Team USA members basking in gold medal, ready for Frozen Frenzy

Winning Olympic gold elevated Jack and Quinn Hughes into a different social bracket this summer.

It made Zach Werenski far more famous in his hometown.

It made Brady Tkachuk get the American hero treatment, as strange as that was for him.

"It does a lot for you," said Jack, the New Jersey Devils center who scored the golden goal for Team USA against Team Canada in Milan. "It opens up so many things, events, people you get to meet, and I'm not talking just the people you would think; successful people, people you can learn from."

Most of Team USA's players will be in action Tuesday, the first of two days this season when all 32 teams are playing, highlighted by ESPN's annual Frozen Frenzy whip around show and three games featured on the main ESPN network, kicking off with Hughes and the Devils playing the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena (6 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN+).

"I don't know how many people watch the NHL, but everyone watches the Olympics," Jack said. "That's the biggest stage. People are proud of their country, and for us to win gives us a feather in our cap that we're on the 2026 gold medal hockey team."

The feather he mentions still has reach for the Team USA players and coaches who in their own way each got the full realization of the impact of their accomplishment when they got away from the game over the offseason.

Jack and Quinn, a defenseman with the Minnesota Wild, were guests at Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin's annual exclusive star-studded "White Party" in the Hamptons on July 6 with A-listers such as Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Brady and many more.

They escorted Morgan Wallen into his sold-out concert at Michigan Stadium on July 25, flanking the record-breaking country music star who wore Quinn's Olympic gold medal when he set out to perform in front of more than 75,000 fans.

"I got to do a lot of cool things this summer and that was probably at the top of the list," Jack said. "That was extremely cool."

All three Hughes brothers, including Luke, a Devils defenseman, were guests in the Polo Ralph Lauren suite at Arthur Ashe Stadium for a night session at the U.S. Open on Sept. 6.

"This whole summer was, 'Can I see the medal?' " Tampa Bay Lightning forward Jake Guentzel said. "It's all about that. For my friends and family, that's the biggest thing. They just want to know every detail."

Guentzel's wife, Natalie, threw him a gold-medal Fourth of July surprise party.

"I had (the medal) out for everyone," he said.

Brady Tkachuk said he had people coming up to him all summer saying, "Thank you for what you did for this country," which he indicated is slightly awkward because, "you know, the real heroes are the ones serving and protecting us."

But it happened.

It's still happening.

"It was the greatest honor just to be able to represent the U.S. and all the people back home watching," Tkachuk said. "Yeah, I'm not going to lie. It's definitely been a lot crazier than summers past just with the amount of people that have come up and said exactly where they were watching it, so it’s pretty special to hear that."

Matt Boldy took notice of people looking or staring at him when he was home in the Boston area.

"It's definitely a little different, the everyday life," the Wild forward said. "People followed it and were so invested in it, and obviously it meant a lot to the country and youth hockey in the U.S. So, you get noticed a little bit more out and about from people that maybe didn't follow hockey as much before."

Werenski thought for sure the hype around it would die down once the NHL season resumed and, surely, once the Stanley Cup Playoffs began.

"It has in terms of the party and all that, but when I walk around my hometown now, before no one would ever recognize me and now all anyone wants to do is talk about the gold medal," Werenski said. "It's pretty crazy and it's a good thing. It's something I'll always talk about with anyone."

Now with months separating the elation of winning, the players also have had time to recognize and process the impact the gold medal has had on them, and somehow it even changed the perception they have of themselves as players.

For Werenski, it's proof of what he thought already knew, but really hadn't been proven enough because of limited opportunity, that he can be an impact player in big games against top competition in intense, scrutinized, every-play-matters environments.

"We haven't had much playoff success here in Columbus recently and I haven't been in those big games before, or in a long time," Werenski said. "I think the 4 Nations (Face-Off) was good for me to kind of reassure myself that I can play at this level, I can play in this atmosphere, but then going to the Olympics in that setting on that stage, gold-medal game, Canada, overtime, I felt comfortable and that was very reassuring to me.

"That's where I want to be as a player, is in those moments. I want the puck on my stick. I want to make plays. I want to be out there. I haven't done it enough. So, to be in that moment and have the feeling I had as a player, have a ton of confidence against all the best players in the world, it was a good feeling."

Boldy's biggest takeaway is what he gained from being around his Team USA teammates.

He realized he belonged.

"To be able to stack yourself up against them internally and learn how other guys tick and what they do to make them good, you just learn and you grow and grow and grow, and try to use that stuff for your own game," Boldy said. "Confidence-wise it's obviously huge too. Seeing those guys play, what brings them success, it's huge. I think 4 Nations was a big step being around those guys for the first time and then coming into Olympics with more confidence and playing pretty well, winning, it just took it to another level."

Team USA and New York Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said the experience helped him to re-imagine his gratitude for what he gets to do for a living and the opportunity to do it, and win, for the United States.

"When you win, it makes you hungry to want to win more," Sullivan said. "It's euphoric in nature but it's also fleeting, so it makes you that much hungrier to get to the top of the mountain again, whatever that may be. For us it's the Stanley Cup."

And maybe a World Cup of Hockey championship in 2028, and another Olympic gold medal in 2030.

"I'm only 25, I'm not going to rest on this," Jack Hughes said. "I just think for myself personally when you have something in your back pocket like that, you were around the best of the best, you accomplished what you set out to do, and once you have that feeling of celebrating, winning, throwing your sticks and your gloves, you want that even more. Unbelievable memory and something I'll always have, but now you want more of it."

After this summer, how could he not.

"It's definitely given me something," Jack Hughes said. "You've won something. You've accomplished something. That's what you want in your career. A lifelong dream. Best feeling ever winning at the highest level."