Meet the coach with his fingerprints on the U.S. women’s and men’s Olympic hockey teams

MILAN — Last Wednesday, John Wroblewski headed over to the United States’ Winter House, where the men’s and women’s Olympic hockey teams came together for a function.

As his players mingled with NHL stars, the women’s national team coach reunited with the likes of Jack and Quinn Hughes, Brady Tkachuk and Matt Boldy.

Wroblewski, 44, had once coached these American Olympians as members of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program.

“I saw Wrobo sitting and talking to Brady and was thinking, ‘Here we are probably seven, eight years later, and here they are both with a chance to win gold,” said USA Hockey assistant executive director John Vanbiesbrouck. “It was just so cool.”

On Monday, the United States’ women, who have rolled through the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics with five consecutive victories and four consecutive shutouts, will play Sweden in the semifinals. A win puts them into a likely gold-medal meeting with fellow hockey power Canada, whom they have now defeated seven straight times, including 5-0 in the preliminary round.

And on Wednesday night, the United States’ men, currently undefeated at these Olympics, head to the knockout round.

Wroblewski has his fingerprints all over both teams, first as the coach guiding the top-ranked women’s team in the world and second as the coach who helped mold some of the American men’s brightest players.

“Those women are lucky to have him and we were lucky to have him as well,” said American star defenseman Quinn Hughes. “He’s got a lot of interesting ideas about the game. Works incredibly hard — I think he’s the ultimate teacher.”

When Wroblewski’s playing career ended in 2007 — with a fourth and final season in the ECHL after spending four years at the University of Notre Dame — he immediately pivoted to coaching.

Wroblewski played on the inaugural NTDP roster in 1997. As an alumnus, he started as an assistant coach with the program.

For six years, he worked his way through the ECHL and American Hockey League coaching ranks. By 2017, Wroblewski was named the head coach of the NTDP — a program that assembles the best USA Hockey players with an emphasis on developing them into NHLers — where he led one of the most talented cohorts the country has ever produced for four years.

Wroblewski coached the under-18 team to gold and bronze medals at the men’s under-18 world championships. Twenty-nine of his players were taken in the NHL draft, including a record eight first-rounders in 2019, led by first-overall selection and New Jersey Devils star forward Jack Hughes.

While Wroblewski took over the program at a beneficial time, with elite talent like Jack and Quinn Hughes coming through the pipeline, he also played a big part in their success.

“Wrobo’s one of the best communicators and motivators I’ve ever seen,” said Jack Hughes. “He knows the game, he works his butt off and all he does is want his players to succeed, both as individuals and as a team.”

John Wroblewski met with players from the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team last week at Team USA’s Winter House in Milan. (Courtesy of USA Hockey)

Wroblewski’s stature in the game started to take off and his success with the development team made him a rising star for any organization looking for a coach with a track record of developing high-end players, and getting the most out of elite young talent. His climb up the ladder ultimately landed him with the Los Angeles Kings AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign.

“John has a proven background in working with young players and helping them develop their game,” then Kings general manager Rob Blake said in a press release in August 2020. “He’s a strong leader who communicates well and he’ll play an important role for our organization.”

In his second season, however, Wroblewski took a personal leave of absence. Three months later, in March 2022, Wroblewski and the organization mutually agreed that “Wroblewski would not return as head coach of the Ontario Reign.”

Neither the organization nor Wroblewski ever disclosed the reason for his leave. And, in an interview with The Athletic, Wroblewski said he wanted the details to remain private. “There were just a lot of things going on in my life at that time that didn’t make a lot of sense,” he said.

For the first time in decades, Wroblewski was faced with the very real possibility that a hockey season would start without him behind a bench. Then, he got a call from USA Hockey, asking him to come home, this time with an opportunity to coach the U.S. women’s national team at the 2022 women’s world championships.

“The women’s program saved me,” he said.

Team USA women’s coach John Wroblewski has his group on a roll entering the semifinals at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

Vanbiesbrouck said he did his due diligence looking into what happened with the Kings organization and called several people, including Ellen Hughes, the mother of Quinn, Jack and Luke Hughes.

“We loved him,” said Ellen, whom Wroblewski hired in 2023 to be an on-and-off ice liaison between him and the players.

After losing in the gold medal game to Team Canada at the 2022 Olympics, and with several veteran players leaving the program, the American women were a team in transition — but with elite young talent on the way. That, more than anything, is what made Wroblewski “an easy fit,” for Vanbiesbrouck.

“I thought for this time and for this quad that he would challenge them,” he said. “And (that) he would give opportunities to some of our young players coming up — we have so many good ones that we didn’t want to get stagnant.”

Since then, Wroblewski has provided a stabilizing presence behind the U.S. bench after years of turmoil at the head coach position. Between 2017 and 2022, the women’s national team made four coaching changes, including one just three weeks before the 2021 world championships, when Bob Corkum abruptly stepped down, citing concerns with COVID-19 protocols.

In his first tournament, the 2022 women’s world championships in Denmark, Wroblewski introduced newcomers Taylor Heise, Hannah Bilka and Rory Guilday to the mix. He also gave star defender Caroline Harvey, who was benched as a 19-year-old at the 2022 Olympics, a nudge to play free and confident.

“The women did not have enough belief in themselves when I first came into the program.” Wroblewski said. “They didn’t understand how good they were and what their ceiling was.

“I really believe it’s their program. I’m just here to try to be as thorough as possible, to give them the guidance and to make the decisions for them to achieve their dreams.”

Canada beat the U.S. in that tournament for a third straight gold medal at a major international tournament. At the 2022-23 Canada-USA Rivalry Series, where Canada won four-straight games by a combined score of 16-5, it became apparent to Wroblewski that it was time for more change.

“There’s no way we were going to be able to catch Canada (by 2026) if our older players can’t carry us now,” Wroblewski said. “So then you start considering how you’re gonna circumvent (that) and that’s only through development.”

Wroblewski shook up the roster, adding 21-year-old Penn State forward Tessa Janecke and 20-year-old defender Haley Winn ahead of the 2023 women’s world championships. He also gave goalie Aerin Frankel the reins in net after she’d only played in one game at the senior international level. Frankel went 5-1 in the tournament and backstopped the U.S. to its first world championship win since 2017.

“He was really excited for me to get that opportunity, and obviously, with it being my first worlds, he was aware that there’d probably be some nerves, but he felt like I was prepared and had done a good job to earn myself some starts,” said Frankel. “Anytime your coach has confidence in you it’s a great boost.”

The youth movement continued when NCAA stars Kirsten Simms, Laila Edwards and Joy Dunne entered the picture in 2024. While the U.S. lost that world championship — in a thrilling 6-5 overtime victory by Canada — that youth movement is now a critical piece of the 2026 Olympic team.

Of the 13 national team rookies Wroblewski has introduced over the last four years, eight — Janecke, Bilka, Heise, Edwards, Dunne, Guilday and Simms — made the Olympic roster. Heading into the semifinals on Monday, those players alone have combined for 11 goals and 26 points through five games. Harvey and 23-year-old Abbey Murphy have added another three goals and 14 points to help pace the offense, though they’re playing in their second Olympics.

“I’m really proud of the way the program has developed,” Wroblewski said.

For all the confidence he works to instill, Wroblewski can be demanding and believes there’s a certain way the game should be played. He coaches an up-tempo style in which he believes the best defense is an aggressive offense, and so far, the U.S. women have done it to perfection. It feels like they always have the puck and Team USA has steamrolled opponents in five-straight victories in Milan, outscoring opponents 26-1.

“He’s putting in the work,” said Kendall Coyne Schofield, a four-time Olympian who has medaled three times, including a gold. “When it comes to the details, the X’s and O’s, the film, I mean, it’s unbelievable, the amount of work he does. You guys don’t see it, we don’t see it, but it’s every day. He’s prepared to make us the best that we can be. And, and it’s obviously showing.”

The U.S. women are heavily favored to win the Olympic gold medal Thursday. The U.S. men, too, are contenders, with six players from Wroblewski’s days with the NTDP now on the Olympic team.

“It feels really good to see those guys succeed,” Wroblewski said. “It’s not like I feel like, ‘Wow, what a job that I did.’ But you look at what they’re doing, and you’re so happy for them, and (that) you’re along for their ride.”

Minnesota Wild star Matt Boldy, who was coached by Wroblewski in the program, sees a lot of their team in the U.S. women.

“(They’re) high-flying, fast, offensive creativity all over the ice,” he said. “The women’s games I’ve watched have been crazy.”

John Wroblewski congratulates Matt Boldy at the 2019 NHL Draft in Vancouver. (Michael Russo / The Athletic)

Boldy led the NTDP in goals as a rookie in 2017-18. One year later he was taken 12th overall by the Wild in the 2019 NHL draft. Now, in Milan, he’s a bonafide star and the highest producing American forward in the NHL, with 32 goals.

“I owe a lot of credit to him with the trust he had in me and the faith he had in the player that I was going to become and the opportunity he gave me and the situations he put me in,” Boldy said about Wroblewski’s part in his path.

Just over four years ago, Wroblewski wasn’t sure if he was going to stay involved in hockey. Now, his team is two wins away from an Olympic gold medal. It’s not an opportunity he ever expected, having spent so much time in the men’s game. But it’s one he’s been “very humbled” by.

Contracts for national team coaches are for the length of a quad. Vanbiesbrouck expects that Wroblewski will have other coaching opportunities after the Olympics, but if he wants to return, Vanbiesbrouck would love to have him back.

“Being here and having this opportunity has been so amazing for me, and those women mean so much to me,” Wroblewski said. “And that team is just incredible. Those are special women in that room, a real collection of not only winning hockey players, but winners in life.”