Granato became the defining American player of her generation. In 205 career games for the U.S. Women's National Team, Granato scored 186 goals and added 157 assists for 343 points, a record that still stands as the program's all-time scoring mark. She captained the US squad to Olympic gold in 1998 and silver in 2002. She was physical, precise and relentlessly competitive. She was not always the fastest skater in the building, but she often seemed to know where the play was headed before anyone else on the ice.

In 2010, Granato and Angela James became the first women inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2019, Granato became the NHL’s first female professional scout when she joined the expansion Seattle Kraken. Three years later, the Vancouver Canucks hired her as an assistant general manager, a position she continues to hold. She is married to former NHL player and longtime broadcaster Ray Ferraro, and they live in Vancouver with their two sons. Granato’s career is filled with firsts, but the firsts are not what made her great. They accumulated around her because she kept entering rooms that had not been built with women in mind and proving that she belonged there.