New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes had an interesting month of February. he begins the chase for a golde medal with team USA. He then plays excellent hockey, wins a gold medal against Canada, and visits the White House. Now, he has had one of the biggest growths in social media followers following the conclusion of the 2026 Winter Olympics. The only thing that went bad for Hughes was a cracked tooth and a new smile.
Hughes delivers on and off the ice
Hughes was one of the main contributors to Team USA in their winning of the gold medal. He scored three goals and four assists for seven points in six games including the goal that won the gold medal. He was consistent and played a physical game, seomthing he has done since his NHL debut in 2019-20. This stage was bug but he played no differently.
He was a playmaker, one who set the tone with his playmaking and the way he got back on defense. He did not score the goal because of a lazy turnover. He scored the goal because of hard work and his ability to score in the clutch. This Jack Hughes is the one they want to see when he is on the ice. he will need to play this way if New Jersey is going to make a push towards a lenghty playoff run.
What a difference a week makes. While Hughes was makign thing shappen on the ice people noticed his play and made a difference off the ice. He had the fifth biggest increase in followers on Instagram after the Olympics. The golden goal scorer for Team USA received more than 394,000 new followers on his official account, an increase of 60%. Not only does he become one of the most followed NHL players on the platform but his goal surpassed one million likes. That goal surpassed one million likes in just under 22 hours.
Is the NHL social media growing?
While teh NHL sits behind the NFL, NBA, and MLB, in total followers they have seen a slight rise in overall numbers. The league now has over 191 million combined followers across major social medai sits like Instagram and TikTok. Some of the most followed NHL players include Alexander Ovechkin (1.7 million followers), Connor McDavid (1.5 million), Auston Matthews (998,000), and Connor Bedard (866,000) are the top individual accounts, while the Pittsburgh Penguins (2.889 million) and the Chicago Blackhawks (1.851 million) are the top team accounts. Some teams seeing the biggest rise in numbers include the Philadelphia Flyers (+117.4%) and the Florida Panthers (+90.1%). Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes and Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk qlso saw a rise in thier personal accounts.
The league has 7.23 million followers on X, 5.6 million followers on Instagram, 2 million on TikTok, and 1.78 million on YouTube. The biggest increase among fans came with a 26% increase among female fans since 2016, bringing the total to 37%. Social media is not going anywhere anytime soon and as long as the NHL sees a rise of any kind across social medai they are in a good spot.