Author's note: I have served on the Patty Kazmaier selection committee in the past, but did not this year. I was not privy to any conversations or voting. All opinions here are my own.
An award of The USA Hockey Foundation, the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award was established in 1998 and is presented annually to the top player in NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey. This year's award will be handed out on Saturday, March 22 as part of the Women's Frozen Four weekend.
Wisconsin teammates Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey and Casey O’Brien have been named the 2025 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award Top-Three Finalists. It is just the second time in the award's history that all three finalists play for the same team.
A 21-year-old junior, Caroline "KK" Harvey has already earned an Olympic silver medal and was just named to her fifth IIHF Women's World Championships roster for Team USA. She's a co-captain for the Badgers and has led team's defense to a best in the country 1.11 goals allowed per game.
She leads defenders nationally in points per game (1.53), goals per game (.42) and assists per game (1.11). Her 58 points and 42 assists are the most of any defender nationally. Her total points rank fifth among all players and assists are third most of any player in the nation. She was named WCHA Defender of the Year for a second-straight season.
In addition, her 58 points are the most in a single season from any blueliner in Wisconsin program history. In less than three full seasons, Harvey has already set a new record for most career points in school history by a defender with 132.
Just two defenders have won the Patty Kazmaier Award. The most recent was Sophie Jaques in 2023. In that season, Jaques had 24 goals and 24 assists for 48 points. She arguably should have won the season before, where she had a 21 goals and 38 assists for 59 points. Angela Ruggerio is the only other defender who's won the Patty. When she won in 2004, she had 25 goals and 30 assists for 55 points.
Harvey is not just having a good season. She's having a historically great season.
But those are just her offensive stats and to only see what she does on the offensive end of the ice is to miss so much of what makes Harvey great.
She has blurred the lines between defense and offense. Her offensive numbers stick out and help make people pay attention, but Harvey's strong defense leads to offense for herself and her teammates. On a team that thrives on possession, she ensures that opponents aren't holding the puck for long.
Poised and seemingly impossible to rattle, Harvey rarely gets beat head-to-head, but when she does, she has a remarkable ability to recover from mistakes. She chases down opponents, using her body and a strong stick to win the puck or at least break up the play.
Stellar at angling and anticipating passing lanes, Harvey pushes opposing offenses to the perimeter and is fearless and quick at closing gaps and forcing her opponents into quick decisions - and often mistakes. With a high hockey IQ, she anticipates and disrupts plays. And somewhere while she's doing that, there's switch that flips where she's looking up the ice and thinking about what play comes next.
With a forward line that leads the country in scoring, Harvey could just pass the puck and bring up the play from the rear, but more often she's the one carrying the puck into the zone and leading the offensive attack. This season she's shown a patience and improved instincts from the point and become more discerning with her choice to fire a shot or pass the puck.
The game slows down so much for her right now that she's able to discern if there are teammates creating screens or near the net to be able for second-chance opportunities. If there aren't, she's not throwing the puck on net where it has the high likelihood of ending up as a turnover. It's the ability to process and improve on that kind of minutiae that shows hockey acumen beyond her years.
There are plenty of quantifiable reasons that show how Harvey is a generational talent who is still at the beginning of what promises to be an incredible career. But it's also impossible to enumerate and express all the nebulous and indescribable ways she impacts every game she plays in. That sounds fawning - and it is - but it's also true. There's no way to really put into words what makes Harvey great.
Spend a game counting the number of shifts she takes and how many different players she's able to seamlessly partner with. Watch her close space on defenders, poke check pucks, consciously direct the position and movement of a play while on defense before winning the puck and immediately transitioning to offense. Pick out any one of a bunch of little things that add up to make Harvey one of the best defenders in the world.
But also, maybe don't.
Maybe don't spend your time watching KK Harvey trying to dissect every bit of her play or identify her elite skills.
Maybe just enjoy that for a $10 ticket or online subscription fee you get to watch one of the best talents of this generation week in and week out.
(Photo: UW Athletics)
