If you wear the captain’s C for the Detroit Red Wings, the odds are very solid that you will also end up wearing an Olympic gold medal.

Since the NHL began sending its players to the Winter Olympic Games in 1998, four Red Wings captains have played in an Olympiad. All of them have won gold medals.

Center and current Detroit captain Dylan Larkin completed the set when the USA beat Canada 2-1 in overtime in Sunday’s gold medal game at the Cortina Milano Winter Games.

Dylan Larkin has Mike Eruzione on his shoulders in Milan 🇺🇸
pic.twitter.com/NPqO1dV18V

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 23, 2026

Current Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman was the first Red Wings captain to be adorned with a gold medal. He helped Canada win gold at the 2022 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Future Detroit captains doubled down on a golden moment at the 2006 Torino Winter Games, as Sweden edged Finland 2-1 to win gold. It was defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, Red Wings captain from 2006-12, who scored the winning goal in the gold medal game.

Also part of the Swedish team was forward Henrik Zetterberg. He succeeded Lidstrom as Red Wings captain in 2012.

Eight Red Wings Have Won Olympic Gold Medals

In total, eight players have won an Olympic gold medal while playing for the Red Wings. Brendan Shanahan was Yzerman’s Canadian teammate at Salt Lake City in 2002. Both of them would go on to do the rare Olympic gold-Stanley Cup same-season double that spring.

Along with Lidstrom and Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom, Mikael Samuelsson, and Niklas Kronwall were all part of Sweden’s 2006 Olympic triumph.

An additional 12 players won Olympic gold medals and would later play in Detroit. That list includes two original Detroit Cougars. Frank Fredrickson and Haldor (Slim) Halderson won Olympic gold with Canada in 1920. Dave Trottier, part of Canada’s 1924 gold medal squad, played for the Red Wings in 1938-39.

Dylan Larkin: “Johnny and Matty should be here…. Somehow they put a spell around our net where that puck didn’t go in. Ironic, because it’s on the defensive side. He would never have been back there. We miss him, and we love him, and we love his family.” pic.twitter.com/JNNbUVcEkC

— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) February 22, 2026

Two members of the 1980 USA Miracle on Ice club – Mike Ramsey and Dave Silk – spent part of their NHL careers in Detroit. Igor Larionov and Viacheslav Fetisov (1984, 1988, Soviet Union) won two Olympic gold medals and would win multiple Stanley Cups as Red Wings. Defenseman Dmitri Mironov won a 1992 Olympic gold medal with the Unified Team and a 1997-98 Stanley Cup with the Wings.

Jiri Slegr and Dominik Hasek were teammates with the Czech Republic for that country’s 1998 Olympic triumph. They were also teammates when the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 2001-02.

Curtis Joseph (Canada, 2002) and Daniel Alfredsson (Sweden, 2006) were other players who arrived to play for the Wings having previously won an Olympic gold medal.