During the inaugural PWHL Draft in September 2023, sports icon Billie Jean King offered this piece of advice to Danielle Marmer, the general manager of PWHL Boston: “Journal this.”
“She’s like, ‘I wish I could remember these moments in my life,” Marmer said. “I know I’ve had these incredible, groundbreaking experiences, and they’re hard to remember. You’re going to have a hard time remembering this.’”
For her part, Marmer remembers thinking “there’s no way I’m going to forget how I feel right now.”
An inaugural season, a Walter Cup Finals appearance and nearly a second PWHL season later, Marmer is having second thoughts to her reaction.
“Man, I really should’ve listened to Billie,” Marmer said. “Because it feels like it was just such a whirlwind. I almost feel like I blacked out, to be honest.”
That whirlwind she referred to was how quickly the new professional women’s hockey league came to fruition, hired coaches and staff, drafted players to field teams and completed the first season. All of it unraveled quickly over the summer of 2023 with the puck dropping on the season in early 2024. Marmer has been there from the beginning as the general manager for Boston’s team, now known as the Boston Fleet.
Before shifting to the front office side of hockey, Marmer played four seasons with Quinnipiac from 2013-17 and coached after her college playing days. She was an assistant coach for two seasons with the Connecticut College women’s team, involved in recruiting, player evaluations and film breakdowns. From there she was director of hockey operations and then director of player development and hockey operations at Quinnipiac.
Though coaching was a passion for her, a mentorship program with the Boston Bruins scouting department led her to a full-time role as a Bruins scout in 2022-23. Located in Boston, she wasn’t far from many of the team’s top college prospects.
“That was when I started to become interested in that path and realize maybe it wasn’t so much the coaching path, but the roster construction, the draft process, all of that was really exciting to me,” Marmer said.
She loved the season she spent with the Bruins, soaking up all the knowledge in scouting. Having reached the NHL level, she thought she’d work for the Bruins forever and had no interest in leaving for another job.
Then she heard the rumblings of a new women’s professional league. She initially thought this league would be great for women’s hockey, but she didn’t think it was something she’d jump into. However, the agency the new league hired to help find team general managers called Marmer and asked if she’d be interested in interviewing for the Boston GM role, and she quickly reconsidered.
“As one of my mentors told me once: ‘Never say no to the job you don’t have,’” Marmer said. “So, while I had no interest necessarily in leaving the Bruins, I figured it would be a great opportunity to go through the interview process.”
She ended up getting the job and was thrust into the whirlwind of the inaugural season of the PWHL. She quickly had to hire a head coach, Courtney Kessel, hire staff and draft players about three weeks later.
In the middle of season two, Marmer said she loves her role and is grateful she received the opportunity. It doesn’t mean she wasn’t torn about leaving the Bruins job, though, having learned so much in one season with the NHL.
“So, sitting there at the [2023] Draft, the first draft, I was like, ‘Wow, if I knew I was going to feel this way, so excited and really happy about my decision, it would have been a really easy answer to say yes to,’” Marmer said.
The life as a hockey general manager goes through cycles along with the actual hockey season, Marmer said. Lately, it’s the grind before the playoff push for the team, while Marmer is also in preparation mode for the next PWHL Draft. The PWHL trade deadline also just passed, so Marmer spent the last few weeks watching other teams and players, finding any possible redundancies where Marmer and the Fleet could target to help improve their team.
There’s also budget work, scouting, free agency and some hypothetical situations to play out with possible PWHL expansion in the near future. She also helps support the team and coaching staff daily at practices and games.
“There’s just different cycles of the year, so it keeps things fresh and new, for sure,” Marmer said.
As for any advice for women in hockey who might be interested in a front-office role, Marmer offered a reminder that positions can exist for women, even if they haven’t before.
“You might not see people who look like you,” Marmer said. “You might not see people who had your experience in roles like a management role, for example, but that doesn’t mean it’s not on the table for you or not an option for you. Somebody’s going to be first at everything.
“There’s going to be a first in a lot of areas that we haven’t had yet. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it can’t happen.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
In recognition of Women’s History Month, USA Hockey will be celebrating the women across our game throughout the month of March. To learn more about Women’s History Month, visit Womenshistorymonth.gov
Source: usahockey.com