The new Hamilton franchise in the Professional Women’s Hockey League has their first head coach. It is Kris Sparre of Mississauga, Ontario according to the Associated Press on Wednesday.
Sparre has PWHL coaching experience. This past season, he was in charge of the Boston Fleet. Boston finished in second place in the PWHL regular season with 62 points. They had a record of 16 regulation wins, five wins in extra time, four losses in extra time, and five losses in regulation time. In the postseason, Boston played the Ottawa Charge in the first round and lost three games to one in a best out of five series.
Before coaching the Fleet, Sparre had nine years of assistant coaching experience. He was with the Niagara Ice Dogs of the Ontario Hockey League for three seasons from 2016 to 2019, two seasons with EC Salzburg in Austria from 2019 to 2021, one season with the Flint Firebirds of the OHL from 2021 to 2022, and three seasons with the San Diego Gulls in the American Hockey League from 2022 to 2025.
As a player, Sparre was a left winger and played eight seasons in Germany. At the junior level, he played in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with the Halifax Mooseheads, and in the Ontario Hockey League with the Barrie Colts and Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors.
