The only male skater eligible to join at this year’s Games, Pavel Datsyuk punched his ticket to the Triple Gold Club by virtue of his Olympic Gold with the Olympic Athletes From Russia, becoming the 29th male and seventh Russian to join the club, adding to his two Stanley Cups and IIHF World Championship.

Datsyuk, who served as captain for the OAR team, was held scoreless in the Gold Medal Game against Germany, and finished the tournament goalless, but had six assists in six games. In his fifth Olympics, Datsyuk has finally made it to the top of the podium, only medalling once before (bronze in 2002), with finishes in 4th (2006), 5th (2014) and 6th (2010) in his other appearances.

Datsyuk won his first Stanley Cup in 2002, when his Detroit Red Wings dispatched the Carolina Hurricanes in five games; he added his second championship in 2008, when his Red Wings defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. Datsyuk also has appeared for Russia at six World Championships, winning Gold in 2012, along with a silver in 2010 and a trio of bronzes from 2002, 2005 and 2016. Datsyuk has appeared at both the 2004 and 2016 World Cups as well, finishing 5th and 4th, respectively.

Datsyuk becomes the tenth player to join the Club with an Olympic Gold Medal as the final win, and only the fourth (after Tomas Jonsson, Mats Näslund and Eric Staal) to win in the order of Stanley Cup, World Championship Gold and Olympic Gold. As mentioned, Datsyuk is the seventh Russian to join the Club, and the first in nearly two decades, with the last being Alexander Mogilny and Vladimir Malakhov on 10 June 2000. The rest of the Russian inductees include Alexei Gusarov, Valeri Kamenski, Vyacheslav Fetisov and Igor Larionov.

Our congratulations go out to Pavel Datsyuk on his achievement in joining this prestigious club of international hockey stars!

Photo Credit: PyeongChang 2018 – IIHF – HHOF – IOC