{"id":666003,"date":"2026-03-19T04:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T04:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/666003\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T04:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T04:18:14","slug":"hockey-hall-of-fame-fires-back-at-jack-hughes-olympic-puck-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/666003\/","title":{"rendered":"Hockey Hall of Fame fires back at Jack Hughes’ Olympic puck claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Hughes is going to have to get creative if he wants his \u201cgolden goal\u201d puck back<\/a>. Simply asking for it isn\u2019t going to work.<\/p>\n

The Hockey Hall of Fame, the Toronto museum which is in possession of the puck Hughes scored in overtime against Canada to win Team USA its first men\u2019s hockey Olympic gold medal in 46 years, said they are not giving Hughes the puck.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, in the easiest words, it was never Jack\u2019s puck to own,\u201d Phil Pritchard, the \u201cKeeper of the Cup\u201d who is vice president of the resource center and curator for the HHOF, told ESPN<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Jack Hughes (86) scores the gold-medal-winning goal for Team USA against Canada in the Olympic final on Feb. 22, 2026. POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Jack Hughes celebrates Team USA\u2019s gold-medal win on Feb. 22, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been donated to us now. For every artifact that\u2019s been donated, we have a paper trail and signed paperwork of where it\u2019s come from.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hall of Fame now has the puck from Hughes\u2019 goal and the one from American women\u2019s star Megan Keller\u2019s gold-medal winner on display. They were donated to the Hall by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which worked with the International Olympic Committee to put on the Olympic hockey tournaments.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of being a nonprofit registered charity in Canada is it becomes kind of a legal document that we\u2019ve received it as a donation,\u201d Pritchard told ESPN. \u201cWe\u2019ve insured it, we\u2019ve preserved it, we conserved everything. It becomes part of our institution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughes tried to temper the controversy when he spoke with reporters on Wednesday night after the Devils\u2019 6-3 win over the Rangers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Olympian called it an \u201chonor\u201d that the piece of hockey history is at the Hockey Hall of Fame. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the most special place in hockey,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m honored that it\u2019s there, but I think things were taken crazy. Just that\u2019s the way I felt. I didn\u2019t know where the puck was, so it is where it is.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hughes fumed to ESPN on Tuesday about not having the game-winning puck.<\/p>\n

Phil Pritchard with the Stanley Cup at the Red Wings\u2019 Sergei Fedorov jersey retirement ceremony on Jan. 12, 2026. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to get it. Like, that\u2019s bulls\u2013t that the Hockey Hall of Fame has it, in my opinion,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cWhy would they have that puck?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughes, whose older brother Quinn was on Team USA with him and whose younger brother Luke is his Devils teammate, said he wanted the puck to give to his dad, Jim.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I look back in time in my career, I don\u2019t collect too many things for myself, but my dad\u2019s a monster collector for the three of us. I know he would have a special place for it,\u201d Hughes told ESPN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Hughes is going to have to get creative if he wants his \u201cgolden goal\u201d puck back. Simply…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":666004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[12538,142067,293,3777,62,67,132,68,21394,87294,247509],"class_list":["post-666003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-hockey-hall-of-fame","tag-jack-hughes","tag-nhl","tag-olympics","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-usa-hockey","tag-winter-olympics","tag-winter-olympics-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116253917664416897","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}