At first, Hilary Knight didn't know what to think. It was 2024 and her longtime agent posed an uncomfortable question about her future.
"I was kind of taken aback," Knight says. "Like seriously, you're asking me that?"
Just think about it, her agent said.
"I sat on it for months," Knight recalls. "And then I got to a point where I said OK, let's talk about it more. Let's dig into that."
In her 20 years with the national team, Knight has become the most decorated player in U.S. women's hockey history. And as she approached her 36th birthday this past summer, she was as dominant as ever.
In 2023 she was named the IIHF Female Player of the Year. As captain of the Boston Fleet, Knight scored a PWHL-leading 29 points (15 goals, 14 assists) in 30 games. And in April, she led Team USA with nine points as she won her record 10th gold medal at the world championships -- a tournament in which she holds the career record for most goals (67), assists (53) and points (120).
All the while, she remained a face of the sport in the United States as one of the clutchest players the country had ever seen.
"She's an icon," says her 21-year-old U.S. teammate Tessa Janecke. "She essentially put women's hockey on her back throughout her career."
"Ask anyone, 'In the last 20 years of U.S. hockey, if I said goal scoring, who would come to mind?'" longtime teammate and Hockey Hall of Famer Meghan Duggan said. "They'd answer Hilary Knight. 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."
Knight is poised to appear in her fifth Olympic games this February, the most ever for a U.S. men's or women's hockey player. Should Team USA reach the podium, Knight will tie Jayna Hefford and Hayley Wickenheiser for an Olympic-record five hockey medals. And her agent wanted to know: Should she tell the world it was going to be her last?
Knight, after contemplation, decided in May to announce that Milan-Cortina would be her final Olympic games -- though she is not retiring from the sport.
"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."
That freedom could lead to a special tournament for Knight and Team USA.
"I'm so happy she gets the chance to call her own legacy," Hockey Hall of Famer Cammi Granato said. "It's incredible to see her play in her 5th Olympics. She leads that team with all of her experience. And when you know it's your probably her last one, she will leave it all out the ice. She understands how to win. For any athlete to be able to go out on their own terms is such a rare thing, and speaks to her dedication to the game and her ability to always score in the biggest moments."
WHEN HER FAMILY moved from the West Coast to Illinois when she was 5, Knight's mom signed her and her three brothers up for hockey as a way to make friends. Knight was a natural. She looked for any opportunity she could to play, and that often meant playing with boys.
Knight's childhood idol was Granato, who sparked fire in the next generation when she captained Team USA to gold in the inaugural Olympic women's hockey tournament in 1998. Knight and Granato fit a similar profile: both pure goal scorers who made a living on the power play. When Knight joined the national team as a teenager in 2006, she chose to wear No. 21 -- Granato's number. It was a natural passing of the torch.
"In middle school, they asked us to create a dream book," Knight said. "Mine was a hockey player winning a gold medal at the Olympics. I think I had a '98 kit on. That was the goal."
By high school, Knight was one of the top players in the country. "I was a freshman during her visit to Wisconsin," Duggan recalled. "The coaches told us we have this big recruit, do everything you can to convince her. We rolled out the red carpet. It was one of the most memorable recruiting trips ever."
It didn't take long for Knight to distinguish herself. The Badgers played Dartmouth in the NCAA quarterfinals during Knight's sophomore year. In the second period she ripped a shot from the point.
"It ripped through the net before the goalie even moved," Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson recalled. "I remember looking at our bench, but then also the reaction on the Dartmouth bench. They were all in awe too."
Johnson coached Team USA at Knight's first Olympics in 2010 at Vancouver. Team USA was a perfect 4-0 before falling to Canada in the gold medal game. The Americans lost to the Canadians again in 2014 before finally breaking through in 2018 for their first gold since the 1998 team.
Along the way, Knight inspired a new generation. Janecke and Harvey are among current U.S. team members who have photos from their childhood posing with Knight.
"I remember wanting to be just like her, and hopefully getting there," Harvey said. "I'm so glad she's still doing it because she's the exact person you'd want in that spot."
Knight left Wisconsin in 2012 as the program's all-time leader in goals (143) for men or women. She began playing in the Canadian Women's Hockey League, where the resources were lesser than she experienced in college hockey. Her locker was two milk crates stacked on top of each other in the bathroom of a community rink.
"Reflecting now, the options available were semi-pro," Knights said. "But that's all we had, so that's what we had to do."
Johnson said that what stands out to him in Knight's career is her commitment and professionalism, often as a self-starter outside of stints with the national team.
"It was always a question of, what's going to be the best environment? Buying and funding all your own training and recovery modalities. Just doing all that on your own with lack of this professional support and team," Duggan said. "And [Knight] was always one of the best at maximizing everything she could do to stay elite. That meant moving wherever she needed to find the best recovery coming back from injury, or identifying the right shooting coach. With limited resources, that's how you get to the level where she has gotten."
Knight never shied away from her role as a face of the sport. She took on endorsement deals with Red Bull, Nike, Visa, GoPro and Chobani. She posed for the ESPN the Body issue.
"I've been really cognizant of that, especially when you're growing a game specifically in the U.S. where hockey's more of a niche sport, you want it to be forefront. You want it to be front and center," Knight said. "You've experienced this amazing game and you want to share it with everybody. But as much as I'm going to put myself out there, I want my play to show up equally. And so that's been a personal goal. Hopefully that level of compete and that competitor continues to get emphasized whenever that legacy talk does happen."
KNIGHT'S LEGACY IS inherently linked with a fight for equality. Knight and current teammate Kendall Coyne Schofield were part of a leadership group that nearly boycotted the world championship in 2017 as they pushed back on USA Hockey for a new contract. The result was a landmark deal that addressed more equitable treatment for girls and women's programming. They reached the agreement in time for worlds, where they won another gold medal. The players' work toward building a sustainable professional league has made great strides since the PWHL launched in 2024.
Knight is the captain of the expansion Seattle Torrent in their inaugural season; their first game at Climate Pledge Arena featured a crowd of 16,014 -- a new U.S. attendance record.
"We are a group of really high-performance minds, stubborn individuals, and we're not going to settle for anything less of what we think that the game deserves," Knight said. "Granted, the PWHL is the starting point in the right direction, but it's incredible to see the structure and the facilities behind us to support us at that level. I think we're just going to see this game evolve in a way we've never seen before. There's more programming, more exposure levels coming in."
The younger players such as Harvey and Janecke recognize how much work has been put in by players such as Knight and Coyne Schofield (and Duggan and Granato before them).
"They use the platform they have to continually grow the game so we're not accepting the bottom of the barrel," Janecke said. "But they're still battling it to this day. Their days are filled. It's over our heads sometimes, as the younger girls, just how much they've put in. That's something we can carry onto the next generation when she's done."
The consistency of dominance is what stands out most to Granato when considering Knight's career.
Knight has battled injuries over her career, including a nagging foot injury during the 2024 inaugural PWHL season. But she has also found ways to adapt herself.
"The game is way more skilled, way faster," Knight said. "I mean I look back to 2010 and it's wild just to see comparisons. Even if you're just looking at a video, it's a completely different game. Things are happening really quickly and it's exciting."
In her age-36 season, Knight has worked on being more efficient in her skating and identifying quiet ice. She spent part of this summer training out of the Olympic Oval in Utah with her longtime partner, speedskater Brittany Bowe. The attention to detail and data points on mechanics was eye-opening, Knight said.
The U.S. women enter February's Olympics as favorites, ranked No. 1 by the IIHF and coming off a Rivalry Series in which they swept Canada (4-0-0), outscoring the Canadians 24-7. While Knight says this is her last Olympics, she will continue playing in the PWHL and has aspirations to make the next world championship team. After that, she has no concrete plans.
"I'm really proud of a lot of things," Knight said. "Obviously I know I'm not the only person to do those things, and so I'm really proud that I've been a part of that group and relevant enough to have an impact now."
