A member of Downers Grove's first family of hockey will be bringing his long and successful coaching career closer to home.

Downers Grove native Don Granato was named the new head coach of the American Hockey League's Chicago Wolves in a Wednesday morning press conference.

Granato succeeds John Anderson, who was hired as head coach of the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers shortly after the Wolves won the Calder Cup playoff series to earn the AHL championship this past season. The Wolves are Atlanta's top minor league affiliate.

A former player at the University of Wisconsin, the 40-year-old Granato went on to play two seasons with the Columbus Chill of the East Coast Hockey League before beginning a long and successful coaching career in 1993-94.

In 11 full seasons as a head coach, Granato produced winning records in the final 10 of those. He guided the Peoria Rivermen of the ECHL to the league championship in 1999-2000, as the team posted a 45-20 record.

Of Granato's many winning teams during his coaching career, five finished 15 games or better above the .500 mark, including consecutive years of 32-11-3 and 41-11 as coach of the ECHL's Green Bay Gamblers in the mid-1990s.

Granato coached with the AHL's Worcester team until the 2005-06 season, when he joined the NHL's St. Louis Blues as an assistant. He was a scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs last winter. His five-year record at Worcester was 198-141-47.

His brother Tony was a standout NHL player, and later was head coach of the Colorado Avalanche. Granato's sister Cammi led the U.S. women's hockey team to the Olympic gold medal in 1998. Also a star basketball player at Downers North, Cammi was in a group of the ffirst four women elected to the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame earlier this year.