One Week From Games

Officially, we're one week away from U SPORTS hockey starting in the four respective conferences again. Yes, there are some scheduling notes that will see teams start at different times during October, but the start of the month means that university hockey is back in rinks across the Canadian map. Normally, you'd come here looking for a season preview of some sort, but that's not happening on HBIC. I've tried to get people to work with me with zero responses, so I'm under no obligation to promote anything. There are women, though, who went to the Canadian schools who are already playing hockey, and that's my focus today as we look at the women who have moved on to professional hockey across the globe!

I want to be clear that this early look at the women playing overseas will be mostly incomplete due to a handful of leagues who have yet to get underway officially. Like last year, I'll do a full look at all the former U SPORTS players who are skating in women's leagues across the planet in December assuming that this blog is still running. For now, here's who is having a great start to their 2025-26 seasons!

As stated last season, the EWHL is a great landing spot for former U SPORTS athletes, and this season appears no different. A number of former U SPORTS players have started their seasons with impressive work, so here are those women from the 2025-26 EWHL rosters:

• Lauren Nicholson (Ryerson/TMU) - 5G, 4A in 4gp (Almaty, KZ)
• Breanne Trotter (Mount Royal) - 4G, 4A in 4gp (Almaty, KZ)
• Jaime Magoffin (Guelph) - 3G, 4A in 3gp (St. Pölten, AT)
• Ashley Taciuk (Nipissing) - 2G, 3A in 2gp (St. Pölten, AT)
• Alice Philbert (Concordia) - 0.68 GAA, .967 sv% (Bolzano, IT)

I'll keep an eye on these players and this league as the season progresses, but there are some solid numbers to start the season. And don't correct me on the Ryerson thing - that was the name of the school when Nicholson went there, so I wanted to note it accurately. Yes, they're the TMU Bold now, but not while Nicholson was there.

There are far less players skating in Sweden than there once was, but U SPORTS still has a number of players who have landed in Swedish communities for hockey. Here are the athletes who are doing their best work to start the 2025-26 SDHL season in Sweden:

• Jaycee Magwood (Regina) - 3G, 2A in 8gp (Luleå)
• Mathea Fischer (UBC) - 1G, 4A in 7gp (SDE)
• Erica Rieder (Manitoba) - 1G, 3A in 8gp (Luleå)
• Sarah Bujold (StFX) - 2G, 0A in 5gp (Luleå)
• Camryn Drever (Sask) - 2.86 GAA, .895 sv% (Skellefteå)

The SDHL has always been regarded as one of the top leagues on the planet, so seeing the reduced scoring numbers and inflated goaltending numbers shouldn't worry anyone. Seeing some good Canada West representation on this list is encouraging for the next wave of players coming out of the western U SPORTS conference!

The PostFinance Women's League in Switzerland is also underway, and there are a handful of U SPORTS players plying their trade there. We saw some outstanding performances last year in this league by a few former U SPORTS players, so here's this year's early progress:

• Estelle Duvin (Montreal) - 4G, 4A in 5gp (Bern)
• Lauren Dabrowski (StFX) - 2G, 4A in 7gp (Fribourg-Gottéron)
• Lea MacLeod (StFX) - 2G, 2A in 7gp (Langenthal)
• Joelle Fiala (UBC) - 1G, 3A in 5gp (Davos)
• Jessika Boulanger (Montreal) - 1G, 0A in 7gp (Langenthal)

With a few players opting to play elsewhere this season, there are certainly less former U SPORTS athletes skating in Switzerland this season. That being said, the talent level is still high in SWHL, so we'll see if they rise to the occasion on the stats sheet again this year!

The good news is that a number of European leagues start their seasons over the next couple of weeks, so we should see more updates with U SPORTS players from places like Spain, France, and Germany coming up this month as those countries get their women's leagues started. Of course, this leaves the PWHL standing on their own as they're reportedly going to begin their season in the third week of November, making them the last league to begin their season on the planet. Even Australia's AWIHL begins before them!

In any case, HBIC will likely have a full report on who is playing where for the 2025-26 season in December once all the leagues get going. It's always nice to see where some of these players land because they worked hard to get there, and HBIC is still big fans of these players! Here's hoping all these players have big seasons!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!