Jack Hughes' most famous souvenir from the 2026 Olympics is no longer on display. About a month after the Team USA star's teeth were busted during his gold-medal game heroics in Milan Cortina, the New Jersey Devils confirm Hughes had his top teeth repaired on March 17. The damage came late in the third period of the Feb. 22 final against Canada, when a high stick from Sam Bennett caught Hughes in the mouth. He stayed in, then scored the sudden-death winner in overtime, securing the Americans' first men's hockey gold since 1980 and turning his shattered grin into the tournament's defining image.
His mother, Ellen, told Today she was relieved it was "just his teeth" and credited his mouth guard with limiting the damage, NBC News. "I can't even imagine how many more teeth he would have lost without a mouth guard," she said. Oral surgeon Jason Auerbach, whose practice works with the Devils, said such guards help but can't fully offset the force of a puck or stick to the face. Hughes, who joked on the Tonight Show that the chipped look would not become his trademark, has tallied 21 points with New Jersey since the Olympics and is in year four of an eight-year, $64 million deal.
- A gap-toothed "hockey smile" is seen a badge of honor in the sport, the Hockey News notes. "They feel like it's a worthy sacrifice because they're so intently focused on winning and playing hard," cosmetic dentist Dr. Anjali Rajpal says. "They don't mind showing off that they don't have any teeth."