Meghan Turner named as PWHL Seattle General Manager
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - Just a few weeks ahead of the expansion draft that will help dictate what their inaugural season roster will look like, PWHL Seattle has announced today that they’ve hired Meghan Turner as the franchise’s first general manager. Turner becomes the leagues youngest general manager, coming to Seattle after spending the last two seasons as the assistant general manager of the Boston Fleet. With the Fleet, Turner was part of their run to the Walter Cup in the inaugural season of the league and this past seasons campaign where it looked like Boston was a playoff lock until a late collapse. The Fleet were one of the leagues better teams over the first two seasons of the PWHL, and she’ll look to help Seattle create their own success with how favorable the upcoming expansion draft will be to the leagues two new franchises. Turner becomes the first employee of the Seattle PWHL franchise.
“I’m so honored to step into this role and have the opportunity to build a PWHL team in Seattle. From the excitement that we experienced at the Takeover Tour this past season to the established women’s sports culture and the close relationship with the Kraken, I’m confident that we’re stepping into an environment that is more than ready for women’s hockey. The talent in this league is unmatched, and I’m excited for the opportunity to build a team and an organization that reflects the passion of the city and the excellence of the league. We’ve got a lot of work to do and I’m ready to get started.”
Bedford, New Hampshire native Meghan Turner skates for Quinnipiac during the 2016 ECAC championship. (Photo via QUINNIPIAC ATHLETICS)
Turner has some history in the world of hockey, beginning her playing career at the age of four, as the New Hampshire native was a four-year forward at Quinnipiac University from 2013-17 for the Bobcats before she continued her career to the professional level across two different leagues. Meghan played one season in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) with the Worchester Blades before moving on to play in the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) for about four seasons. The PWHPA folded alongside the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) just over two years ago to help create the PWHL.
It won’t be easy for Turner to leave the Fleet, considering she’s leaving longtime friend Danielle Marmer, the general manager for Boston. Turner and Marmer grew up playing together on the New England travel hockey circuit and continued their playing careers together when they became college teammates at Quinnipiac University. After their collegiate playing careers ended, the two continued to remain close as Marmer took a position as the Boston Bruins’ player development and scouting assistant back in the summer of 2022, living at Turner’s house in Waltham, Massachusetts. That 2022 year is when Turner retired from her hockey playing career, as Meghan took her life in a different direction than hockey. That detour from the game she loved obviously did not last long.
“We’ve always aligned on things. Even through college, we cared about being successful in the classroom, cared about being successful on the ice and cared about being good teammates and good friends. She was always someone I went to for advice in college. ... When I moved in with her, every day we would talk about everything and I got to watch her work ethic first hand.”
Prior to taking that assistant general manager job with the Fleet and after her playing career ended, Turner took a different turn in life as she was building a consulting career at PricewaterhouseCoopers for about five years by the time of her retirement. Her work involved complex projects and advising Fortune 500 companies on operational strategy and organizational change. Outside of that work, Turner followed three older brothers into military service and is a member of the Army National Guard. In fact, Turner was returning from basic training with the Massachusetts National Guard shortly before she officially started with Boston. It was a difficult decision for Meghan to leave a well paying PwC job and jump into a position she’d never had before, but considering that it was a familiar face in Marmer asking her to do so, Turner jumped in and doesn’t seem to be regretting that decision.
Marmer put a lot of belief into Turner when she was hired, as Meghan was tasked with business aspects of the organization such as salary cap, budgets and position profiles while also keeping tabs on movements and potential movements around the PWHL so as to best assist the Fleet with any potential trades that came their way. Marmer had plenty of belief and trust in Turner, as she thought that Meghan’s experience in hockey a player, knowledge of the sport and business acumen all made her a great candidate to be in a hockey front office for a long time, even a general manager spot.
“She’s going to take my job one day. She’s going to be so good at this. I won’t be surprised if she’s the GM of an NHL team at some point in the future.”
To briefly remind you of the expansion draft rules for Seattle and Vancouver, the PWHL’s original six teams will submit protected player lists by June 3rd, then the two expansion teams will get a five-day exclusive window to sign a maximum of five players, beginning June 4th through 8th. The Expansion Draft itself is set for June 9th, as the pair of expansion teams will select a minimum of seven players each until each has reached a 12-player roster. You can check out the fully details on some key offseason dates for PWHL Seattle by clicking here.
The PWHL hasn’t disclosed where the expansion teams will fit into the six-round draft order on June 24th in Ottawa, so we don’t know much about that outside of the fact that the draft lasts six rounds.
Fun facts about Turner
Turner joins Danielle Marmer and Gina Kingsbury as former ECAC women's ice hockey players turned PWHL general managers.
Turner holds a masters of business administration from Quinnipiac.
Totals at Quinnipiac during her collegiate playing career: 29 goals, 23 assists, 52 total points.
Turner has three older brothers named James, Jeffrey and Kevin, and one older sister named Marie
All three brothers have been in the military, and two have been deployed twice
Prior to her time at Quinnipiac, Turner was a three sport athlete at Phillips Exeter Academy, played ice hockey, lacrosse and cross country.
While she will obviously have her hands full mulling over which players to sign in the exclusive window, select in the expansion and entry drafts, Turner will also be tasked with hiring coaching and support staffs prior to that so that she can have other sets of eyes on those tasks to help construct Seattle’s inaugural season roster.
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Check out our previous PWHL Seattle articles here.
Check out our previous articles with writing by Charles Hamaker here.
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