PWHL Boston Adds ‘Wizard’ To Coaching Staff For Second Season

PWHL Boston strengthened its coaching staff, making some considerable additions to its franchise. Courtney Kennedy, Lenny Mosca and Shawn Roche will join head coach Courtney Kessel for Boston's second season.

General manager Danielle Marmer was better positioned to bring in new coaches because other programs and leagues were also in their offseason.

"I knew where we were in the hiring process last year, when (the league) started, was gonna be really challenging to hire people because they were already committed to their season and were already in roles," Marmer explained to NESN.com in a phone interview on Wednesday. "So that was something that this offseason, I wanted to make sure we had the right people and the best people we could get, the best people in these roles."

Roche joins PWHL Boston after six seasons as the video coach and director of men’s hockey operations at Quinnipiac University. Roche helped the Bobcats earn the 2023 National Championship title. Roche and Marmer worked together at Quinnipiac, so adding him to the staff was an easy decision for the second-year GM.

"He was a mentor for me," Marmer said. "When we worked at Quinnipiac at the same time, we did the same job. He did it 50 times better than I did. He's a wizard. I call him Wizard. He taught me everything I know about video."

Marmer added: "He was somebody that, as we came out of the season, that I was interested in having a conversation with, and knew that I wanted to bring him on to our staff if he was interested in doing it. ... He's really one of the best when it comes to video coaching."

Prior to joining the Quinnipiac staff, Roche was the video coordinator and assistant video coach for the New York Rangers from 2016 to 2018. He also served as the video coach for the U.S. National Junior Team, which won bronze at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship.

The PWHL is expected to release the upcoming season's schedule and new team names and logos in mid-September. Marmer is expecting PWHL Boston to begin training camp in November.