Michelle Karvinen (born 27 March 1990) is a Danish-Finnish ice hockey player for the Montreal Victoire of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) and member of the Finnish national team. Karvinen has been described as "the world's best technical player" and she is considered one of the best currently active ice hockey forwards. With the Finnish national team, she has won three Olympic bronze medals and six IIHF Women's World Championship medals, five bronze and one silver.
Karvinen is a two-time Danish Men's Under-20 Champion, two-time Naisten SM-sarja Champion, three-time Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) Champion, and was the 2020–21 Swiss Women's League Champion with HC Lugano. As of 2021, Karvinen ranks second for points recorded in a single SDHL season and is the seventh leading scorer in league history. Her SDHL career was played with Luleå HF/MSSK, and she is the team's all-time point and goal scorer.
Playing career
Early career Raised in Rødovre, Denmark, Karvinen began playing with the minor ice hockey teams of Rødovre SIK, where she played on a line with future NHLers Lars Eller and Mikkel Bødker. As a teen, she played with both the club's top junior men's teams and its senior women's team.
NCAA She joined the North Dakota Fighting Sioux program in 2010–11. During 15 and 16 October 2011, Karvinen notched five points, and earned a +5 plus/minus rating as North Dakota swept the Vermont Catamounts. In a 9–1 win on 15 October 2011, Karvinen scored two goals and set up another for a three-point performance. She assisted on Jocelyne Lamoureux's game-winning goal at 2:58 of the first period. The following day, she accumulated two more assists in a 4–1 victory. She assisted on the game-winning goal for the second consecutive game, as Monique Lamoureux scored at 15:11 of the second period.
Karvinen played with the North Dakota Fighting Hawks through the 2013–14 season.
Professional In 2015, she joined the newly formed club Luleå HF/MSSK of the Riksserien (renamed SDHL in 2016). She scored 79 points in 36 games in her first Riksserien season, setting the single-season league scoring record, as Luleå won the Swedish Championship.
She only played 31 games in the 2016–17 SDHL season, scoring 70 points to finish as the league's top scorer for the second year in a row, 17 points ahead of runner-up Jenn Wakefield. She scored five goals in a December match against Djurgårdens IF. She scored the game-winning goal in the 58th minute of the quarterfinals against Brynäs IF to send Luleå to the semi-finals, where they were defeated by HV71.
Karvinen scored 64 points in 34 games in the 2017–18 SDHL season, leading the league in scoring for the third year in a row. She was named the SDHL Forward of the Year as Luleå won the SDHL championship for the second time in three years. During the season, due to the additional needs of the 2018 Winter Olympics, she had left her job at a communications agency to focus on hockey full-time.
In January 2019, she notched six points in a 14–0 victory over Göteborg HC. The following week, she was suspended for four games after a hit to the head in a match against Djurgården. She finished the 2018–19 season with 56 points in 26 games, finishing fourth in the league in scoring. Luleå lost the first two games of the best-of-five playoff finals series against Linköping HC and were facing knockout in overtime of game four when Karvinen scored the game-winning overtime goal to equalize the series and force a game five. Luleå went on to win the decisive game, earning Karvinen her third SDHL championship title.
In May 2020, SVT Sport reported that Karvinen had reached a verbal agreement to leave Luleå and sign with the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays in the Zhenskaya Hockey League (ZhHL), in part due to the potentially full-time salary the club would be able to offer her and in part due to her desire to push her development further. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic created obstacles that made the participation of the KRS Vanke Rays in the 2020–21 ZhHL season uncertain, Karvinen opted to sign with the less risky HC Lugano in Switzerland.
She scored 23 points in the first six games of the 2020–21 SWHL A season, leading the league in scoring before the season was temporarily suspended due to players testing positive for COVID-19. After play resumed, she tallied another 26 points in the remaining ten games of the season, finishing the season with more than 3 points per game and 12 points ahead of the next leading scorer. In the eight games of the playoffs, she added another five goals and seven assists. Assisted by Noemi Ryhner and Nicole Bullo, Karvinen scored the gold winning goal in the 52nd minute of Game 4 to claim Swiss Championship victory for Lugano.
Karvinen declared for the 2025 PWHL Draft and entered the draft as the most established draft-eligible player. She was drafted seventh overall by the Vancouver Goldeneyes. She was signed by Vancouver in October 2025, ahead of their inaugural season, reuniting with her former UND Coach Brian Idalski. On July 23, 2026, Karvinen signed a standard player contract with the reigning PWHL champions Montreal Victoire.
International play She was the only European selected to the All-Star Team at the 2009 World Championships.
Karvinen scored the gold medal goal against Canadian goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer in the championship game of the 2017 Nations Cup.
She scored 7 points in 7 games at the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship, serving as an assistant captain and being named to the tournament all-star team as Finland won silver for the first time in the country's history.
On 2 January 2026, she was named to Finland's roster to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Personal life Karvinen's father is Finnish, and her mother is Danish. She holds dual Finnish-Danish citizenship.Michelle Karvinen haastaa miehet Tanskan pääsarjassa Ilta-Sanomat. Her brother, Jannik Karvinen, played over 500 games for the Rødovre Mighty Bulls and made a handful of appearances for the Danish men's national team.
Karvinen holds a degree in graphic design and technology from the University of North Dakota. She designed the logo for the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship, held in Finland, incorporating the silhouette of Finnish legend Riikka Sallinen.
When asked about changing public perception of women's hockey in a 2018 interview, she stated, "We put down the same time and effort, and we need to be treated the same way. It's that simple." She has called for women's professional players to be given living wages, stating that "We have to give 200% of ourselves – 100% at work and another 100% at hockey."
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs Regular season PlayoffsSeasonTeamLeagueGPGAPtsPIMGPGAPtsPIM2004–05RødovreKvindeLigaen—————220242005–06RødovreKvindeLigaen82922512—————2005–06Rødovre U20Denmark U2022242604422006–07RødovreKvindeLigaen73112436—————2006–07Rødovre U20Denmark U2022731012—————2006–07Rødovre SIKDivision 150220—————2007–08Espoo BluesNaisten SM-sarja1730326210981018162008–09Espoo BluesNaisten SM-sarja22334881226881662009–10Rødovre SIKDivision 11468142—————2009–10RødovreKvindeLigaen13299384—————2009–10Rødovre U20Denmark U201179168230302010–11Rødovre SIKDivision 120381121223502010–11RødovreKvindeLigaen1343176010—————2010–11Rødovre U20Denmark U2016212142500022011–12University of North DakotaWCHA3624376165—————2012–13University of North DakotaWCHA2718294728—————2013–14University of North DakotaWCHA241492320—————2015–16Luleå HF/MSSKRiksserien3637427926744842016–17Luleå HF/MSSKSDHL3130407020442642017–18Luleå HF/MSSKSDHL343038682675101522018–19Luleå HF/MSSKSDHL26253156241151318202019–20Luleå HF/MSSKSDHL25192241146481262020–21HC LuganoSWHL A16272249208571282020–21 KRS Vanke Rays ZhHL – – – – –330342021–22 Malmö Redhawks (L) Damettan 10 26 21 47 18—————2021–22 KRS Vanke Rays ZhHL 10 6 7 13 127561162025-26 Vancouver Goldeneyes PWHL 30 3 6 9 16—————Naisten SM-sarja totals396380143321516183422Denmark U20 totals5118264424133474KvindeLigaen totals41132601922222024Denmark Division 1 totals39918274122350SDHL totals1521411733141103522375936
International Year Team Event Result GP G A Pts PIM 2009 Finland WC 5 5 2 7 6 2010 Finland OG 5 1 2 3 4 2011 Finland WC 6 4 4 8 8 2012 Finland WC 4th 6 0 5 5 4 2013 Finland WC 4th 6 3 1 4 4 2014 Finland OG 5th 6 5 2 7 4 2015 Finland WC 4 2 4 6 2 2016 Finland WC 4th 6 4 1 5 2 2017 Finland WC 6 1 4 5 8 2018 Finland OG 6 3 3 6 2 2019 Finland WC 7 3 4 7 2 2021 Finland WC 7 0 6 6 0 2022 Finland OG 7 3 4 7 2 2022 Finland WC 6th 7 0 3 3 0 2025 Finland WC 7 2 0 2 2 2026 Finland OG 6th 5 0 1 1 4 World Championship totals 67 24 34 58 38 Olympic totals 29 12 12 24 16 Sources:
Awards and honors AwardYear(s) or Season(s)refInternationalWorld Championship Bronze Medal2009, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2021, 2025World Championship All-Star2009, 2011, 2019Olympic Bronze Medal2010, 2018, 2022Olympic Best Forward2014World Championship Silver Medal2019Swiss Women's LeagueSwiss Champion2020–21Most Valuable Player2020–21Best Forward2020–21Most Points2020–21Most Goals2020–21SDHL & RiksserienSwedish Champion2015–16, 2017–18, 2018–19Playoff MVP2015–16Forward of the Year2017–18Most Points2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18Danish Division 1Division 1 Champion2010–11Denmark Men's U20Danish Junior Champion2009–10, 2010–11Naisten SM-sarjaFinnish Champion2007–08, 2008–09All-Star Team2007–08, 2008–09Player of the Year2008–09Best Forward2008–09Most Points2008–09Most Goals2008–09CollegeWCHA Rookie of the Year2011–12WCHA All-Rookie Team2011–12All-WCHA Third Team2011–12All-WCHA Second Team2012–13All-WCHA First Team2013–14
References
External links
Michelle Karvinen at Milano Cortina 2026