The Blackhawks officially tabbed Don Granato and Ulf Samuelsson to be Mike Kitchen's replacement, the team announced Thursday, giving Joel Quenneville three assistants on his coaching staff, along with Kevin Dineen.
Before we continue, there's history to note on the new staff: Quenneville, Dineen and Samuelsson were teammates with the Hartford Whalers in the 1980s while Granato and Quenneville spent time together with the St. Louis Blues in 2005-06. Granato's older brother Tony, who is the current head coach for the NCAA's Wisconsin Badgers, also served as an assistant under Quenneville in Colorado for three seasons from 2005-08.
But it's uncommon for a team to have three assistants behind one bench, so how exactly is this going to work?
Dineen will likely resume his responsibilies of leading the power play, while Samuelsson is expected to work closely with the penalty kill unit and team's defensemen, which used to be Kitchen's primary focus. Samuelsson, a Swedish native, enters an organization filled with young defensemen from his country, including Niklas Hjalmarsson, Gustav Forsling, Erik Gustafsson, Carl Dahlstrom and Viktor Svedberg, which should help ease the transition from the minors to the pros for many of them.
It's unclear what Granato's role will be exactly and whether he will actually be on the bench during games, but his track record suggests it could be to help develop the Blackhawks' young players.
Prior to being hired by Wisconsin, Granato, a native of Downers Grove, spent five years as the head coach for USA Hockey's national team development program, where he mentored rising NHL stars Jack Eichel, Johnny Gaudreau, Charlie McAvoy, Auston Matthews and Zach Werenski, to name a few.
Ryan Hartman, Vinnie Hinostroza and Nick Schmaltz are among the notable Blackhawks who played for Team USA during his tenure, along with prospects Alex DeBrincat, John Hayden, Luke Johnson, Chad Krys, Anthony Louis and Tyler Motte. Some of them were not directly coached by him, but they all were under his watch over that span.
NHL
Granato has also made coaching stops in the AHL, ECHL, USHL and most recently at the collegiate level, further expanding his hockey background and perhaps adding another voice to the scouting department.
It's a unique situation for the Blackhawks, and it will be interesting to see how the dynamic works.