Earlier in the summer, recently named general manager of the USA Olympic hockey team and former Badger hockey player Jim Johannson needed to create a coaching staff to lead the United States during the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Luckily, at an impromptu reunion of the 1988 Men’s Olympic hockey team that Johannson was a member of, the general manager turned to longtime friend, former UW teammate and current head coach for Wisconsin Tony Granato for the job.
Johannson and Granato were teammates on three UW hockey teams. After Granato was named head coach in early August, former UW defenseman and member of the 1983 Badger national championship team Chris Chelios was named to Granato’s staff as an assistant.
Granato was a two-time All-American selection and captained the Badgers during the 1986-’87 season. After a successful 13-year playing career in the NHL, which included seven international event appearances for team USA and a 13-year coaching career in the NHL, Granato came back to his alma mater in 2016 and led the Badgers to a 20-15-1 record in his first season as head coach, finishing second in the Big Ten.
Now at the helm of team USA, Granato will be faced with the challenge of fielding a team without the help of American superstars from the NHL. For the first time since 1994, players under contract in the NHL will not be allowed to participate in the Winter Olympics. Instead, Granato will have to look elsewhere, with fellow NCAA, American Hockey League and professional hockey players playing in Europe. With a 25-man roster to fill, Granato hopes to submit a preliminary list of candidates by mid-October.
It will be a busy year for Granato, as he still plans to coach the Badgers amidst coaching the Americans. Granato is expected to miss at least three games.
The Winter Olympics hockey tournament is set to take place Feb. 14-25, 2018. Granato will also coach an American squad in the Deutschland Cup in Augsburg, Germany from Nov. 10-12.
While the UW hockey team will surely miss Granato during his absence, Granato is looking toward using his extensive experience as player and coach on the international stage to help the new-look Americans succeed. Granato last served as an assistant for team USA during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Overall, it is an exciting opportunity for the Wisconsin head coach, as the Americans look to win their first gold medal in international competition since 1980.
