Triple Gold Club<\/a>, which recognizes a rare group of players who have won the Stanley Cup, an Olympic gold medal and an IIHF World Championship gold medal in their career.<\/p>\nOnly 30 players have been able to do so since 1930, a feat the IIHF refers to as the sport\u2019s \u201cmost distinguished membership\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hedman is well aware he could join the exclusive club this month, and he didn\u2019t hold back when asked what it would mean to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be the pinnacle.\u201d<\/p>\n
He knows, though, it won\u2019t happen easily.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne step at a time. I\u2019ve got two of the three down, but next week we start the quest toward the Triple Gold Club,\u201d the defenseman said before leaving for Italy. \u201cThere’s a lot of players who ask for that opportunity, but for me personally, it’s just one game at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hedman can become the 12th defenseman to accomplish the feat and the fourth Swedish defenseman, joining Nicklas Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall and Tomas Jonsson.<\/p>\n
Among the Swedish greats, Hedman was particularly inspired by forward Peter Forsberg because they both hail from the same hometown of Ornskoldsvik.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just been one of those guys I looked up to for my whole career,\u201d Hedman said.<\/p>\n
Now the Lightning defenseman has the chance to join a few of his childhood idols, including Forsberg, in the Triple Gold Club.<\/p>\n
He would be the second player to earn Triple Gold Club status while playing for the Lightning. His fellow countryman in Freddy Modin joined after winning gold with Sweden at the 2006 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve seen him quite a few times, and Freddy Mo was another one of those guys I looked up to,\u201d Hedman said. \u201cYou know his history here, so it\u2019d be cool to join him as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Modin has known Hedman from the time he was still a kid, and he hopes to see No. 77 join the Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I saw Victor, I believe he was 16 years old when I saw him play a little bit in Sweden. You knew we had something special to look forward to, and he’s certainly taken the reins on that,\u201d Modin said. \u201cThroughout his career he just keeps playing well and breaking records, and he\u2019s definitely one guy that you would like to be part of that and get himself an Olympic gold. That would be huge for him, and he\u2019d be a fitting guy to have that Triple Gold membership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hedman, who is serving as a member of Team Sweden\u2019s leadership group as an assistant captain at this year\u2019s tournament, has helped his team to a 2-0-0-1 record so far at the Olympics. He scored an empty-net goal in his Olympic debut last Wednesday, a 5-2 win over Italy.<\/p>\n
He called this year\u2019s team \u201cphenomenal\u201d despite missing key players such as defenseman Jonas Brodin and forward Leo Carlsson to injury.<\/p>\n
Sweden will face Latvia in a playoff game on Tuesday, and a win would send the team to a quarterfinal matchup against Team USA on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
As those games near, Hedman won\u2019t take any moment for granted.<\/p>\n
He is chasing history, after all.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a once in a lifetime kind of deal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPretty much the only little thing that’s missing in my career is to get to play in the Olympics, and now I get to do that. I\u2019m just gonna enjoy that process, but at the same time go there and have no regrets coming back. Just give it my all and make the people of Sweden proud.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Hedman has accomplished nearly everything over the course of his hockey career. And yet, the 2026 Winter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-157583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}