Chicago Blackhawks Add Don Granato To Coaching Staff

The Chicago Blackhawks General Manager Stan Bowman promised changes this off-season. He has been very active in making changes to his coaching staff. The big addition to the Blackhawks coaching staff has been Ulf Samuelson. Samuelson played with Coach Joel Quenneville and Assistant Coach Kevin Dineen with the Hartford Whalers. Samuelson was the AHL head coach for the Carolina Hurricanes last season.

The Hawks could be adding Don Granato to their coaching staff. Scott Powers of the Athletic mentioned the Blackhawks could be adding Granato to the staff to work with the younger players.

Who Is Don Granato?

Don Granato is from  Downers Grove, IL. He played for the University of Wisconsin Madison from 1987-1991. He helped the Badgers win the 1990 NCAA title and finished with 88 points for his career.  After finishing up his college career, Granato played in the ECHL with the Columbus Chill for two seasons. He finished with 90 points in two seasons.

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When he called it a career, he began coaching. He has experience coaching at all levels of hockey. He coached the USHL Wisconsin Capital 1993-1994. He lead the ECHL Peoria Rivermen to an ECHL title in 1999. He was the head coach for AHL’s Worcester IceCats from 2000-05. He was named coach of the year in his first AHL season. He was an assistant coach for the St. Louis Blues from 2005-06.  He also spent two seasons as head coach of the ECHL Columbus Chill and Three seasons as the Head Coach of the Greenbay Gamblers. He won the Clark Championship twice as the Head Coach of the Gamblers.

In addition to coaching in the ECHL, USHL, AHL, NHL, and NCAA, he was also the head coach of the USA National Development team from 2015-16. He coached the U-17 team that season after coaching the U-18 team the year prior. He has coached Austin Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk while working with the NTDP. He also worked with a number of the current Blackhawks during his tenure with the NTDP.

He is currently an Assistant Head Coach with the University of Wisconsin. His brother, Tony Granato is the Head Coach at the University of Wisconsin.

He works well with younger players

To me it seems that Coach Joel Quenneville and his staff will have to get better a developing younger players on the Hawks roster. Every since Brandon Sadd left town, there has not been a young player to emerge on the roster.

With Nick Schmaltz, John Hayden, Vinnie Hinostroza, Anthony Louis, Gustav Forsling, and Alex Debrincat to play prominent roles on the Blackhawks over the next few seasons. It will be good to have a coach that has a knack for developing young talent on the coaching staff. Granato has a proven track record of winning with younger players and developing them. He also comes in with a huge advantage over other coaches in that he has worked with Blackhawks players before.

With a youth coming to the Hawks, It will be good for someone to help the coaching staff hopefully keep filling the void around the core players.