Hockey has many prizes and awards. In the NHL, the top trophies are generally named after great contributors to the game, and in Europe all leagues celebrate their best. In IIHF play, every tournament has an MVP, Directorate Award winners, and an all-star team.
But over and above these is the Triple Gold Club, a special IIHF honour for those few players who have won Olympic gold, the Stanley Cup, and World Championship gold. The concept for the honour came from Szymon Szemberg in 2001, while he was working as the IIHF’s Media Relations manager.
What makes the Triple Gold Club so special, and why so few have achieved it, is that it is as complete a sign of career success as you can get. It is international play and domestic play at the highest level. Olympic gold is special because you play only every four years. You have to be named to the team, which is the best of the best, and then you have to win.
The Stanley Cup is a gruelling test. Four rounds of best-of-seven playoffs after an 82-game regular season. Each player is not necessarily the best in the league, but the entire team has to be playing its best for two months of intense hockey. And the annual World Championship means being named to your national team, competing against 15 other teams, and coming out on top after ten games in 17 days.
The Stanley Cup has been contested annually since 1893. Hockey at the Olympics began in 1920, and a stand-alone World Championship goes back to 1930. These are the great tournaments, the oldest, most prestigious, most compelling, and most respected.
Each honour is a different test. To win one is exceptional. To win all three? Well, only 30 players have ever done it, most recently Valtteri Filppula in 2022, the first Finn to join the Club (which also includes eleven Canadians, nine Swedes, seven Russians, and two Czechs).
Special rules
Because the Triple Gold Club is so special, it also has certain rules that are different from leagues and IIHF play. The most important nuance is that in order to be credited with winning one of these honours, a player must have appeared in at least one game. It doesn’t matter if your name is on the roster. It doesn’t matter if you received a gold medal during the medal ceremony at the end of the event. You must have played in a game.
This became a conversation point at last year’s Men’s Worlds and again at the Olympics, when two Canadian goalies looked to be close to becoming the first goalie ever to join the Triple Gold Club. At the 2025 Worlds, Marc-Andre Fleury was considered a TGC candidate by some, but in fact he wasn’t. Although he was on the roster for Canada at the 2010 Olympics, and dressed as a backup, he never played in a game, and for the purposes of Triple Gold Club candidacy, he wasn’t qualified by the time of last year’s Worlds.
Then, at the Olympics last month, Darcy Kuemper’s name came up. But he never played in a game in Milano, so if Canada had won gold, he also would not have become a TGC member.
In the case of being credited with playing on a Stanley Cup winning team, the same rules the NHL uses for having a player’s name engraved are used. That is, if you play one game in the Stanley Cup finals or half the regular season (currently 41 games), you are eligible to have your name engraved on the Cup and as such you are also credited, for TGC purposes, with having won the Stanley Cup.
Special prize for members of the Triple Gold Club
Each new member of the Triple Gold Club receives a pin, and each pin is numbered. The order of the numbering also has rules to follow. When there are multiple honourees with the same tournament victory, the rules are simple. First, the player who won one TGC honour earliest, gets priority.
For instance, the first three TGC members were Swedes Tomas Jonsson (#1), Mats Naslund (#2), and Hakan Loob (#3) after their Olympic gold in 1994. Jonsson is honoured first, however, because his first honour was the 1982 Stanley Cup with the New York Islanders, before Naslund’s Cup win with Montreal in 1986 and Loob’s World Championship gold in 1987.
But over and above these is the Triple Gold Club, a special IIHF honour for those few players who have won Olympic gold, the Stanley Cup, and World Championship gold. The concept for the honour came from Szymon Szemberg in 2001, while he was working as the IIHF’s Media Relations manager.
What makes the Triple Gold Club so special, and why so few have achieved it, is that it is as complete a sign of career success as you can get. It is international play and domestic play at the highest level. Olympic gold is special because you play only every four years. You have to be named to the team, which is the best of the best, and then you have to win.
The Stanley Cup is a gruelling test. Four rounds of best-of-seven playoffs after an 82-game regular season. Each player is not necessarily the best in the league, but the entire team has to be playing its best for two months of intense hockey. And the annual World Championship means being named to your national team, competing against 15 other teams, and coming out on top after ten games in 17 days.
The Stanley Cup has been contested annually since 1893. Hockey at the Olympics began in 1920, and a stand-alone World Championship goes back to 1930. These are the great tournaments, the oldest, most prestigious, most compelling, and most respected.
Each honour is a different test. To win one is exceptional. To win all three? Well, only 30 players have ever done it, most recently Valtteri Filppula in 2022, the first Finn to join the Club (which also includes eleven Canadians, nine Swedes, seven Russians, and two Czechs).
Special rules
Because the Triple Gold Club is so special, it also has certain rules that are different from leagues and IIHF play. The most important nuance is that in order to be credited with winning one of these honours, a player must have appeared in at least one game. It doesn’t matter if your name is on the roster. It doesn’t matter if you received a gold medal during the medal ceremony at the end of the event. You must have played in a game.
This became a conversation point at last year’s Men’s Worlds and again at the Olympics, when two Canadian goalies looked to be close to becoming the first goalie ever to join the Triple Gold Club. At the 2025 Worlds, Marc-Andre Fleury was considered a TGC candidate by some, but in fact he wasn’t. Although he was on the roster for Canada at the 2010 Olympics, and dressed as a backup, he never played in a game, and for the purposes of Triple Gold Club candidacy, he wasn’t qualified by the time of last year’s Worlds.
Then, at the Olympics last month, Darcy Kuemper’s name came up. But he never played in a game in Milano, so if Canada had won gold, he also would not have become a TGC member.
In the case of being credited with playing on a Stanley Cup winning team, the same rules the NHL uses for having a player’s name engraved are used. That is, if you play one game in the Stanley Cup finals or half the regular season (currently 41 games), you are eligible to have your name engraved on the Cup and as such you are also credited, for TGC purposes, with having won the Stanley Cup.
Special prize for members of the Triple Gold Club
Each new member of the Triple Gold Club receives a pin, and each pin is numbered. The order of the numbering also has rules to follow. When there are multiple honourees with the same tournament victory, the rules are simple. First, the player who won one TGC honour earliest, gets priority.
For instance, the first three TGC members were Swedes Tomas Jonsson (#1), Mats Naslund (#2), and Hakan Loob (#3) after their Olympic gold in 1994. Jonsson is honoured first, however, because his first honour was the 1982 Stanley Cup with the New York Islanders, before Naslund’s Cup win with Montreal in 1986 and Loob’s World Championship gold in 1987.
photo: © INTERNATIONAL ICE HOCKEY FEDERATION
If two or more players have achieved all of their honours at the same time, priority is given to the youngest player. This came into play in 2008. Three more Swedes joined the Triple Gold Club with Pittsburgh’s Cup win over Detroit—Niklas Kronwall, Henrik Zetterberg, and Mikael Samuelsson. Incredibly, all three played on all three champion teams together, starting with the double gold Olympics and World Championships in 2006. But Kronwall is the youngest of the three, so he was given TGC pin #20, and Zetterberg second youngest (#21).
Champions are born every day, but Triple Gold Club members represent a special level of success. It truly is hockey’s most distinguished membership.
Champions are born every day, but Triple Gold Club members represent a special level of success. It truly is hockey’s most distinguished membership.