How much does Hilary Knight mean to USA Hockey? We asked her teammates

• Hilary Knight is an inspiration to her younger teammates, many of whom idolized her as children.
• The U.S. captain is a decorated player, holding records for points, goals, and assists at the world championships.
• Knight's fifth Olympic appearance in 2026 will be her last, marking the end of an influential career.
• She was a key figure in establishing the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) for future generations.

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Almost every player on the U.S. women’s hockey team has a picture with Hilary Knight.

Not as national team teammates, though there also are plenty of those. But from when they were kids. Bright-eyed little girls who idolized Knight and everything she represented.

“She's one of the biggest reasons I keep playing hockey,” Laila Edwards told USA TODAY Sports. “And she's the reason I wore my number in youth hockey, No. 21.”

Or, as Caroline Harvey put it, “When I think about USA Hockey, Hilary Knight comes to mind.”

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The U.S. captain is arguably one of the greatest to ever play the game. She’s an Olympic gold medalist, from Pyeongchang in 2018, and a 10-time world champion. She holds the record for most points, goals and assists at the world championships, and she’ll probably own all the U.S. Olympic records by the end of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, too.

Knight also was the PWHL’s co-scoring leader last season and went to Milano Cortina tied for sixth in the league in assists.

These Olympics, her fifth, will be Knight’s last, and her absence will be felt deeply when she is gone — felt just as deeply will be the impact she’s made, on her teammates and the game.

“I can't emphasize the work that she's done to elevate this game,” longtime U.S. teammate Kendall Coyne Schofield said. “For the players who will step into our skates after us, I hope they can take a step back and reflect and be like, 'Wow, I have this opportunity because of a player like Hilary Knight.’ That's going to be the reality for years and years to come.”

Hilary Knight as an inspiration

Knight’s idol growing up was Cammi Granato, captain of the U.S. team that won the inaugural Olympic tournament at the Nagano Games in 1998 and one of the first women to be inducted into hockey’s Hall of Fame. Knight wears 21 because of Granato, and she still has the jersey she got at Granato’s summer camp when she was 10.

“I was so young, but it just goes to show that impact was tremendous for me,” Knight said. “And so I have an understanding of relevancy of what we do on the ice and how that can have an impact on other people.”

Thus, all those photos with all those little girls.

Knight hosts a series of hockey camps for girls and stops in at youth tournaments because she knows first-hand that meeting one of your heroes can keep a young girl playing or motivate her to strive for more.

Just look at the U.S. team. Edwards, Harvey, Hannah Bilka, Tessa Janecke, Haley Winn — all of them got to meet Knight early in their hockey careers and are now playing alongside her.

“Little Laila would not believe me,” Edwards said when asked what her younger self would say if she knew she’d one day play with Knight.

“I was lucky enough to watch her growing up,” Edwards said. “But now, to have the opportunity to be on the ice with her, sit next to her in the locker room, talk with her at dinner, it's just unbelievable because she's one of a kind.”

Hilary Knight as a leader

Knight’s leadership skills are as legendary as her skills on the ice. She is not aloof as some stars can be, especially late in their careers. She’s approachable and welcoming, interacting as easily with someone she’s known for five minutes as someone she’s played with for 15 years. She’s happy to answer questions and share the vast store of knowledge she’s built up. Knight loves a good prank and can loosen up a locker room.

But she also holds everyone around her accountable.

“She’s a leader of leaders. Of all time, of anyone that I've ever been led by in my life,” Taylor Heise said. “I just think that she has a demeanor, a way of going about things that you don't question what she does. … She’s always going to do the right things.”

Knight doesn’t lead by fear. She’s not a yeller or a screamer, and she doesn’t make others feel bad to get her point across.

She’s just Hilary Knight.

“One of my first world championship camps, I remember I was really nervous,” Harvey told USA TODAY Sports. “She was just saying, 'It's the same game you played since you were younger. Just trust your instincts and play natural out there. Play free, don't think too much and good things will happen.’”

Harvey made that U.S. team for the 2021 world championships. She played in all but one game, finishing with a goal and two assists. Harvey also had the second-highest plus-minus rating of the Americans.

“To see how much she's grown both on and off the ice, it's just so cool,” Knight said. “I met (Harvey) when she was such a young kid, so it’s awesome to see people coming into their own and really just taking the world by storm.”

In part, because Knight helped show Harvey the way.

 “She helped me,” Harvey said, “(reminding me) it's just shutting your brain off and playing instinctually out there.”

Hilary Knight as a change-maker

The futures for Harvey and Edwards are set. When they’re done at Wisconsin — where they’re both seniors — they’ll go to the PWHL, where they will earn close to six figures and play in arenas shared with NHL teams.

That’s quite a difference from when Knight finished her career at Wisconsin.

The PWHL exists because Knight and other veteran players grew tired of the substandard professional opportunities there were for women in North America. Leagues that didn’t pay livable wages. Leagues that didn’t pay wages at all, instead giving bonuses and incentives. Leagues that played in rinky-dink arenas unbecoming of professional teams.

The league began play on Jan. 1, 2024, with six teams. It has already expanded, adding two teams this season, and has routinely set attendance records in both the United States and Canada.

“I’ve been able to live my dream,” said Heise, the No. 1 pick in the PWHL’s first draft, in 2023.

“I came out of college and there was a league there for me. I was able to be drafted,” Heise said. “I was able to live out a lifetime experience that not everyone (before me) was able to get.”

Knight also was instrumental in winning equal treatment for the U.S. women from USA Hockey. Knight and her teammates threatened to boycott the 2017 world championships until the federation agreed to give the women similar benefits and treatment as the men. USA Hockey also agreed to improve developmental program so little girls would have their own teams.

“It was just a necessary step” Knight told USA TODAY Sports. "We saw a need for something and we decided to go out and figure out how to solve that problem.

“I don't know if it's that Olympic lens that you're part of something bigger than yourself. The Team USA culture of understanding that when you're on the world stage, it's not necessarily about your performance, it's the inspiration you can have through a performance,” Knight said. “I don't know if it's that lens or just there's no option that you just do it.

“I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to have a positive impact in that way,” she said. “And there's a handful of us, right? Can't do it alone.”

But there is a difference when it is Hilary Knight advocating for a professional league or asking for equitable treatment. Her name, her reputation, her resume — all of it give her clout that other players simply don’t have.

When Knight gets behind something, it gets done.

“You walk into a rink and everyone knows Hilary Knight,” Coyne Schofield said. “She takes all the superpowers that she has on the ice and applies them to the fight off the ice to make this game better, whether it is phone calls or emails or checking in on her teammates.

“There's so much behind-the-scenes stuff that she has to handle that we don't even know about … so that we can walk into the room and just play hockey,” Coyne Schofield said.

All Hilary Knight ever wanted to do was play hockey, and she’s done it exceptionally well. But she’s made it so all the women coming after her have it easier than she did, too. Better than she did.

Those little girls who looked up to Knight? Who wanted to play like her? Who clamored to get a photo with her because she was their role model?

She’s never let them down.