With the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games fast approaching, the rosters for hockey competition have been finalized and were finally unveiled on Friday. There's been a major shakeup compared to the last time the US women's national team took the ice in the 2022 Beijing Games, with a notable shift towards youth. But one thing remains consistent: Hockey legend Hilary Knight is still leading the way.
Only 11 players from the silver medal-winning 2022 squad are returning to the 2026 edition of the team, including Kendall Coyne Schofield, Lee Stecklein, Alex Carpenter, Kelly Pannek, Megan Keller, and Caroline Harvey. The rest of the lineup is made up of fresh faces, with seven players still competing at the college level.
As a result, Knight will fully be in a leadership role for what she announced would be her final career Olympic outing. Although she plans to continue her PWHL career as captain of the Seattle Torrent, the 36-year-old did reveal where her mindset sits after deciding to bring her 20-year tenure with the national team to an end.
“Everyone has an expiration date, and you don't know what that date is. To have an opportunity to control that? I can kind of just appreciate things,” Knight said. “People don't have to keep asking, ‘Is this your last one?' I've already thought through the conversations, I've already sat with it. I'm really at peace.”
Once Knight takes the ice in international competition for the last time, she'll be setting a US women's hockey record for the most Winter Games appearances with five. For the young players on the come-up, getting the chance to play with Knight is as much of a highlight as making the Olympic team.
“She's an icon. She essentially put women's hockey on her back throughout her career,” new teammate Tessa Janecke praised.
“Ask anyone, ‘In the last 20 years of US hockey, if I said goal scoring, who would come to mind?' They'd answer Hilary Knight,” former teammate and Hockey Hall of Famer Meghan Duggan added. “Scoring goals is the hardest thing to do in our game; that's why we all play. She makes it look so effortless, even though it's not effortless. She works hard at her craft. She's dedicated her life to it, and she just continues to show up again and again.”
One of the young players Knight will help mentor will be Wisconsin senior Laila Edwards, who's also set to make history as the first Black women's hockey player ever to represent the US at the Olympics.
“It still hasn't really kicked in yet,” Edwards said, according to ESPN. “Always had dreams of playing in the pros, but the biggest dream was to go to the Olympics, for sure.”
The rest of the roster is filled out by forwards Hannah Bilka, Britta Curl-Salemme, Joy Dunne, Taylor Heise, Abbey Murphy, Hayley Scamurra, Kirsten Simms, and Grace Zumwinkle; defenders Cayla Barnes, Rory Guilday, Haley Winn; and goaltenders Aerin Frankel, Ava McNaughton, and Gwyneth Philips.
The US team will open the Games on February 5, 2026, against Czechia.
