How NHLers balance the desire to win Olympic gold and the Stanley Cup

The 2025-2026 season is the first in over a decade where players have the opportunity to check off two of the boxes for the Triple Gold Club in one fell swoop.

With the Stanley Cup and Olympic Gold both available this season, the league’s stars will be putting even more strain on their minds and bodies to maximize their output this season to give their NHL teams a shot at the Cup and their national squads a chance to claim the gold.

In 2014, Drew Doughty and Jeff Carter were the two players who got both, as their Los Angeles Kings won the Cup and Team Canada captured the gold in dominant fashion.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by former NHL defenseman and first overall pick Erik Johnson to discuss how players on contending teams and Olympic rosters alike are weighing these dueling massive priorities.

Carter Hutton: This is obviously a challenging year right? You look at Colorado and the success they’re having, and then you look at all those players going to the Olympics. You’re a guy that played internationally, played in the Olympics. How do you manage that now? You’re trying to win a Stanley Cup, and now you’re trying to win an Olympic medal for your country. It’s a lot to bear as an indivisual and an athlete.

Erik Johnson: It’s a great question. I can kind of speak from my experience in 2009-2010 leading up to the Olympics and then ’13-’14 as well. I just remember I wanted to be on the Olympic team so bad. It meant so much to me, and guys care bout that and they want to do that. It’s in the back of your mind all season long. If guys say it isn’t, they’re lying, because it is for sure. That’s one of your goals during the season is win an Olympic medal and win a gold medal when you go into an Olympic year… From my experience, you are going to have injuries and guys coming back with bumps and bruises.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…