MILAN — Jennifer Botterill has seen a lot over her decades-long career in hockey, both as an analyst and Hockey Hall of Fame player.

She won three Olympic gold medals as a member of Team Canada, often going toe-to-toe with Hall of Fame defender Angela Ruggiero, who is widely considered the best U.S. defender in the history of women’s hockey. Since retiring in 2011, Botterill has transitioned to the broadcast booth, analyzing the next generation of the sport.

Through all that, she had never seen anybody quite like Caroline Harvey.

“(She) moves so well on the ice and in her offensive contributions,” Botterill said on the NBC Olympic broadcast of Team USA’s quarterfinal game against Italy on Friday night. “The best we’ve ever seen from a player on Team USA that plays defense.”

Harvey had just retrieved a puck behind her net, blew past an Italian skater with the kind of speed that made everyone around her look a step slow, toe dragged around another and fired a shot on net.

The sequence didn’t result in a goal. It did, however, put Harvey’s otherworldly skillset — one that has been turning heads since the start of the women’s Olympic hockey tournament — on display.

“Caroline Harvey is like Bobby Orr,” said American forward Matthew Tkachuk after Harvey’s three-point night in a 5-0 rout of Team Canada on Tuesday. “She was the best player on the ice … by a lot.”

Harvey is only 23 years old, but she boasts an impressive resume and toolkit. She’s already been to five world championships and actually made her Olympic debut four years ago in Beijing at 19. Now, she’s leading the 2026 tournament in scoring with nine points in five games — the most ever scored at the Olympics by an American defender. Harvey is just four points away from tying the all-time record at a single tournament.

At the University of Wisconsin, where she’s a senior, Harvey leads all defenders in scoring with an absurd 54 points in 26 games.

Harvey might already be the best offensive defender in the sport and is the most likely No. 1 pick in the upcoming Professional Women’s Hockey League draft. On some level, it would be incorrect to call the 2026 Olympics a coming out party, because everyone who pays attention has known for years just how good Harvey is.

Still, the Olympics have felt like a true star-making period for Harvey, the kind of thing that takes her from being the “next big thing” to a face of the sport.

“She is young and aggressive and feisty and skilled,” Ruggiero said in an interview with The Athletic. “She has the potential to revolutionize the game.”

In 2022, Harvey wasn’t exactly the breakout star of the Beijing Olympics.

She was the youngest player on the roster and, despite her promise as an offensive defender, didn’t get a meaningful role on the U.S. blue line. Harvey never played more than 8:42 in a single game of the preliminary round.

After taking a penalty against their Canadian rivals in a group-stage game, former coach Joel Johnson stuck Harvey on the bench, where she largely remained for the rest of the tournament. In the gold medal game, which Canada won 3-2, Harvey played just 1:02 minutes.

When asked how she felt in those moments on the bench, Harvey cared more about the sting of the loss than anything to do with her time on ice.

“It’s not something you want to feel again,” she told The Athletic. “Especially on the Olympic stage.”

Caroline Harvey celebrates a goal during a preliminary game at the Milan Cortina Olympics. The unbeaten U.S. women’s hockey team faces Sweden in the semifinals on Monday. (Alexander Nemenov / AFP via Getty Images)

It was a bit of adversity for Harvey, but not a meaningful bump in the road for an athlete who hadn’t even started college yet — Harvey deferred her freshman year at Wisconsin from 2021-22 to 2022-23 to try out for the Olympic team.

Six months later, Harvey was back with Team USA at the 2022 women’s world championships with a new coach, John Wroblewski, who saw “a lot of magic” and “a ton of promise” in Harvey. Ahead of his first tournament as head coach, Wroblewski pushed Harvey to stop putting so much pressure on herself and just play.

A more confident Harvey thrived at the tournament in a top-four role, scoring three goals and eight points.

“When you’re new, you don’t have a ton of confidence, you’re new to everything. You’re just trying to be a sponge and absorb a lot,” said Harvey. “I credit Wrobo so much. He’s just really built me up and made me feel like a new player.”

By the time she got to the women’s hockey powerhouse, led by legendary Miracle on Ice coach Mark Johnson, Harvey had already won an Olympic silver medal and two more at women’s world championships. She was nearly a point-per-game defender as a freshman and played close to thirty minutes in the national championship game, winning an NCAA title in her first try.

So what’s the biggest difference between the last Winter Games and now?

“The experience,” said Harvey.

In the time since Beijing, she’s become a two-time national champion with the Badgers and has twice led a women’s world championship tournament in scoring. Harvey is already third all-time in world championship scoring by a defender with 39 points in 34 games, behind only Finland’s Jenni Hiirikoski — who has played 96 games at the tournament — and Ruggiero.

She’s taken on a leadership role at Wisconsin, and is a captain in her final season. Harvey even credits her first significant injury in 2023-24 with teaching her a new perspective on the game.

“I think just maturing on and off the ice in college — and the experience aspect has helped my game a lot,” she said. “And really just trying to be diligent at the things that maybe I need to work on more or fine-tuning things that I maybe feel good at, but want keep getting better at.”

Harvey has put in thousands of hours on the ice and in the gym, honing her craft. At Wisconsin, Harvey practices nearly every day and attends additional skills sessions in the morning before class. She goes to the team’s shooting room four or five times a day to work on her shot and stick handling, and shoots “a few hundred pucks” each session.

“She’s constantly working on improving her game,” said longtime Wisconsin associate coach Dan Koch. “Her conditioning level is off the charts. She does everything throughout the day that’s going to help her be the best player when she gets on the ice.”

All that work has been on display in Milan, where Team USA has gotten off to a dominant start to the Olympic tournament with a 5-0 record, outscoring opponents 26-1.

For her part pacing the offense, Harvey has drawn comparisons to NHL stars Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes — as well as Orr. Harvey is a modern day, smooth-skating defender, an offensive threat in all situations and has the deceptive ability to change shooting lanes quickly.

Take the U.S. game against Canada for example. As forward Emily Clark, one of Canada’s best defensive players, closed in on Harvey on the point, she pulled the puck around Clark’s outreached stick and fired it past goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens.

“It’s a hard shot to block because you think she’s going to shoot it and she’s quick enough to change the angle and pull it into her body closer to release it away from the sticks and skates of the opponent,” said Koch. “You think you’re playing her the right way and then she just does that little extra move.”

That goal was a specific toe-drag-and-release move Harvey has worked on for a number of years, on the ice and in the Wisconsin shooting room — only this time, she pulled it off on the biggest stage.

“It’s really cool to see that translate,” said U.S. defender Laila Edwards, who has played with Harvey since high school and has seen her work on that exact move.

For all her exceptional puck skills, it’s Harvey’s speed that makes her special — and arguably the best offensive defender to ever play women’s hockey.

There have been productive defenders, physical defenders, and players with big-time shots from the point. But none with Harvey’s feet.

Her skating allows her to jump into plays and generate offense like a fourth forward for her team’s attack. But she’s also defensively responsible and quick enough to recover if the puck gets turned over.

“I haven’t seen a player with Caroline’s speed at the blue line,” said Koch. “Then her ability to add the offensive side too is really unique. It’s hard to compare her to anyone else in the past.”

Harvey is expected to be the first-overall pick in the 2026 PWHL draft, which is stocked with talent from the U.S. Olympic team, including Abbey Murphy and Edwards.But first, Team USA is just two wins away from winning an Olympic gold medal. And for Harvey, it’s still just the beginning of what could be a revolutionary career.

“At 23, she believes, and a lot of us believe, that she can still improve,” said Koch. “If she’s able to stay healthy, she’s going to play in multiple Olympics — maybe five. And she’s going to end up being a leader for that program.”

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