The 2027 Universaide, scheduled for January 15 to 25, 2027 in Changchun, China, will bring six women's hockey nations together for a tournament that now posts a number of PWHL alumni.
The women's hockey tournament of the 33rd Winter Universiade will be held in Changchun, China. The Universaide runs from January 15-25, 2027, with the women's hockey tournament being held at the 2,460 seat Jilin Ice Arena.
In 2025 in Turin, Czechia went undefeated to win gold with Barbora Bartakova, a former U-18 national team member who is currently in the SDHL with Djurgardens, leading the tournament in scoring and Czech Olympian Julie Pejsova backstopping their team to the title. In 2023 at Lake Placid, it was Canada who won gold, a team that was captained by New York Sirens veteran Emmy Fecteau.
Canada's Universaide team is typically built as an all-star roster from the U SPORTS university women's hockey system. USA's roster alternates between NCAA DIII standouts and a roster built from the ACHA.
The tournament has seen a number of PWHL players compete while studying at school.
Anna Shokhina of PWHL Hamilton is the tournament's current all-time leading scorer recording 32 points in 15 career games. Ottawa Charge forward Fanuza Kadirova isn't far down the list with 17 points in 11 career games.
In her lone tournament in 2017, Montreal Victoire forward Alexandra Labelle was dominant scoring 13 points in five games for Canada. Victoire teammate Kaitlin Willoughby also represented Canada, competing at two Universaide Games in 2017 and 2019.
Maria Batalova who will attend training camp with Montreal played in three tournaments for Russia.
At the most recent Universaide in 2025, Montreal draft pick Emilie Lavoie represented Canada while attending Concordia University. Other current PWHL players who have competed in the tournament include Daniela Pejsova, Akane Shiga, Kendra Woodland, Kelly-Ann Nadeau, Emmy Fecteau, Erica Reider, and Catherine Dubois.
