Mark Johnson is the head coach of college hockey’s top women’s program at the Univwrsiry of Wisconsin. His current roster features several national team members from the United States, as well as one from Czechia.
Johnson, an Olympic gold medalist in hockey himself, spoke out this week in opposition to a new plan made in collaboration between the PWHL and IIHF to move the World Championships to November. It's a plan that Johnson doesn't feel serves NCAA players well.
"It doesn't make a lot of sense because as we've seen over the last 3, 4, 5 years there's a lot more international players that are participating in college hockey," Johnson told media. "That's your ultimate feeder system into the PWHL and so it's trying to get everybody all together to make decisions that's in the best interest of the game and our student-athletes and that one doesn't make any sense at all."
Previously, when the World Championships were played in April, leagues including the NCAA, U Sports, SDHL, PostFinance Women's League, DFEL and EWHL had all finished their schedule. The past two seasons, only the PWHL was forced to take a break in their schedule to participate in the World Championships. Now the script is flipped as the six biggest leagues outside the PWHL will be forced to take a month break in their schedules, while the PWHL calendar will not be impacted.
For NCAA players, the international competition will come only weeks ahead of final exams for college players.
Using rosters from the 2025 World Championships, the NCAA this season includes players from Team Canada (2), USA (8), Czechia (4), Finland (7), Germany (3), Sweden (6), Norway (2), Hungary (3), and Switzerland (4). Those numbers could all grow at the 2026 Olympics and World Championships.