The 2026 PWHL draft is just days away. There are 235 players who declared from this year’s draft. Here at The Ice Garden, we have been writing about many of the prospects.
You can check out all of The Ice Garden‘s PWHL coverage here and read about the NCAA players here.
Today, I am bringing you the best players outside of the NCAA. While there are many talented players playing in college hockey in the United States, there are also plenty more playing overseas.
Here I’ll take you through the best players and why they are the best. While these players are mostly from the SDHL and ZhHL, there is a reason why they were chosen.
Let’s begin.
We start off with the SDHL, the top league in Sweden.
Players from the SDHL:
Viivi Vainikka, Brynรคs IF
The best international player in this yearโs draft. There is no doubt about that. Vainikka recently won her fifth SDHL championship. Vainikka knows success. She also knows hockey.
The Espoo native recorded SDHL seasons with points totals in the 40s and a 52 point season as well. She had the best faceoff percentage in the league in the 2021-22 season. She recorded the most assists in the league with 29 part of her 40 point campaign this season. Vainikka led the team in points and helped Brynรคs IF to their first-ever SDHL championship.
Internationally, the 24-year-old is a two time Olympian. She won a bronze medal at the 2022 Games. Vainikka has appeared in six world championships where she won four medals. Sheโs been a regular representing Finland on the Euro Hockey Tour, too.
Brynรคs IF head coach, Filip Eriksson, described Vainikka as a great player and a fast skater who makes unpredictable moves. He added she has high awareness on the ice. Sheโs a player that can create time and space for others on the ice too. She is also very skilled with the puck.
You honestly have to see what Vainikka can do on the ice. Visually, itโs mesmerizing. Sheโll hear her name called quickly. If your team happens to be the one to pick her, well, you are so very fortunate.
You can read more on Vainikka here:
Andrea Brรคndli, Frรถlunda HC
The breakout star of 2026 Winter Olympics, Brรคndli is the goalie to draft this year. Goalies were one of the three players to protect during the first phase of the PWHL expansion process. With 12 teams in the league now, Brรคndli will find a home quickly.
It took her third Olympic appearance for Brรคndli to finally shine on her own. She put together a 40-save shutout against Finland to help the Swiss advance to the semifinals. Brรคndli also had a fantastic outing against Canada in the semis. Though Switzerland lost, she did hold the Canadians to just two goals. She then played incredibly well to lead her team to a bronze medal finish against Sweden. Brรคndli earned Best Goaltender honors and was named to the Olympic All-Star team.
Her career in the SDHL has been incredible. She was the 2024-25 Goalie of the Year in her second season in the league. Brรคndli spent last season with Frรถlunda HC. She finished with the best goals against average with 1.49 and best save percentage with .945 in the SDHL.
The Ohio State and Boston University product appeared in eight World Championships, won one national championship with the Buckeyes, and played in her native Switzerland’s SWHL league.
She is the most ready goaltender in this yearโs draft.
You can read more about Brรคndli here:
Petra Nieminen, Luleรฅ HF
Another talented Finn, another SDHL champion. Nieminen is a 27-year-old forward with a stacked resume. She also has five SDHL championships and many more honors to her name. She scored the most goals in the league three times. Nieminen is also stellar in the playoffs. She earned playoffs MVP in 2023. In the 2024-25 season, she had both the most goals and most points in the league.
Nieminen is also a star on the international stage. She is a three-time Olympian with two bronze medals to her name. Nieminen appeared in eight world championships and has five medals in total. She was named Top Three Player on Team two years in a row in 2023 and 2024.
The Tampere native began her career in the SDHL with a nice 24 point season in the 2018-19 season. Her offense then erupted. The following season she finished with 55 points. Two seasons later, she once again recorded 55 points. She ended the last three seasons with 45 points. She scored more than 25 goals in seven of her eight seasons in Sweden. Talk about being a goal scorer.
Nieminen is a strong forward with an edge to her game and is a great playmaker. And, of course, she can score. Sheโll fit right into the PWHL.
You can read more about Nieminen here:
Tereza Piลกtฤkovรก, SDE HF
Piลกtฤkovรก is a left-shot forward out of Tabor, Czechia. She made her Olympics debut this February and scored one goal in five games. She began her career representing Czechia at the IIHF U 18 Womenโs World Championship for two years. In 2023, she made her senior national team debut at the World Championship where she won a bronze medal. Piลกtฤkovรก has appeared in two Worlds since.
She made the move to the SDHL for the 2024-25 season. In her first year with Djurgรฅrdens IF, she finished with six goals and 18 assists. This past season she moved on to SDE HF. There, she recorded 25 points on the season.
Described as a finesse player, puckhandler, and speedy, Piลกtฤkovรก has good skills. The 21-year-old has a decent amount of experience to merit a chance in the PWHL.
Elisa Holopainen, Frรถlunda HC
Holopainen is a finesse player and a sniper. You can easily tell by her shooting skills but itโs also her speed that catches attention. Sheโs fast and sneaky, getting in some shots from up close too!
Internationally, Holopainen represents Finland. She played on the U18 team for three years before moving to the senior team. She represented Finland for the last five Womenโs World Championships. At the 2025 Womenโs World Championship, Holopainen won her second straight bronze medal and was named Top Three Player on Team. The 24-year-old appeared in her second Olympics in February.
Before joining the SDHL, Holopainen played in her native Finland in the Naisten Liiga for seven years where she racked up countless awards and honors. She won the leagueโs Best Forward award five straight times. Holopainen was also awarded the Best Player four times and was named to the leagueโs First All-Star team six seasons in a row.
She joined the SDHL where she won Forward of the Year and Most Valuable Player after scoring 24 goals and adding 21 assists for 45 points in 36 games. In the playoffs she recorded 11 points in 11 games to help Frรถlunda sweep the finals and win their very first championship. This last season she finished with 27 goals, the most in the league. She never had less than 40 points in her time Frรถlunda HC.
Holopainen is part of a large group of players from the SDHL and Finland that are ready to start their PWHL careers.
Players from the ZhHL:
The PWHL saw its first Russian players enter the draft last season. Anna Shokhina and Fanuza Kadirova both declared and were drafted by the Ottawa Charge. The two adjusted to North American play and hope to continue to grow next season. Now there are five Russians hoping to make the jump. Here are two of the top players out of the Zhenskaya Hockey League. As reminder: the ZhHL wasย createdย in 2015 in partnershipย with the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Currently, the ZhHL has eight teams.
Darya Gredzen, Biryusa Krasnoyarsk
Gredzen is the first Russian goalie to enter the PWHL draft. The 22-year-old appeared in one IIHF U18 Womenโs World Championship in 2019. She recorded a shutout in her debut with the team that year.
She also managed to appear in the 2022 Winter Olympics. The Russians have been banned from Worlds and the Olympics so there isnโt much on how Gredzen plays against players outside Russia.
Nevertheless, her numbers in the ZhHL have been fantastic. Sheโs played for Biryusa since the 2019-20 season. In her seven seasons, sheโs had a save percentage at or above .922 every season. The last four seasons have been phenomenal stats wise. Gredzen has won at least 20 games in each campaign. She won best goaltender after the 2023-24 season. The 2024-25 season was her best, with a 1.89 goals against average and a .939 save percentage. She also won 26 games that year. I like her stats and think she could find a place to work her way up in the PWHL.
Oxana Bratishcheva, Sakhalin Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Teammates with fellow draft hopeful Nina Pirogova, Bratishcheva was the top scorer for Sakhalin this season.
The 26-year-old scored 40 points in the previous season while with Dynamo-Neva St. Petersburg. That season she played alongside future PWHLers Shokhina and Kadirova.
Bratishcheva appeared in two U18 World Championships and two World Championships. Like the other Russians in this draft, she also appeared in the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Sheโs had a steady career in the ZhHL. She scored 23 goals and added 33 assists for a 56 point season in the 23-24 season. She followed up that season with a 40 point campaign the following year. Bratishcheva has also been an alternate captain in the U18 Worlds and in the last two seasons in the ZhHL. One of the more interesting stats about Bratishcheva is sheโs played in the playoffs eight times in her 11 season career in Russia. She won a championship with SKIF Nizhny Novgorod in 2016.
Well there you have it. I’ll have the top underrated players outside of the NCAA coming up soon!
