Looking At The Colleges Developing The Most PWHL Players

As it stands today, there are 44 NCAA Division 1 programs in the United States. North of the border in Canada, there are 35 U Sports programs. Of those programs, 30 current NCAA teams, and one former, have players in the PWHL this season as rostered or reserve players, and five U Sports programs have players currently under contract as full time players or reserves this year.

Some of those programs have promoted more players to the professional ranks, and spent more years developing those players than others. Six schools - Clarkson, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Minnesota-Duluth, Quinnipiac, and Northeastern - each have double digit alumni in the PWHL. 

Wisconsin and Ohio State lead all programs with 15 former players in the PWHL. From Wisconsin,14 of those finished their NCAA careers with the program, and 10 who started with the program. At Ohio State, all 15 of their alumni finished their NCAA careers as Buckeyes, but only eight of those players started with Ohio State, the rest came as transfers.

Those programs were followed by Clarkson and Minnesota-Duluth who each have 13 alumni in the league, Quinnipiac with 12, and Northeastern with 11.

But not all programs developed equally. Northeastern’s alumni spent the most time playing for their school averaging 4.54 years as Huskies. They were followed by Minnesota-Duluth, whose athletes spent an average of 4.07 years as Bulldogs. Conversely, the lowest of the big six producers was Ohio State whose PWHL players spent an average of 3.33 seasons developing at the school, followed by Quinnipiac, with players spending an average of 3.5 years at the school, and Wisconsin at 3.53 years, while Clarkson was 3.76 years. 

Colgate and Minnesota have an identical nine players each, spending an identical 4.33 years with their schools. 

Only five other schools in the nation - Boston College (8), St. Lawrence (7), Minnesota State (6), Cornell (5), Boston University (5) - had five or more athletes advance to the PWHL.

On the Canadian side, the University of Montreal leads the way with three players in the PWHL.