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Tony Granato will add a major international element to his hockey coaching resume next year.

The University of Wisconsin men's hockey coach will be named head coach of the U.S. Olympic team on Friday, sources confirmed on Thursday. USA Hockey has a news conference scheduled for 9 a.m.

Granato, 53, has been a head coach in the NHL and in college with the Badgers, but the 2018 Olympics will be his first major Team USA assignment as a head coach.

Unlike the last five Olympics, NHL players will not be participating in the 2018 Games. League owners didn't like shutting down for weeks during the season, and the NHL didn't get concessions it was looking for from the International Olympic Committee and the NHL Players' Association.

Instead, players from the American Hockey League, European leagues and college hockey are expected to participate.

The men's hockey tournament in PyeongChang, South Korea, runs from Feb. 14 to 25, so Granato will miss the Badgers' regular season-closing series at Ohio State on Feb. 23-24. It's possible that he'll also be gone for the final home series against Minnesota on Feb. 9-10.