NCAA women getting more European

A quarter of a century ago, University of Minnesota-Duluth head coach Shannon Miller was one of the few NCAA bench bosses who had an eye on overseas talent. Today, Division I is replete with international skaters, and the college game has become the stronger for it.

 

Among the top 36 teams in U.S. women’s college hockey this season, there are now 67 non-North Americans from 17 countries, including Korea, Japan, and China. Sweden leads the way with 17 players and Finland has 11. Surprisingly, Austria is well represented with six, followed by Czechia with five. Germany, Switzerland, and Hungary all have three players; Russia has two; and six countries have one (China, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia).

 

Only ten of these 36 Division I teams have no Europeans—Brown, Harvard, Princeton, Clarkson, and Cornell, from the ECAC; Connecticut, BC, and Holy Cross, from Hockey East; and, Wisconsin and Minnesota State, from the WCHA.

 

The 12 ECAC teams have a total of 13 players, while the 10 teams in Hockey East have 18. The eight WCHA teams have 16 Europeans, and the six AHA teams have a whopping 20 players.

 

Not surprisingly, goalies by ratio are the best-represented position among the Europeans in the NCAA. Of the 67 total players, some 14 are goalies. Another 23 are defenders, and 40 are forwards.

 

But beyond the numbers, we can see a trend of NCAA teams wanting to incorporate Europeans into their rosters and, equally, Europeans wanting to make the move to North America to pursue the combination of education and hockey development. There’s no doubt that as the PWHL gains further traction, this trend will increase accordingly as women see the NCAA as a path to scouting, drafting, and a pro career.

 

The quality of the Europeans in the NCAA is what really stands out, however. Finnish goalie Emilia Kyrkko, who plays for St. Cloud State, is among the leaders with a 0.97 GAA. She helped Finland win bronze at the 2022 Women’s U18 Worlds, where she was named IIHF Directorate Best Goalie, and she is early in her first year with the Huskies. Denmark’s Emma-Sophie Nordstrom is in her third year with St. Lawrence and her second as the number one goalie. She also already has two IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championships to her credit and was also part of the Danish Olympic team in 2022.

 

And 19-year-old Felicia Frank is having a stellar start to her NCAA career. She already has two shutouts in…