1996 IIHF European Women Championships

The 1996 IIHF European Women Championships were the sixth and final holding of the IIHF European Women Championships. The tournaments were held in March 1996, with Pool A playing in Yaroslavl, Russia during 23–29 March and Pool B playing in Trnava and Piešťany, Slovakia during 12–16 March.

The format remained unchanged from the previous year, with promoted replacing relegated  in the Pool A tournament.

The tournament was the final European Championship ever to be held, as the International Ice Hockey Federation expanded the World Championships to include tiered divisions.

Teams & Format
Six teams completed in Pool A, with Russia joining the group after winning the 1995 Pool B tournament. The teams were:



A single round-robin tournament was played between the teams, with the top ranked team winning the championship.

Awards
Best player selected by the Directorate

All-Star team

Scoring leaders
List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalties in minutes; POS = Position Source:

Teams & Format
The eight teams that competed in Pool B were:



Kazakhstan replaced Ukraine after they withdrew from the competition.

The teams were split into two groups of four teams as below. At the end of the group stage, the teams would play the team that finished in the same position in the opposite group in a playoff match, i.e. Winner of Group A played Winner of Group B for the Gold Medal.