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.
In the interest of full disclosure, I was on last year's Patty Kaz committee and I did put Casey O'Brien first on my ballot. I thought she should have won last year and she improved by basically every measure this season and in plenty of non-quantifiable ways, as well.
But let's start with the stats.
Her 85 points this season are the 11th most of any player in NCAA women's hockey history. Her 60 assists are fourth most ever in an NCAA season. She's one shy of tying for third and five shy of tying for second. Ever.
The last 80-point scorer was Daryl Watts in 2018. The last time anyone scored more than O'Brien has this season was 2016, when Kendall Coyne-Schofield finished with 86 points and Alex Carpenter finished with 88. Kirsten Simms led the country with 75 points last season.
She set the school record for both career points with 269 and career assists with 173. The forward also set a school record for assists in a season with 58, breaking her previous school record of 50 set last season. O'Brien leads the nation with 83 points and 58 assists. The Wisconsin co-captain just tied for second in school history for points in a season and is five points away from breaking Meghan Duggan's 87-point season in 2010-11.
She became the all-time leading scorer in Wisconsin hockey history - men's or women's - passing Mike Eaves' 267 points. O'Brien now has 271 points, which ranks eighth in NCAA history.
O'Brien's numbers this season aren't just good - they're among the best in history.
Her 515 faceoff wins are second-most in the country. Heading into her senior season knowing she was likely to be the top-line center for the Badgers, O'Brien put a focus on improving her faceoffs and then worked even more on reaction time during this past summer. For a program that is built on puck possession, her prowess in the faceoff circle has been invaluable. Coach Mark Johnson so trusts her in those situations that he was putting her on the ice shift after shift late in the NCAA quarterfinal simply to win the faceoff and get off the ice.
Speed has long been the basis of O'Brien's game and is her most natural talent, but until an off-season wrist surgery forced her to train and prepare for the game differently, her puck-handling and decision-making never quite happened as quickly as her feet could move. Now those skills are more elite and she's playing her whole game with pace. That means quicker decision making on the offensive end and an ability to close quickly and rattle opponents when her team is on defense.
The adapted offseason training strengthened areas she might not have normally focused on and one great outcome has been increased velocity and accuracy on her shot. She's nearly doubled her shot percentage this season, scoring 21% of the time. Known primarily as a passer last season, the confidence in her shot has added a dimension to the Badger breakout and zone entry where O'Brien is as much of a threat to score as her linemates.
She has five first goals for Wisconsin and four game winning goals. O'Brien is a playmaker and a fire-starter for the Badgers. On a roster full of elite talent and with five teammates that are set to play for Team USA in the upcoming IIHF Women's World Championships, O'Brien still stands out. She's as likely to be found fighting along the boards on defense or blocking shots as she is leading a breakout or hitting a streaking teammate with a tape to tape pass.
O'Brien's hockey IQ, vision and instincts are elite and she has worked to bring her skills up to match them. That combination of natural gifts and obsessive work ethic are part of what makes her so great. Her intangibles take O'Brien from a very good player to a two-time WCHA Player of the Year and a top-three finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award for the second-straight season.
Though this season stands on its own, O'Brien could win the award this year in part because she has been remarkably consistent and reliable throughout her career while also pushing to get better and finding new ways to top herself. The Patty Kaz committee has a history of awarding a player in the year after they've had a big year and at times it feels like the committee is awarding a player for "lifetime achievement."
In a freshman year where she put up just 10 points on two goals and eight assists, O'Brien nonetheless came up big when she tallied a goal and two assists in the Frozen Four and helped her team win the national championship. She became a Patty Kazmaier top-ten finalist as a sophomore, led Wisconsin in all offensive categories her junior season and was a top-three finalist for the Patty last season.
Whatever justification the voters use, the end result should be that Casey O'Brien is the 2025 Patty Kazmaier Award recipient.
