All of these individual stories are part of a bigger project highlighting Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey alumnae in the PWHL. For information about the individual teams click here. The articles reflect the 2025-26 season rosters.
As kids, former Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey forwards Danielle Marmer ‘17 and Meghan Turner ‘17 often found themselves at the opposite sides of the ice. From 2013-2017 they shared the locker room in Hamden.
Now, they’re both in charge of two PWHL teams on the opposite sides of the country, serving as the general manager of the Boston Fleet and the Seattle Torrent respectively.
Marmer has been the general manager of the Boston Fleet since its inaugural season, while for the last two years, Turner served alongside Marmer — or as she affectionately calls her, Marms — as her assistant general manager. Following the PWHL’s first expansion this season, adding two teams to the league, Turner is in charge of the newly established Seattle Torrent.
“She’s an amazing leader,” Turner said. “She really focuses on how the people in her organization and around her feel and she’s so intentional about making sure that people are set up for success in their roles. It was a joy to work with her.”
Marmer only echoes that sentiment about Turner.
“I couldn’t be more excited for her,” Marmer said. “She’s going to do a phenomenal job. She’s incredibly bright, she’s organized, she’s a great leader. She’s culture driven. She’s going to have something really special in Seattle.”
Quinnipiac is the only university in the nation with two PWHL General Managers from the same school and joins the short list of schools that produced more than one general manager across the NHL and PWHL.
The two were part of the program’s first and only ECAC Tournament Championship in 21 years in 2016.
“They were close, that whole class was close,” Quinnipiac’s women ice hockey’s head coach Cass Turner, who was in her first season as a head coach during that win, said. “We had a group of them that we called ‘the posse,’ they had a lot of fun. They certainly put our team on a different level in terms of what we expect from our success, they really set the tone for higher expectations for the years following them.”
General managers are executives responsible for the team’s off-ice operations, including drafting, trading and scouting players, managing player contracts and staff. Across the NHL and PWHL, there are only six female general managers, all of which operate in the PWHL.
DANIELLE MARMER
Danielle Marmer ‘17 was making history long before she became a general manager of the Boston Fleet. In July 2022, she became the first woman to hold an on-ice coaching position with the Boston Bruins as their player development and scouting assistant in the organization’s almost century-long history.
Marmer — who worked with the team’s Diversity and Inclusion Scouting Mentorship Program a year prior to being hired — saw it as an opportunity to learn despite the pressure she felt being the first female in such role.
“To learn from them and how they see the game and how scouts view the game vs management vs coaches, it was a really incredible experience,” Marmer said. “I was excited to get to be a part of that and to continue to move hockey and women’s hockey in a positive direction.”
Marmer quickly realized how different this position was from what she had been doing before as director of player development and operations. While she was looking for players with healthy habits, who played the game the right way with good sticks, maturity and experience, other members of the scouting team were looking for raw, natural talent.
“They would kind of laugh at me, they’re like, ‘You need to take your coaching hat off,’” Marmer said. “Some of those details and attributes that you’re excited about, those players only have because it’s the only way they get their ice time, which was kind of who I was as a player.”
Being scouted by both Division I and Division III teams before her collegiate career, Marmer didn’t know how far her hockey career could take her. She started skating when she was about two years old, watching her sister’s figure skating lessons and “screaming and crying, wanting to get on the ice.”
“As I got a little bit older, my dad made a comment that if I was going to be at the rink as much as I was, he wanted me to have a stick in my hands,” Marmer laughed.
Growing up in a small town of Dorset, Vermont, Marmer knew that if she wanted to continue playing hockey, she needed to set her sights somewhere else. Hence, she started attending the Loomis Chaffee boarding school in Connecticut, where she caught Quinnipiac’s eye.
Marmer knew Division I was her ceiling and “hated the idea of there being an entire level of hockey being played above what I was playing.”
She suited up for 132 games during her Quinnipiac career, recording two goals and 13 assists.
“It took me a while to figure it out and I was spinning my wheels for the first part of it,” Marmer said. “Going into my senior year I felt like I was just getting a grasp of it and all of a sudden it was coming to an end.”
Believing that you can’t be really good at something after only a year, Marmer then faced a different decision than most of her teammates that went the professional route. College hockey was always just a means to an end, something to get a scholarship for or get an experience that would enhance her resume.
But when the time came to put down a deposit for law school, she hesitated.
“I remember having that pivotal moment of ‘Is this really it?’” Marmer said. “‘Am I really about to just go into the real world?’ And that didn’t sit well with me.”
Turner then planted the seed of pursuing a career in coaching into Marmer’s head, connecting her with Connecticut College women’s ice hockey head coach Kristen Steele. This “coaching whisperer,” gave Marmer her first post-grad job as the assistant coach for the Division III squad.
Marmer’s experience as a college athlete that had to earn ice time gave her a unique outlook as a coach, being able to connect with players from the starting lineup to healthy scratches.
After two years in that role, Marmer wanted to return to Division I hockey, when Turner stepped in again and offered her a position on the Bobcats’ staff.
Marmer served as Quinnipiac’s director of player development and operations for three years, completing her Master’s of Strategic Communications at the same time.
“I remember the first time I went up to the press box to set up the camera, being blown away by how many people were up there,” Marmer recalled. “As a player, you sort of take that for granted. It was really neat to see how Cass operates and how she works with her staff, that insight was really pivotal for the next steps for me.”
Turner recalls their time working together with a smile on her face.
“We laughed a lot, had a lot of fun,” Turner said. “I think for her there were so many moments where she was like, ‘I didn’t know you were like this.’ She pushed me to get better and I hope that I did the same for her.”
When the time came for Marmer to move forward in her career with the Bruins and then later the Fleet, Turner knew Marmer had what it took, even if she didn’t see it herself yet.
“She was a little bit outside of her comfort zone, and now I think she has that confidence,” Turner said. “She may not know how to do it yet, but she’s gonna find a path and she’s gonna make sure she talks to the right people and figures out the best approach. She’s really bright and we’re very happy and excited for her and where she is now.”
When looking back at her first year in her position with the Fleet, Marmer said that “sometimes I feel like I blacked it out.”
In the inaugural 2023 PWHL Draft, Boston had the No. 3 pick and in 15 rounds selected two former Bobcats, forwards Shiann Darkangelo ‘15 and Taylor Girard ‘21.
“I went back to my room and laid on my bed and I remember just staring at the ceiling like, ‘I can’t believe we just did that,’” Marmer said. “It was one of the coolest feelings and probably still is one of the coolest moments of my career.”
The Fleet was runner-up to the Minnesota Frost for the Walter Cup in the league’s first season.
In the 2025-26 preseason, the Fleet had the most former Quinnipiac players in its training camp, including forwards Kelly Babstock ‘14, Julia Nearis ‘24, Olivia Mobley, Shay Maloney ‘23 and defender Zoe Boyd ‘23. While Marmer doesn’t specifically look for the former navy and gold skaters while scouting, she knows what kind of a player she will get out of this program.
“I know that there is a discipline, a commitment, a work ethic that those players embody and that allows them to play in a lot of different roles, they’re valuable and well-coached,” Marmer said.
In its 2025-26 season and home opener on Nov. 23 against the Montreal Victoire, the Fleet won 2-0. As of Jan. 20, the Fleet is at the top of the league with a 8-1-2-2 record.
MEGHAN TURNER
For Meghan Turner ‘17, stepping into the role of a general manager was definitely a learning curve, but not uncharted territory.
Having a background in operations through her International Business degree and an MBA from Quinnipiac and her experience working with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Boston, the administrative part of the job was a no-brainer for her.
And thanks to Marmer, the rest of it was not hard either.
“There was definitely a learning curve, but I never felt out of my depth,” Turner said. “Just with the way that Danielle included me in a lot of the conversations and roster decisions in the past two years, I think that set me up for success pretty well too.”
In her four years as a Bobcat, Turner recorded 29 goals and 23 assists in 149 games.
“Everything has a purpose behind what she does,” Cass Turner — and no, there is no familial relation between the two of them, just pure coincidence — said. “She’s a super bright, very structured, diligent person. Her history with the military, how she sets expectations, how she builds her group, she’s gonna do a really nice job.”
All three of Meghan’s older brothers enlisted in the military, something that she herself has done before working with Marmer. Her brothers are also the reason she ever strapped on skates in the first place.
Before Quinnipiac, she attended the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy for three years, serving as a team captain — while also playing lacrosse and cross country — earning 50 points on the ice in just one season.
On a drive home to Bedford, New Hampshire, her father suggested she should stop by Quinnipiac and see what the school was about.
After watching one practice, Turner was hooked.
“It was intense, Cass (then associate head coach) was running the drill and it just looked good, like something I wanted to be a part of,” Turner said. “When Cass took over, she’s such an amazing leader and runs an amazing program. Plus academically, I really liked the 3+1 program.”
After graduating, Turner chose to go down the professional player route, playing in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League for a year before moving to the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, before Marmer asked her to come work with her.
When the league’s expansion was announced and Marmer was asked if there was anyone who she would recommend for the GM positions, for her, Turner was not only the obvious choice, but the only choice, as she told the Boston Globe.
Being in charge of a team that is entering an already established franchise, even if it’s as young as the PWHL, could be nerve-wracking. According to Turner though, “Seattle as a fan base has been amazing so far.”
“It doesn’t feel like we’re starting from scratch, they’ve been itching to get a team,” Turner said.
It’s also helpful that her players already have the experience of being in the league, and Turner can’t wait to arm them with the tools they need for a successful inaugural season.
“These players, some of them are coming off of really outstanding years, some of them are coming off of years where they wish they did more, and it gives everyone a chance to succeed,” Turner said. “It’s gonna be a good year.”
Part of Seattle’s squad are former Bobcats forward Lexie Adzija ‘23 and goaltender Corinne Schroeder ‘22, and while that was not the reason she wanted them on her team, Turner said she certainly knows what she’s getting when signing a former Bobcat.
“There’s less unknowns, right?” Turner said. “Because I know how the program operates and how good it is. You know you’re getting a good person and you know you’re getting someone who will work their tail off.”
Before the season, Turner was most excited to see the team play and excited to compete. The Torrent did just that in their home opener against the newly established Vancouver Goldeneyes, falling 4-3 in overtime. Schroeder started the game, recording 27 saves.
As of Jan. 20, the Torrent is ranked second to last in the league with a 3-1-2-5 record.
