USA hockey hero Jack Hughes has revealed his plans for his winning smile following Winter Olympics victory.
The 24-year-old scored the golden goal in the USA’s thrilling overtime win over Canada in the gold medal game in Milan last month – at the cost of his teeth.
The New Jersey Devils star chipped his front tooth when he took a high stick to the mouth from Canada’s Sam Bennett in the third period of the tense clash.
Hughes and his jagged smile during the Americans’ on-ice celebrations became one of the most iconic images of the 2026 Games. However, fans should not expect it to become his signature look.
The forward continued his victory tour, which included a stop at Saturday Night Live, on Monday when he, brother Quinn Hughes and women’s legend Hilary Knight, who also won gold at the Winter Olympics, appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
While he has not yet had a break in his busy schedule to get into a dental chair, Hughes did suggest that he intended to get his teeth repaired.
Jack Hughes had his teeth knocked out before scoring the gold medal-winning goal for USA
The hockey hero appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with brother Quinn
During the interview, Fallon joked that the gappy smile might now be Hughes’s ‘thing,’ which drew a laugh from the hockey stars.
‘I can promise you that this won’t be my thing,’ Hughes replied, flashing his teethy grin.
‘Honestly, it is funny, because since we’ve been back in the U.S. we feel the love like crazy and so much support,’ he continued. ‘But when people are coming up for a picture, they’ll be like, ‘smile.’ … It’s funny, yeah.’
Hughes also recounted the moment he took the stick to the mouth, revealing that Quinn was the first to approach him after the incident.
‘He’s like, ‘It’s not that bad, it’s only chipped,” Hughes recalled. ‘That’s what he said. And that’s with four minutes left in the game when we were serious, like trying to win this thing, and he came up and said that.’
Fallon also spoke to Knight, who scored the tying goal in the women’s gold medal game between the United States and Canada to force overtime, about her Olympic engagement.
Knight proposed to Olympic speed skater Brittany Bowe one day before the women’s gold medal game.
However, the talk show host poked fun at the USA captain for getting down on one knee over a grate, joking that she could have lost the ring down a hole.
The image of the forward celebrating the USA’s win with a gappy smile has become iconic
USA women’s star Hilary Knight joined the Hughes brothers on the show on Monday night
The trio of gold medal winners, along with Megan Keller, appeared on Saturday Night Live
‘I wouldn’t recommend it,’ Knight joked after Fallon showed a photo of the proposal.
The Hughes brothers and Knight, along with fellow gold medal winner Megan Keller, also appeared on SNL over the weekend.
The USA women’s hockey team were pointedly given their moment to shine during the episode after a week of outrage at Donald Trump’s comments over their Winter Olympics’ success.
After the USA men beat Canada in overtime in last Sunday’s final, Trump called them in the locker room with an invite to the State of the Union. He then joked he had to invite the gold medal-winning women’s team, too, or he’d be impeached.
The joke from the President was met with laughter from the men’s team, something they have received huge criticism for this week since returning to the United States. But on Saturday Night Live, the women had the last laugh.
As Knight and Keller walked out onto the stage, the Hughes brothers stepped aside to allow them to stand in the center with host, Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie, after he had joked that no famous hockey players had watched his hockey-related show.
‘Don’t worry, we saw your show,’ Keller said, to more huge cheers. When Storrie thanked them for joining, Knight quipped: ‘It was gonna be just us but we thought we’d invite the guys too.’
