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2026 Olympic
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Quinn Hughes, who missed out on the 4 Nations Face-Off last year due to injury, sent Team USA to the semifinals with his overtime heroics in the quarterfinals. EyesWideOpen / Getty Images
MILAN – Bill Guerin played in three Olympics, so he says the only thing that stinks about being in management now with USA Hockey is that you can’t do anything to really help once you pick the team.
“People ask if I stress out during games,” the United States’ men’s hockey team’s GM said on the eve of the Olympics. “I’m like, ‘Well, what am I going to do? The best job in the world is being out there.’”
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Well, Wednesday night, after Mika Zibanejad scored an extra attacker goal to send the Sweden-U.S. quarterfinal into overtime, a very stressed-out Guerin looked pale and like he was going to hurl when cameras caught him in his suite, slumped in his leather seat and sweating bullets.
Suddenly, the team he compiled to win gold in these Winter Olympics — a team that didn’t include three-on-three specialist Cole Caufield — was one Sweden OT goal from going home early from Italy before even getting a chance to medal.
That’s when Quinn Hughes, the superstar defenseman acquired by Guerin in his day job as the Minnesota Wild GM in a shocking December blockbuster, reminded all of us exactly what the United States was missing against Canada in last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off.
In a switch in the offensive zone, Hughes took his Wild teammate Matt Boldy’s pass, centered himself, found a lane between defenders and ripped a forehand shot off the post and in for a semifinals-advancing OT winner that caused Guerin to leap so high out of his chair that it’s amazing he didn’t hit the ceiling.
“We needed that one,” a relieved Guerin said in a text to The Athletic early Thursday morning.
Same for Matthew Tkachuk on the American bench.
“It was definitely the highest I’ve jumped since my surgery,” Tkachuk said, laughing, after a 2-1 win resulted in a date with Slovakia on Friday night. “I’ll have to hit the foam roll.”
In a tight-checking game that resembled a playoff atmosphere where there was zero room to make plays, this game needed the open ice of a three-on-three to allow for a winner.
That’s when Quinn Hughes, one of the most elusive skaters in the world, can really thrive.
“He’s got to be one of the hardest guys in the world to cover three-on-three the way he’s able to move laterally and get a shot off quick,” Tkachuk said. “I mean, he does it five-on-five. He does it on the power play. We had a lot of looks like right in that middle area. I don’t know if he was the third or fourth one. Went glove side, post-and-in and live to fight another day. It’s just most incredible feeling.”
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“That’s a massive goal, massive moment,” Quinn’s young brother, Jack Hughes, said. “One of our best players taking over there and winning that game for us.”
Last winter, if the decision had been left up to Hughes, he would have joined his brother in the 4 Nations Face-Off. And when Charlie McAvoy suddenly wound up hospitalized in the middle of the tournament, coach Mike Sullivan even went as far as to tell a room full of reporters that “Quinn Hughes is coming.”
Apparently, when McAvoy was unavailable, Team USA called Hughes and asked if he wanted to join the team even though it had already replaced him with Jake Sanderson after he was hurt. He said yes, so it was announced to real-time tweeting reporters that Hughes was en route.
But that was either news to the Vancouver Canucks or they hadn’t yet given the green light. It created a chaotic day that finally ended with the Canucks forbidding their captain from playing in the tournament because of an oblique injury.
“I felt like I was playing great hockey at the time and wasn’t able to be there,” Hughes said. “It sucks, but you’re moving on. I’m here this time. I’m just really enjoying it.”
On Wednesday, Hughes showed what kind of offensive weapon the U.S. was missing and how much this year’s gold-medal game could be different against Canada if the U.S. can get past Slovakia and Canada gets past Finland. This was a U.S. team that lost 2-1 to Sweden in the final round-robin game of last year’s tournament and ultimately in overtime against Canada in the 4 Nations.
Hughes can bring the magic the Americans lacked offensively.
“The guy always shows up at the big moment,” Brady Tkachuk said. “He stepped up massive. We missed him bad in the 4 Nations and it’s just the boost he brings as a person, as a player, and the leadership that he brings that gives us a lot of confidence in this tournament. It takes a truly special player to show up in those moments and that’s Quinn.”
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Hughes became the first defenseman to score an overtime goal in a knockout game at an Olympics with NHL players. He now has a goal and five assists in four games in the Olympics with only two defensemen posting more points in a single Olympics with NHL players (Erik Karlsson, eight points in 2014 for Sweden, and Brian Rafalski, eight points in 2010 with the United States).
This is the same guy who has single-handedly turned the Wild into an offensive juggernaut since his mid-December arrival. They have the second-most points in the NHL and he has 31 assists and 34 points in just 26 games.
And when that puck sailed past Jacob Markstrom, Hughes said he felt “just relief.”
“Really enjoying wearing the crest and playing with the superstars that we have on our team. Getting to know these guys,” he said. “The village. All of it. You just want to extend it as long as you can.”
That was the exact shot Hughes wanted to get off, and he put it exactly where he wanted it.
“We’re definitely a better team with him. I mean, there’s no question about that,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “He’s playing big minutes. He’s a threat in the offensive zone. Every time, defensively, he’s able to skate pucks and be kind of like that one-man breakout. Him and Charlie (McAvoy) have formed an unbelievable pair for us. Charlie, I thought also was incredible tonight. That was one of those games where it’s 40 of some of the best players in the world fighting at both ends of the ice. Not a lot of room both sides, not a lot of heavy chances on either side. You put two really good teams together, and you think that it’s gonna be this high flying offense, but it’s actually quite the opposite.
“And it took one guy to make a play at the end, and that was Quinn.”
Brady Tkachuk played and lived with Hughes for two years at the U.S. National Team Development Program, and he said that’s exactly the player he remembered playing with.
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“I’ve seen that move before. I’ve seen that play before. What a player,” Tkachuk said. “It’s been a blast living in the village with him. We got a good thing going the night before a game. We’re usually just chopping it up and hanging out, just chatting. So glad that’s going to continue.”
Dylan Larkin, who scored the lone goal in regulation for the Americans, skates with Hughes in the summertime. He says he has seen Hughes set that play up thousands of times.
“Sets the feet. You could tell he was setting up the triangle,” Larkin said. “I don’t know who he shot it through, but the pull and unbelievable moment for our country and for USA Hockey. For him to do it, it gives me chills. Unbelievable performance out of him.”
Larkin, who made a tremendous play in overtime picking Filip Forsberg’s pocket, says that OT was the most nervous he has ever been in a hockey game. Just because anything can happen — a turnover, a bad bounce, a fall — to knock the Americans out.
“But I calmed down a lot when I saw Quinnie get it for the first time,” Larkin said. “Was like, we got that guy.”
Added McAvoy: “I think you saw in overtime we got some really elite high-end skill from a lot of our guys. So you rolled them over the boards, and any combination of guys is gonna get great looks. And tonight it was Quinnie. What a play by him.”
And what relief from Guerin, who built a team he truly believes can deliver the United States its first men’s hockey gold medal in 46 years.
So, of course, it was the star he brought to Minnesota who kept the United States alive for at least one more game.
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Michael Russo is a senior writer covering the Minnesota Wild and the National Hockey League for The Athletic. He has covered the NHL since 1995 (Florida Panthers) and the Wild since 2005, previously for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Minneapolis Star Tribune. Michael is a five-time Minnesota Sportswriter of the Year and in 2017 was named the inaugural Red Fisher Award winner as best beat writer in the NHL. Michael can be seen on NHL Network; and heard on KFAN (100.3 FM) and the Worst Seats in the House podcast (talknorth.com). He can be found on Instagram and X at @russohockey and Bluesky at @russohockey.bsky.social. Follow Michael on Twitter @RussoHockey
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