Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin and Jaccob Slavin are four wins away from joining one of hockey’s rarest clubs: Olympic gold and the Stanley Cup in the same season. The three U.S. players helped the United States win men’s hockey gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics, and now they are back on the sport’s biggest stage with Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final set for Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET at Lenovo Center.
That search is why Eichel is drawing attention now. He had six points in six Olympic games for Team USA, with two goals and four assists, while Hanifin finished with three points and Slavin added an assist. Eichel said the months since winning gold have been “a whirlwind,” but said he is trying to take it a day at a time as the Golden Knights prepare for the Final and the Hurricanes try to turn Slavin’s Olympic run into a Cup chase of their own.
For Eichel, the moment carries a second layer. He already won the Stanley Cup with Vegas in 2023, so this Final is about adding another title to a year that began with Olympic gold. Hanifin is after the first Stanley Cup of his career after being traded to the Golden Knights from the Calgary Flames on March 6, 2024, as part of a three-team deal with the Philadelphia Flyers. Slavin, meanwhile, has spent his entire 11-season NHL career with Carolina after being picked by the Hurricanes in the fourth round, No. 120, of the 2012 NHL Draft.
The road here was not smooth for Vegas. The Golden Knights went 5-10-2 from the start of the Olympic break until March 29, then closed the regular season with a 7-0-1 surge and entered the postseason at 12-4. Eichel said there were bumps along the way, but credited the room for staying together and finding ways to win at the right time. That rebound matters now because the Final opens with the title still one strong series away, and the team that stumbled after the break must prove it can keep the same late-season form when it matters most.
The historical stakes are clear. The United States had not won Olympic gold in men’s hockey since 1980 before this group delivered in February, and no U.S. player has won Olympic gold and the Stanley Cup in the same year since Morrow in 1980. If Eichel, Hanifin and Slavin finish the job, they will not just add another title to their seasons. They will land on a short list that hockey has kept almost untouched for more than four decades.
