Jack Hughes will represent his country at the 2026 Winter Olympics, an announcement by USA Hockey confirmed on Friday. The New Jersey Devils' official X account congratulated their star player for making the team.
Red, White, and Hughes.
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) January 2, 2026
Jack's joining Team USA at The Winter Olympics! pic.twitter.com/wMwMtxNsr9
This isn’t a huge surprise, as Hughes is one of the best American players in the NHL when healthy. What is surprising is that it was a question as we got closer to decision time. Hughes returned weeks early from a hand injury, but he hasn’t been superstar Jack Hughes since his return.
He also had an inconsistent performance at the 4 Nations Face-Off last season. However, it was clear what he was trying to do in each shift, but it was just difficult to find chemistry between him and Auston Matthews.
Jack Hughes is deserving of his spot representing the U.S. at the 2026 Winter Olympics
Still, his body of work when healthy is worthy of making this team pretty easily. His skillset is also what you want in an international style event. He can easily skate around the best defensemen in the world when healthy. We know he’s struggling with that right now, but he should have fully recovered from the hand injury before the players leave for Milan in February.
Two Devils players were hoping to earn a spot on the USA roster, but neither made the right impression. Both Brett Pesce and Luke Hughes were on the long list of players at the Team USA camp over the summer. Pesce was reportedly invited to Boston during the finals of the 4 Nations as an injury replacement, but he didn’t get into a game.
Luke Hughes has not played well enough to make the team. He’s actually taken a step back this season, and the only way he was making this team would be a favor from Quinn Hughes’s GM Bill Guerin. His struggles cost him a spot this year, but we expect him to learn and grow from this. In fact, we saw what happened after the 4 Nations. He went on a tear to end last season. Hopefully, Luke Hughes can play like that again.
Pesce is just coming back from a major injury that had him miss almost 30 games. He’s also getting back in the swing of things, and we can’t see Team USA taking a chance on a guy with limited upside like Pesce when they have the insane quality on defense. Heck, they left Adam Fox home, and Mike Sullivan is the Team USA head coach.
We’re very excited to see Hughes at the Olympics, and we expect many more names to get chosen from the Devils to represent their country.