Jack Hughes is back on the ice with a new smile, about a month after he broke his teeth while leading Team USA men’s hockey to gold at the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympics.
After securing the win against rival Canada on February 22, Hughes returned to his NHL team, the New Jersey Devils, in March. The Devils confirmed with NBC News that Hughes fixed his top teeth on March 17.
Hughes’ shattered smile will be the defining image of Team USA’s victory.
During the third period of that gold-medal game, Canada’s Sam Bennett’s high stick hit Hughes in the face, chipping a few of Hughes’ teeth. With USA and Canada tied 1-to-1 at the end of the third period, the two teams went into sudden-death overtime.
Early in the extra period, Zach Werenski passed the puck to Hughes, who took a second before firing a slapshot past Canada’s Jordan Binnington for the golden goal. It secured Team USA’s first hockey title since 1980.
Hughes’ mother Ellen told TODAY she was glad it was just his teeth and no other injuries.
“I’m so happy he wears a mouth guard,” Ellen said. “I can’t even imagine how many more teeth he would have lost without a mouth guard.”
Dr. Jason Auerbach’s practice, Riverside Oral Surgery, is the official oral surgeon of the New Jersey Devils. Auerbach said custom-made, custom-fit mouth guards protect the teeth in several ways, but not everything is protected.
“If you take a slap shot to the face, the velocity of the puck is so great,” Auerbach said. “The energy, therefore, is so great that even though it’s protected — and it does protect to some degree — there will be some injury.”
Auerbach, who was not Hughes’ dentist for the procedure to repair his teeth, said it looked as if most of Hughes’ injuries were dental and did not require surgery.
As part of his post-Olympics press tour, Hughes appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Hughes told Fallon that he didn’t want to spend time in the dentist chair.
Fallon asked if the chipped tooth was going to be Hughes’ thing. “I can promise you, this won’t be my thing,” Hughes said.
Hughes is finishing the season with the Devils, where he has scored 21 points since his Olympic run. Hughes joined New Jersey as the No. 1 pick for the 2019 NHL Draft. He is in year four of an eight-year, $64 million contract.
“I feel a ton of pride. I felt a ton of pride for the USA, for him in particular,” Auerbach said. “He’s a New Jersey Devil. I live and brought my family up in New Jersey. Yeah, it was a ton of personal pride.”
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