‘I believe I’m ready for this’: Ryan Craig introduced as Golden Knights coach

Ryan Craig knows he’s taking a job with unique pressure.

Yes, he’s familiar with most people in the Vegas Golden Knights locker room. He has worked with some of those players from the beginning.

But now the former longtime assistant is walking into the building as the new coach of a franchise that this week was two wins from a Stanley Cup.

Craig welcomed the challenge as he was introduced as the fifth coach in Knights history at City National Arena on Thursday, sitting next to general manager Kelly McCrimmon in a moment that always seemed inevitable.

“I’m ready for this opportunity,” Craig said. “I’m grateful for it. I’m ready to get to work.

“I feel we have a very good hockey team in a very good city. We have a ton of good people in the organization. A ton of good hockey players. I’ve been here nine years. I understand the standards and the culture of the organization. I’m proud to lead it and represent it.”

The 44-year-old from Abbotsford, British Columbia, returns to the NHL side of things, this time in a different role.

Craig joined the organization in June 2017 as an assistant on Gerard Gallant’s staff — one year removed from the end of a 14-year playing career as an established captain in the American Hockey League.

Craig has been the constant through nine years. He was an assistant through the Gallant era, Pete DeBoer’s tenure, and Bruce Cassidy’s first season, which ended with the team’s championship in 2023.

McCrimmon named Craig the coach of the Henderson Silver Knights two weeks later. Craig coached the Silver Knights to a Calder Cup playoff berth last season.

“Each guy was different in the way he handled the day-to-day. Whether it was anything from meetings, to practice to video,” Craig said. “My job is to be Ryan Craig, but you also have to take pieces and things that you’ve learned along the way with all these guys that I’ve worked with, and then implement those if you believe in them, or you make a different decision.”

A long time coming

McCrimmon has known Craig since the coach was 15 years old, when Craig was a player for the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League, the junior team once owned and operated by McCrimmon.

McCrimmon said he has received numerous messages since the announcement was made Wednesday from people associated with Craig, who have coached and played with him, who knew this day was coming.

“His time is now,” McCrimmon said.

Craig started keeping a journal around 2010 when he joined the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was captain of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the AHL for two seasons.

That journal contained inspirational quotes and messages, as well as his experiences of what he liked as a player, and also through the eyes of a coach.

He occasionally added to it through his final playing years.

“I think nine years of doing this, even the last half of my career, I was hoping and planning to be a coach,” he said.

Quick change

Craig’s promotion came three days after the Knights’ season ended in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. Vegas was led by then-coach John Tortorella.

Tortorella, 67, replaced Cassidy on March 29 and led the Knights to a 21-6-1 run that landed them in the Cup Final for the third time in their nine-year history.

Tortorella expressed desire to run it back next season. McCrimmon felt the appropriate direction was hiring “the best available coach that’s going to lead our organization.”

“I think it sure helps that he’s been in our organization, just in terms of familiarity with a number of players that were part of the teams Ryan was on,” McCrimmon said. “Relationships with (president of hockey operations) George (McPhee), myself, hockey operations, analytics people, he’s had time with all those people over the years.

“Even just logistics. He’s going to be in the same city. All of those things that help. That, for me, makes it seamless.”

Craig was an eighth-round pick by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2002. He made his NHL debut in 2005 with the Lightning, coached by Tortorella.

Like when Tortorella came in, Craig doesn’t anticipate changing much in terms of style of play. He implemented the same philosophies with the Silver Knights.

“There’s going to be a seamlessness in that transition,” Craig said. “There will be some tweaks, but I am excited to get with the group and put my stamp on it while continuing what’s been built here over the past few years.”

McCrimmon said no decisions have been made in terms of Craig’s coaching staff. Assistants Dom Ducharme, John Stevens and Joel Ward were praised immensely by Tortorella throughout the playoff run for their work in getting him up to speed.

McCrimmon said the search for Craig’s replacement in Henderson is underway. Ward, who has been with the organization since 2020, is considered a top candidate.

Family matters

Above all, Craig said he is grateful and humbled by the opportunity. Craig is now the third-youngest coach in the NHL behind San Jose’s Ryan Warsofsky (38) and Pittsburgh’s Dan Muse (43).

Craig’s opening comments centered on his family — wife Jaydee, daughters Kylie and Camryn, and son Carson. He was visibly choked up when he talked about them and the journey they have been on with him.

“This doesn’t happen without them,” said Craig, holding back tears.

He composed himself, then, typical for a hockey coach, veered back on course.

“I’m ready,” Craig said. “I believe I’m ready for this.”