2024 draft, to form the Sirens\u2019 young core.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zandee-Hart again will serve as the team\u2019s captain and respected stateswoman.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Sirens didn\u2019t just overhaul their roster, though. They also retooled their identity and the way they want to play under head coach Greg Fargo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to play a really aggressive game,\u201d Fillier said. \u201cWe have a ton of speed. We don\u2019t have the biggest or tallest forward group out there, but we have a ton of speed, a ton of skill. \u2026 So just playing aggressive, with an edge and just being relentless on the forecheck, and hopefully we can put a bunch of pucks into the back of the net.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bourbonnais said those traits have come alive on the ice during training camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pace is high,\u201d Bourbonnais said. \u201cWe got a lot of really good draft picks, got a lot of good players like [forward Kristin O\u2019Neill and defender Jincy Roese], so it\u2019s going to be really cool to see everyone come together and jell. So, I have really high expectations for this group and I think fans should be excited.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sirens general manager Pascal Daoust gave captain and star defender Micah Zandee-Hart a potential out this summer.\u00a0 After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,24233,24231,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-48346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-new-york-sirens","12":"tag-pwhl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}