At times you'll see Sweden's top league, the SDHL referred to as the second best women's hockey league in the world behind the PWHL. That's not exactly accurate. The SDHL is the second best professional women's hockey league in the world behind the PWHL. The second best women's hockey league in the world is currently the WCHA, a conference in NCAA Division 1 women's hockey.
Wisconsin and Ohio State have remained atop the conference and national competition meeting in the last three NCAA national championship games with Wisconsin winning twice, and Ohio State winning the other.
But they aren't alone, programs including Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth have stayed consistently strong, are sending players to the PWHL, and continue to attract the top talent globally.
WCHA Teams Loading Up This Offseason
At times it feels like the rest of the NCAA is a farm system for the WCHA. The lone exception being the ECAC, although even that league sees an exodus annually to the WCHA.
In recent seasons, the transfer portal has become highly populated with players looking for a new opportunity, and for many top players, that comes in the WCHA.
This offseason, the Minnesota Golden Gophers women's hockey team have added Sarah Paul from Princeton, Jamie Nelson from Minnesota State, and Molly Jordan from Boston College via the portal.
Minnesota-Duluth is bringing in Swedish national team member Thea Johansson from Mercyhurst, and Cornell captain Ashley Messier. They also added Finnish national team defender Krista Parkkonen and Kate Kosobud from Minnesota, and Josie St. Martin from Ohio State from within the WCHA.
After being extremely active in the portal the last few offseasons, Ohio State has to date added only Kaia Malachino from Colgate, who scored 19 goals and 33 points in 35 games last season.
Following the path of the bigger programs, the WCHA's newest team, St. Thomas, has been active in the portal this year. They've added players including Julia Minotti (Clarkson), Jenessa Gazdik (Minnesota State), JuliAnna Gazdik (Minnesota State).
New Recruits Flocking To The WCHA
When you look at the top young players globally, most are headed to the WCHA. International standouts including Tereza Plosova (Minnesota), Adela Sapovalivova (Wisconsin), Sanni Vanhanen (Ohio State), Jenna Raunio (Ohio State), Edit Danielsson (Minnesota-Duluth), Linnea Natt och Dag (Minnesota-Duluth), Hilda Svensson (Ohio State), Ema Tothova (Ohio State), Raili Mustonen (St. Cloud State), and Nela Lopusanova (Wisconsin) will all join the WCHA in the next two years.
As will dozens of past and present members of Canada and USA's U-18 national teams. This year the loop added stars like Chloe Primerano, Caitlin Kraemer, and Maggie Scannell. This year's incoming class that includes North American players like Bella Fanale, Maxine Cimeroni, and Rhyah Stewart is equally impressive.
National Team Training Ground
No league features the depth of national team players that currently compete in the WCHA outside of the PWHL. Wisconsin alone featured American gold medalists Caroline Harvey, Laila Edwards, Kirsten Simms, Ava McNaughton, and Lacey Eden. Minnesota's roster included Abbey Murphy (USA), Nelli Laitinen and Krista Parkkonen (Finland), Chloe Primerano (Canada), Josefin Bouveng (Sweden), Natalie Mlynkova (Czechia), and Emma Kreisz (Hungary). Minnesota-Duluth's roster included Eve Gascon (Canada), Ida Karlsson (Sweden), and Nina Jobst-Smith (Germany). Ohio State's roster features Mira Jungaker (Sweden) and Joy Dunne (USA). St. Cloud State's roster included Sanni Ahola, Emilia Krykko, Siiri Yrjola, and Sofianna Sundelin (Finland), Svenja Voigt (Germany), and Laura Zimmerman (Switzerland). While St. Thomas saw Nicole Vallario represent Switzerland, and Bemidji State saw Julia Zielinska play for Poland.
PWHL Draft Watching The WCHA
PWHL teams know the WCHA is the top location to harvest talent from. Last season Ohio State alone managed to lose Raygan Kirk (Toronto), Cayla Barnes (Montreal), Lauren Bernard (Toronto/New York), Hadley Hartmetz (Boston), Stephanie Markowski (Ottawa), Hanna Bilka (Boston), and Jennifer Gardiner (Montreal) to the PWHL, and still climb back to the national title game.
This season many of the PWHL's top prospects will again come from the WCHA. Should they declare, Abbey Murphy and Lacey Eden will be top picks. Without them however, the pool remains deep. It's a list that includes Casey O'Brien, Natalie Mlynkova, Jenna Buglioni, Ella Huber, Peyton Hemp, Emma Gentry, Riley Brengman, Kiara Zanon, Nina Jobst-Smith, Sanni Ahola, Clara Van Wieren, Olivia Wallin, Olivia Mobley, Makenna Webster, Hanna Baskin, Maddi Wheeler, and others can all expect to hear their name called in the PWHL Draft.
Can the rest of the NCAA keep up?
NCAA Division 1 women's hockey has several tiers. The WCHA sits alone in tier one, with the top ECAC teams fitting in midway down the WCHA league ladder. Beyond this, Hockey East is the nation's third best loop, followed distantly by the Atlantic Hockey America. Beyond that, NEWHA sits far below any of the NCAA's conferences as even their top teams would struggle to compete with bottom teams from other conferences.
At some point, as the evolution of professional women's hockey continues, it might make sense for power conferences to form as has happened in other sports. It would allow the east's top teams like Clarkson, Colgate, and Cornell the opportunity to play better competition. The same could be said for AHA's annual top team, Penn State, along with schools like Northeastern, St. Lawrence, Quinnipiac, and Princeton.