Ryan Craig remembers the conversations.
The coaches who challenged him. The players who earned his respect. The lessons that stayed with him long after the rink emptied. For years, Craig kept notebooks filled with observations from his hockey life—conversations, ideas and small details that might prove useful somewhere down the road. At the time, they were simply pieces of a career spent learning the game from as many angles as possible.
Now, those lessons have led him to the most important opportunity of his coaching career.
On June 18, Craig became the fifth head coach in Vegas Golden Knights history, taking over a team that had come within two victories of another Stanley Cup championship. The timing was hardly ordinary. Vegas had just watched its season end in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, leaving a roster that had spent months chasing another championship with little time to process the disappointment before a new voice entered the room.
Craig understood that feeling. He had been there before.
His connection to the Golden Knights dates back to the franchise’s inaugural season in 2017, when he joined the organization as an assistant coach. Six seasons later, he helped Vegas win its first Stanley Cup. He then spent three seasons as head coach of the organization’s American Hockey League affiliate in Henderson, where he developed his own identity behind the bench.
Now, after nearly a decade in the organization, Craig is back in Vegas—but this time, the responsibility belongs entirely to him.
“I think you get to work,” Craig told Alexis Bass of KLAS 8 News Now.
That mentality has essentially defined his career.
Before he was drawing up systems or managing an NHL locker room, Craig spent 14 years trying to establish himself as a professional player. The Abbotsford, British Columbia, native played 198 NHL games with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets, along with 711 games in the AHL. He also captained nine teams during his playing career, including the 2015-16 Lake Erie Monsters, who captured the Calder Cup.
His hockey education began even earlier with the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League, where Craig spent five seasons. Kelly McCrimmon, now the Golden Knights’ general manager, was then the team’s owner and general manager. Craig twice led Brandon in scoring, served as captain for two seasons and was eventually named to the WHL East First All-Star Team.
The relationship between the two would eventually follow Craig to the NHL.
When Craig’s playing career ended, however, he faced the difficult decision every professional athlete eventually encounters: what comes next?
“Are you sure you’re done?” was one of the questions he heard most often.
Craig was sure enough to move on, but he wasn’t ready to leave hockey behind. Instead, he transitioned into coaching, carrying with him years of experience from inside locker rooms and under coaches he had come to respect.
When asked what his younger playing self might tell him about becoming a coach, Craig pointed to the qualities he admired most in the coaches he played for: preparation, organization, relationships and accountability.
“I don’t know what goes into it until you live it,” Craig said.
Now, he is living it.
Craig spent six seasons as a Golden Knights assistant from 2017-23, helping the franchise reach the playoffs five times before lifting the Stanley Cup in his final season. His next challenge came in Henderson, where the Silver Knights improved their win total in each of his three seasons.
Henderson went from 28 victories in 2023-24 to 29 in 2024-25 before Craig’s team broke through last season with 39 wins and 90 points, both franchise records. The Silver Knights advanced to the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs before falling to the Colorado Eagles.
The experience gave Craig something particularly valuable as he prepares for his first NHL head-coaching season: an opportunity to learn how to run a team rather than simply contribute to one.
It also allowed him to remain closely connected to Vegas. The Golden Knights and Silver Knights share the same city, practice facilities and organizational identity, creating a development pipeline Craig understands from both sides.
That familiarity extends to the players he will now coach. Craig already has relationships with many members of the Golden Knights’ roster, while others have become priorities as he works to establish new ones.
He began that process almost immediately after his hiring, but he also understood that his players needed time.
Many had just finished playing in the Stanley Cup Final.
“I had to be conscious of those guys just finished playing,” Craig said. “…You want to give them their space.”
That balance—knowing when to push and when to step back—will be an important part of Craig’s new job.
The summer has been about conversations. Training camp will be about action.
“Now we’re getting into the time here where it’s almost action,” Craig said. “It’s time to get to work on the ice.”
That may be the clearest way to describe where Craig stands now. For nearly a decade, he has collected experiences throughout the Golden Knights organization, learning as an assistant, developing as an AHL head coach and drawing from a playing career that included both the NHL and a Calder Cup championship.
He has watched the Golden Knights grow from an expansion franchise into a perennial contender and experienced the organization’s first Stanley Cup championship from behind the bench.
Now he has to lead the next chapter.
The preparation is over. The notebooks can stay on the shelf.
It’s Ryan Craig’s team now.
