Tom Wilson’s performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics was one for the record books.
Not only did Wilson finish the tourney with four points (1g, 3a) — a total more than 13 other skaters on Canada’s roster — but he also set the Canadian record for the most penalty minutes in a single Olympic tournament involving NHL players (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, & 2026).
Wilson’s 29 PIMs in the Milan-Cortina Games topped Canada’s penalty minutes leaderboard by a wide margin. The next-closest player was former Tampa Bay Lightning great Vincent Lecavalier, who posted 16 PIMs at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Wilson more than doubled everyone else.
Team Canada – Olympics – Most PIMs in a single tournament with NHL involvement
| Rank | Player | Olympic Games | PIMS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Wilson | 2026 Olympics | 29 |
| 2 | Vincent Lecavalier | 2006 Olympics | 16 |
| 3(t) | Rick Nash | 2006 Olympics | 10 |
| Trevor Linden | 1998 Olympics | 10 | |
| Steve Yzerman | 1998 Olympics | 10 | |
| 6(t) | Eric Lindros | 2002 Olympics | 8 |
| Rob Zamuner | 1998 Olympics | 8 | |
| 8(t) | Sam Bennett | 2026 Olympics | 6 |
| Dany Heatley | 2006 Olympics | 6 | |
| Eric Staal | 2010 Olympics | 6 | |
| Todd Bertuzzi | 2006 Olympics | 6 | |
| Simon Gagne | 2006 Olympics | 6 | |
| Brad Richards | 2006 Olympics | 6 | |
| Theo Fleury | 2006 Olympics | 6 | |
| 15 | Jeff Carter | 2014 Olympics | 5 |
How Tom Wilson got his penalty minutes
Wilson was largely pushed to the record after a wild 10-2 victory over France on February 15.
Wilson had what is believed to be the first Gordie Howe Hat Trick in Olympic hockey history. After posting a goal and an assist, Wilson dropped the gloves with Pierre Crinon, avenging the French defenseman’s hit to the head of superstar Nathan MacKinnon. The fight was the first at the Olympics since 1998.
Wilson was assessed 27 penalty minutes for the fight: a two-minute roughing minor penalty, a five-minute major penalty, and a 20-minute game misconduct penalty. Both Wilson and Crinon were ejected as fighting is prohibited in Olympic play. According to IIHF rules, a game misconduct carries a 20-minute penalty, unlike in the NHL, where it’s 10.
– For a Game Misconduct or Gross Misconduct penalty, a total of 20 minutes shall be recorded against the penalized player.
– For a Match penalty, a total of 25 minutes shall be recorded against the penalized player
Against Czechia in the quarterfinals, Wilson also received a high-sticking minor penalty in the second period, bringing his tournament total to 29.
Where Tom Wilson finished in PIMS at the 2026 Olympics among all players
While Wilson led the Canadian roster, he finished second overall in PIMs among all players in the 2026 Olympics, finishing four penalty minutes behind France’s Crinon.
2026 Olympics – Tournament leader in PIMs
| Rank | Player | Team | PIMS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pierre Crinon | France | 33 |
| 2 | Tom Wilson | Canada | 29 |
| 3 | Erik Cernak | Slovakia | 14 |
| 4(t) | Brady Tkachuk | USA | 12 |
| Matthew Tkachuk | USA | 12 |
No other player reached double digits. Notably, for Capitals fans, Lars Eller, Martin Fehervary, and Michal Kempny all finished in the top 20 after each posted 6 PIMs.
After the fight with Wilson, Crinon’s Olympic journey ended as the French Ice Hockey Federation suspended him for the rest of the tournament due to the bout and his behavior leaving the ice. The Frenchman taunted fans as he made his way to the tunnel and down to the locker room. The defenseman is also now facing criminal charges in France for a prior incident involving a goaltender earlier in the season.
Tom Wilson may have the most PIMs in Team Canada Olympic history, but it’s unclear
Wilson is now either the most penalized player in Canadian Olympic history or sits second in total PIMs. The player who may have more career Olympic PIMs is forward Pat Flatley, who played for Team Canada in the 1984 Sarajevo Games, where NHL players did not participate. The then-20-year-old University of Wisconsin winger was Canada’s second-leading scorer in the tournament.
In that Olympics, stat sites do not agree on how many PIMs Flatley had during his seven games for Canada:
- Hockey Reference: 20 PIMs
- Elite Prospects: 20 PIMs
- Quant Hockey: 35 PIMs
- Hockey Canada: 70 PIMs
The problem may be how Flatley’s ejection in the Bronze Medal Game was scored.
The New York Islanders’ first-round pick in the 1982 NHL Draft was kicked out of the Canada-Sweden matchup at 15:19 of the second period. A New York Times box score lists Flatley’s penalty as a gross misconduct, which, in this era of hockey, is recorded as 20 penalty minutes by the IIHF.
The backstory is comical. Flatley received the misconduct after linesman Bernd Schnieder fell down at center ice, clutching his midsection. The linesman told a Soviet referee that Flatley struck him with his stick, per the New York Times, and he was ejected from the game.
“I brushed up against him,” Flatley said per UPI. “That was the natural way I turned to go back to the bench… I might have hit him with my elbow or whatever.
“But I would have had to do something a lot worse than that to make him crawl down and practically keel over dead.”
While he had a lot to say postgame, he left the ice without protest when he was told of his punishment. Flatley would later play in the NHL from 1983 to 1997, serving as the Islanders’ captain and earning the nickname “The Chairman of the Boards.”
For this exercise, we’ll use Quant Hockey’s tabulations since it seems to have the most accurate statistics, putting Flatley on top.
Team Canada – Most career Olympic PIMs (via Quant Hockey)
| Rank | Player | PIMS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick Flatley (1984 Olympics) | 35 |
| 2 | Tom Wilson (2026) | 29 |
| 3 | Floyd Martin (1956 & 1960) | 26 |
| 4 | Gilbert Brulé (2018) | 25 |
| 5 | Chris Pronger (1998, 2002, 2006, & 2010) | 24 |
| 6 | Art Hurst (1956) | 22 |
| 7 | Wally Halder (1948) | 20 |
Where does Tom Wilson rank all time?
In terms of all-time career penalty minutes, Wilson is now tied for 26th-most PIMs in Olympic history after just his single appearance, per Quant Hockey.
Germany’s Erich Goldmann is credited with the most ever, sitting first on the leaderboard with 54. He’s followed by Russia’s Ilya Kovalchuk (51), Finland’s Jarkko Ruutu (49), Germany’s Paul Ambrose (48), and Germany’s Daniel Kunce (45). Flatley, the highest Canadian on the list, ranks ninth.
For context, the men’s ice hockey tournament has been played 25 times at the Olympic Games — first appearing at the 1920 Summer Olympics before moving permanently to the Winter Olympics in 1924. There’s been a men’s tournament at every subsequent edition. Women’s ice hockey was first added in 1998.
So, in conclusion, what Tom Wilson did at this year’s Olympics was very notable and, oh yeah, Sidney Crosby was right.
