Team USA men’s hockey general manager Bill Guerin isn’t concerned about critics who called out the gold medal-winning team for meeting with President Donald Trump.
“I’m not surprised at anything nowadays,” Guerin, 55, told reporters on Sunday, March 1. “I’m not surprised, but I’m also not letting it bother me. You know what? We just won a gold medal. Nothing’s going to ruin this. I don’t care what people say or what they think.”
He continued, “That’s one hell of a team. Those kids are all great people, good family men, and nothing that anybody could ever say would make me change my mind. I don’t care.”
Guerin is also the general manager of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, who played their first home game since the 2026 Winter Olympics on Sunday.
It was a whirlwind week for the Team USA hockey team, especially for Wild star Quinn Hughes, who appeared alongside his brother Jack Hughes on Saturday Night Live on February 28.
“I know it’s worried him because he wants to continue to deliver for the Wild,” Guerin said of Quinn’s hectic travel schedule. “We’ve talked about it, and I’ve encouraged him to do this. Just kind of soak it in. Like, this might be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. So you get to do Saturday Night Live? Go. You get to do all these other things? Do it.”
Quinn, 26, is also scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday, March 2.
Guerin added, “You know what? Yeah, you might be a little tired for today’s game and the next game. I get it, I get it, I get it. But do it. And yeah, enjoy it because you can rest later.”
Twenty of the 25 players on Team USA’s men’s hockey roster traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Trump, 79, on February 24. Most of the players, including Quinn and Jack, 24, also stuck around to attend the president’s State of the Union address that evening.
Five players decided to return home after the Olympics instead of meeting with Trump: Colorado Avalanche forward Brock Nelson, Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger, Anaheim Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe, Tampa Bay Lightning forward Jake Guentzel and Winnipeg Jets forward Kyle Connor.
Some of the players who met with Trump have also responded to the backlash directly, including Jack Hughes.
“You’ve got to remember, we’re just hockey players,” Jack told reporters on February 23. “We did our job. We went over to the Olympics to win a gold medal, and that’s what we did. I’ve had the best time of my life celebrating with my teammates that we accomplished our goal.”
He continued, “I’m a hockey player. We’re so proud to be back in the U.S. and celebrating our gold medal, and to do it with our teammates, that’s the best part.”
New York Rangers star Vincent Trocheck told reporters on Wednesday, “It’s sad that it’s getting politicized the way it is. We’re all very proud to be Americans, and we were all so proud to go [to the 2026 Winter Olympics] and win a gold medal. We went over there with a job, and it was to win gold and do it for our country and for everybody back here, and we were able to do that.”
Trocheck, 32, continued, “It’s sad that it automatically gets turned into something political when all we really wanted to do was represent everybody in here and everybody in our country as well as we could.”
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