The NCAA’s top teams reside in the WCHA and ECAC, while Canada’s U Sports continues to make strides. Here’s a look at North America’s top collegiate conferences and leagues.
1. WCHA
Wisconsin, Ohio State, Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth are a top tier of programs that are loaded with national team prospects and future pros every year. St. Cloud State has closed the gap and St. Thomas continues to make strides, as does Minnesota State. Only Bemidji State is outclassed in this group. It’s a league loaded with talent, including top 2024 PWHL Draft picks like Cayla Barnes, Hannah Bilka, Britta Curl and Jennifer Gardiner. Still in the league are national team standouts like Caroline Harvey, Laila Edwards, Sanni Ahola, Nelli Laitinen, Kirsten Simms, Abbey Murphey, Lacey Eden and Josefin Bouveng, among others. It’s a league from top to bottom.
2. ECAC
The ECAC is a league of haves and have-nots. At the top are Colgate, Clarkson, Cornell, Quinnipiac and St. Lawrence. Ivy League teams like Princeton and Yale are also in the mix. While the WCHA competes for the waves of depth, the ECAC is arguably the better developer of quality pros. The top three picks in the 2024 PWHL Draft—Sarah Fillier, Danielle Serdachny and Claire Thompson—along with sixth overall pick Julia Gosling are all ECAC graduates. The elite talent is here. The East could be a powerhouse conference if it wanted to, but what we see in the ECAC is more developmental from top to bottom than the WCHA.
3. Hockey East
There’s a noticeable jump from the top two conferences to Hockey East, but programs like Northeastern, Connecticut and Vermont have all had their time among nationally ranked programs, and there’s reason to believe that Boston College and Boston University will build better programs in the years to come. Outside of Northeastern, there simply isn’t a program with year-over-year, recruiting cycle over recruiting cycle consistency. Northeastern has landed players like Alina Muller, Aerin Frankel, Maureen Murphy, Gwyneth Philips, Megan Carter and Chloe Aurard in the PWHL in recent years, and their stellar history speaks for itself.
4. AHA
The new Atlantic Hockey America conference continues to make small steps forward, but it’s another step down from Hockey East. Penn State is the best program in the group, led by U.S. National Team standout Tessa Janecke. Mercyhurst and Syracuse have brought in talent, but overall, this conference has room to grow. It’s tough to compete with the recruiting powers of the ECAC and WCHA, but the fact that players like Canada’s Abby Stonehouse and Sweden’s Nicole Hall are choosing Penn State bodes well for the future.
5. RSEQ
Concordia could leave U Sports and go into any NCAA conference and be competitive. They would beat their share of teams, just like the best from U Sports. Bishop’s and Montreal also have growing programs with pro prospects and All-Canadian stars. Emmy Fecteau came out of Concordia as the only player drafted from U Sports to the PWHL this season, but there are many alumni from that conference in the PWHL. Bishop’s rookie Gabrielle Santerre was the U Sports player of the year and rookie of the year.
6. Canada West
British Columbia was loaded with talent this season, led by Rylind MacKinnon, while All-Canadian stars such as Emma Bergesen, Mackenzie Kordic, Camryn Drever and Elizabeth Lang were also Canada West stars. The conference spans four provinces, from British Columbia to Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a huge conference, which means the talent pool to draw from is also large. Many provincial team stars end up in Canada West.
7. OUA
Split across two conferences within Ontario, Toronto, Nipissing, Guelph and Waterloo have been the power players in Ontario this season. Fueled by the OWHL, Canada’s premier women’s junior league, the OUA has an abundance of talented players who come to the league after playing alongside national team prospects and top NCAA recruits. From top to bottom, the OUA is stronger than most conferences, with stars like Leah Herrfort, Katie Chomiak and Italian national team netminder Martina Fedel earning All-Canadian honours in recent seasons.
8. AU
At the top, New Brunswick and St. Francis Xavier, along with Saint Mary’s, are strong programs. The Maritime system often brings players from Ontario and Quebec into the mix to complement top players from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and PEI. This season, New Brunswick’s Lillian George and Mackenzie Keenan were All-Canadians.
9. NEWHA
The NCAA’s youngest conference is also its weakest. Long Island University and Stonehill have made strides, but the problem is that good players like Stonehill’s Alexis Petford and LIU’s Tindra Holm are simply using NEWHA as a developmental league before they go to big programs. It’s likely that the best NCAA DIII programs could go to NEWHA and win their share of games.
