Not long ago, Gabriel Landeskog had visitors to his house looking at some of his hockey memorabilia.
At one point one of the guests was handling the Olympic silver medal Landeskog won as part of the Swedish national team at Sochi 2014. Landeskog’s daughter, Linnea, who turned six in November, seemed intrigued by the piece.
“It was probably a couple of months ago, and they were looking around at some of my hockey memorabilia that are around my house. And then one of them pulled down the medal and was looking at it. And my daughter comes up to me, what's that? What's that? She had never seen it because it's not something I pull out to brag about,” Landeskog said with a laugh.
“But, if it was a different colour, I'd probably show her,” the Colorado Avalanche captain added. “And now they're older and they're aware of the daddy going over to the Olympics, we've talked about a gold medal and that's what my wife said, ‘If you're going to go, you might as well come home with gold. So we'll see.’”
Landeskog was a young man when the Swedes lost to Canada in that gold medal game in 2014.
In some ways it was a lifetime ago.
At the time he was the youngest captain in NHL history. In the intervening years he was named captain of the Colorado Avalanche. The Avs won a Stanley Cup in 2022. His family grew to include three children, a younger brother to Linnea, Luke, and new addition Ella last June.
And, oh yeah, Landeskog suffered a knee injury that looked like it would end his career and render all discussions of future Olympic medals moot.
The injury cost Landeskog the entirety of the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons and virtually all of last season.
And yet here he is, making the media rounds at a special media event hosted by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association in Milan.
Not only has Landeskog fought his way back to become an NHL player once more, he was named captain of Team Sweden at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. To say it was a journey back from the edge would be a grand understatement.
“It’s symbolic of his journey,” Sweden’s general manager Josef Boumedienne said of the decision to make Landeskog captain.
“I just know how much that every player on our team in this tournament respects him for who he is and what he’s done, so it came down to that he’s a natural leader for our team.”
Like many in the hockey world, Boumedienne also wondered if such a moment, such conversations, would be possible.
“If we thought it would be possible a couple of years back, probably no,” the former NHLer said. “We’ve all followed his journey and it was a long one. We stayed in contact with Gabe, myself and Coach Sam [Hallam] here, throughout the process. I saw him in the playoffs last year in Dallas, live, and he was as good as anyone out there. We were excited to name him to the team as an original six in the summer.”
“The leadership aspect of it speaks for itself,” Boumedienne added. “He came over as a young guy, in Kitchener, and was the captain of the team as a European player which is rare and I think in his second year he was the captain of the Colorado Avalanche and obviously was the captain hoisting the Stanley Cup. He’s as good of a leader as you get. He’s very respected in the NHL, in our club, on our team, the national team, we’re happy and excited to have him back.”
Victor Hedman was the captain of Sweden’s entry at the 4 Nations Face-Off, but he’s happy to step aside for Landeskog to wear the ‘C’.
"His journey coming back is just an inspiration to all of us – not just the Swedes but from all over the hockey world,” Hedman said. “His dedication to the game and fighting so hard to come back, it's not easy to do that. But just being on the ice with him, he looks the same, acts the same and is a great leader overall and he's always been that way. We're super pumped about him being the captain for this team, and everyone's going to try to follow his lead."
Hedman is correct. The respect for Landeskog is unparalleled and it certainly extends beyond those who follow the gold and blue of the Swedish Tre Kronor.
Canadian netminder Darcy Kuemper won a Stanley Cup with Landeskog in Colorado. Now, the Los Angeles Kings netminder is thrilled at the chance he and his old teammate may cross paths in this Olympic tournament, the first featuring NHL players since Sochi in 2014.
“To go through the grind that he did to not give up when I’m sure a lot of people I his shoes might have, it’s awesome to see I’m so happy for him,” Kuemper said. “First, being back in the NHL, but then to get a chance to come here is really special. I couldn’t be more thrilled for him,” he added.
It’s been such an arduous journey and one filled with many pitfalls and setbacks, that it would be easy to suggest that the injury and Landeskog’s single-mindedness in committing to his rehabilitation in some ways define him. At the very least, you might wonder if Landeskog has grown weary of answering questions about what it’s like to have traveled the path he has followed.
Nope. And maybe that makes the story all the more compelling, that he has embraced the changes he’s endured as a result of the hand he’s been dealt.
“It's a part of my story now. I've been pretty open and honest about some of the struggles I had along the way,” Landeskog said. “And, you know, there were definitely days where I thought I wouldn't be standing here. And there were days where I thought I'd have to retire and find something else to do for the rest of my life. But it's something I'm always going to have as part of me, the challenges that I faced and whatnot. But I think I just come out on the other side feeling very grateful for the opportunity to play this sport again and do what I love doing and competing against the best in the world.”
And maybe that’s what is so important about the Landeskog story. Not just the work he put in to come back after missing almost three full NHL seasons to play at an elite level, and now to captain his nation’s Olympic hockey team, but the perspective those experiences, good and bad, have given him.
“So, yeah, just really grateful. Appreciate the little things, different perspective on things,” Landeskog said.
For instance, maybe an overtime loss in the middle of a long NHL season feels a little different now.
“They don't quite feel quite as stressful as, you know, not knowing if you're ever going to play hockey again,” Landeskog said.
“You know, it puts things in perspective for me,” he added. “I've been able to spend great quality time with two young, now three, three growing kids. And so, there's a silver lining in that as well. So, just appreciate the little things a lot more. And I think before my knee struggles, it was easy to get wrapped up in kind of the small things to put it in a different perspective.”
Now, if Landeskog can just bring home a medal the kids won’t have any trouble identifying, well, that would help put all of this in perfect perspective.
(Feature photo courtesy of Getty Images)