Chicago Wolves

Don Granato enters his second season with the Chicago Wolves after being named the sixth head coach in franchise history on July 30, 2008.

The Downers Grove native made his pro coaching debut in 1994 and brings 12 years of coaching experience to the Wolves bench, which includes winning the ECHL's Kelly Cup as head coach of the Peoria Rivermen in 2000 and leading the Worcester IceCats to their first-ever regular-season American Hockey League title and a franchise record 48 wins in 2000-01. He was named the AHL's Coach of the Year and recipient of the Louis A.R. Pieri Award that season, his first in the league.

Granato served as the IceCats head coach for five seasons, compiling a .581 winning percentage and a 192-130-44-14-2 record, before departing the team for health reasons. He returned to coaching in the 2005-06 season and served as an assistant coach for the National Hockey League's St. Louis Blues. Prior to joining the Wolves, Granato spent the previous two seasons as a scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The 40-year-old Granato began his coaching career as bench boss of the USHL's Green Bay Gamblers (1994-97), and led that team to back-to-back National Championships in 1996 and 1997, before moving to the ECHL's Columbus Chill (1997-99) and taking the helm of the Rivermen in 1999-00.
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Granato captained the Badgers' 1990 National Championship hockey team, and tallied 88 points (45G, 43A) in 162 games in a Wisconsin sweater. Granato went on to play two seasons with the ECHL's Columbus Chill before entering into coaching.

Granato and his wife Susan reside in Chicago.

Jason Christie enters his second season as the Wolves assistant coach.

Christie, who most recently served as head coach and director of hockey operations for the ECHL's Utah Grizzlies, compiled a 307-203-48-6-12 record and .590 winning percentage in 576 games as a head coach in that league, which includes three seasons with Utah, before joining the Wolves.
The Gibbons, Alberta, native, made his head coaching debut with the Peoria Rivermen (ECHL) in 2000 and guided the team to four playoff appearances during his five-year tenure. He departed Peoria in 2005 as the winningest head coach in franchise history.

The 39-year-old Christie played nine seasons of professional hockey prior to moving behind the bench. He racked up 42 goals, 87 assists 129 points and 314 penalty minutes in 216 American Hockey League games with the Hamilton Canucks and Portland Pirates, and notched 88 goals, 174 assists, 262 points and 732 penalty minutes in 250 ECHL matchups with the Columbus Chill, Charlotte Checkers, and Rivermen. The former right wing also registered 27 assists, 43 points and 76 penalty minutes in 89 International Hockey League outings with the Manitoba Moose and Milwaukee Admirals.
Christie captured the ECHL's Kelly Cup as a player/assistant coach under Don Granato with the Rivermen in 1999-2000,

Christie and his wife, Kelley, have two sons, J.D. and Jaxson, and reside in the Northwest suburbs.

Kevin Kacer, A.T.C., became the Wolves head athletic trainer in 1995 after being an assistant athletic trainer with the Detroit Pistons from 1993 to 1995.  Before that, he served as the head athletic trainer for the Continental Basketball Association's Fort Wayne Fury (1991 to 1993); the International Hockey League's Fort Wayne Komets (1990-91); and the National Professional Soccer League's Fort Wayne Flames (1988 to 1990).

Kacer earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Indianapolis, where he served as the head student trainer from 1983 to 1987.  He gained experience as a volunteer trainer at Carroll High School in Fort Wayne from 1983 to 1987 and at the 1986 Pan American Games in Indianapolis.
 

The 43-year-old is a member of the Professional Hockey Athletic Trainers Society, National Athletic Trainers' Association and American College of Sports Medicine.
 

Kacer and his wife Jill have a daughter, Madison, and two sons Cameron and Nolan, and reside in the Western suburb.

Craig Kogut enters his 14th season with the Wolves and his 13th as the team's head equipment manager. 

The 45-year-old was the Wolves assistant equipment manager during the team's inaugural 1994-95 season. A member of the Society of Professional Hockey Equipment Managers, Kogut served as assistant equipment manager with the Chicago Blackhawks during the 1984-85 season.
 

The Maywood native, who graduated from Proviso East in 1980, also worked as a store manager for K & K Sports from 1989 - 1994.
 

Kogut and his wife Anna have a daughter Lisa Marie and a son D.J. and reside in the Western suburbs.

Kenny McCudden enters his ninth season as skating and skills coach for the Wolves. 

The Chicago native worked with the Wolves from 1994 to 1997 and began a second stint with the team prior to the 2002-03 season.  McCudden also served as the team's radio and television analyst from 1995 to 1997.

McCudden is also in his eighth year of working with the top prospects of the Colorado Avalanche and sixth in the same position with the Atlanta Thrashers.  He began working with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1979 as a 17-year-old stick boy and, by the time he left the organization six years later, had become the team's assistant equipment manager.

The operator and owner of Ice Company Hockey Schools, he has worked with thousands of Chicago-area children since 1990.

McCudden, who resides in the Northwest suburbs with his wife Sjoukje, is one of a handful of skating coaches who work with children learning to skate to the National Hockey League professionals.