US hockey player Jack Hughes quite literally fought tooth and nail at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. The 24-year-old centre for the NHL’s New Jersey Devils scored the winning goal against Team Canada in the gold medal game on Sunday after taking a stick to the face and losing two of his teeth. This is the third time the US has won the Olympics men’s ice hockey gold, and the first since 1980.
Hughes’ missing front teeth barely seem to have dampened his mood. “I looked on the ice and saw my teeth like, ‘Here we go again’,” the forward joked to the media at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. “I’m from the best country in the world. We’ve got great dentists there, too. So I’m lucky I’m American, and they’re gonna fix me right up.”
Jack Hughes in the Ralph Lauren Team USA uniform. Photo: @jackhughes/Instagram
The athlete went on to celebrate his team’s victory on Instagram with a post featuring a photo of him and his stylish new tooth gap alongside his team. “I love my country,” he wrote in the caption, adding US flag emojis.
Here’s everything you need to know about Jack Hughes.
He grew up in an athletic family
Jack Hughes with his family. Photo: @jackhughes/Instagram
Jack Hughes was born in May 2001 in Orlando, Florida. His father, Jim, played hockey and later became a coach. His mother, Ellen, grew up playing football and lacrosse, and later collegiate ice hockey at the University of New Hampshire, winning a silver medal on the USA squad at the 1992 Women’s World Championship.
Jack learned to skate while he was around two years old and started playing organised hockey at the age of five.
Jack Hughes playing ice hockey as a kid. Photo: @jackhughes/Instagram
In 2006, the family relocated to Toronto, Canada, where Jim worked as an assistant for the Maple Leafs’ AHL team. It was there that Jack and his older brother Quinn really started getting into hockey. They would spend hours playing hockey in the basement of their family home, per NHL’s website. Their younger brother, Luke, also plays the sport.