Lawless: Q&A with Coach Craig Before Camp

No clutter. A few family photos. A grease board with a potential lineup, a few quotations and a clean desk. Spartan might a bit strong but not too far off from a fair description of Ryan Craig's office at City National Arena.

Craig has things squared away and has one thing on his mind right now: Hockey.

Following a lengthy conversation with a recorder on, Craig looked across his desk with intensity that was plain to see and feel before calmly saying: "It's time to get going. It's time for hockey."

Nine years of preparation, six as an NHL assistant and three as an AHL head coach, have brought Craig to this moment. Head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights.

The 44-year-old is tan and was dressed neatly in a blue VGK polo and golf pants. Craig is fit and powerful looking with only a rumor of gray around his sideburns. Just about half of the players on his roster were playing pro when he was last active during the 2016-17 season.

Craig is the boss. But he's not far from removed from being a player in pro hockey. He grew up as a coach with the Golden Knights organization. He doesn't know the culture, Craig is the culture. A walking embodiment of all the things Bill Foley, George McPhee and Kelly McCrimmon believe in and stress.

There is alignment between GM and coach with a relationship now entering its 30th year. McCrimmon and Craig have lived hockey lives together and apart. They've had the ultimate joy and their share of disappointment. There won't be any need to fear there will be things that go unsaid between these two. The lines of communication will be open and clear and uninhibited.

It’s hard to quantify leadership.

Some bosses have slogans up in their offices but don't walk the walk.

Some say very little but have clear and attainable standards which give people the opportunity to flourish.

Then there are leaders who walk into a room and everyone knows this is someone worth following.

One of hockey's truisms is that, "you can’t fool the room." Players will see through a phony and do it in short order. Craig walked into four different pro dressing rooms during his 14-year career and had his peers slap a 'C' on to his chest. That doesn't happen by accident. Maybe once. But not four times. Nine seasons out of his 14 in pro hockey, Craig was a captain.

The Golden Knights open training camp on Sept. 16. The fifth head coach in VGK history was good enough to sit down and share his thoughts on a few things prior to camp.

Lawless: When I was covering the Manitoba Moose, Scott Arniel got his first job as a head coach. He'd been an assistant for a while, and I know you've been a head coach, so this is a little different. But it was his first job, and I remember I asked Craig Heisinger, who was the GM at the time, I asked him at Christmas, I said, how's he doing? And he said, new coaches come in and think they have all the answers and at Christmas time, they realize they don't even know the questions. Did you go through some of that when you were in Henderson? And how much of being a head coach for three years will help you make this step? 

Craig: I'm much, much more prepared now than I was three years ago. If you'd have asked me three years ago, yeah. You think if you have an opportunity, you're ready to go. But I am prepared just like a player that goes to the American League and plays. I think as a head coach, the situations that you live, until you're actually living those, it's easy to talk about. But it's so beneficial to go through them and have to make the decision or live that out. The highs, the lows, the winning streaks, the losing streaks. The messaging, I think is one of the big things, or what your team needs or your group needs. Until you are inside it and living that part of it, it's hard to realize how when you go to bed thinking about it, you wake up thinking about it.

Lawless: How have you spent the summer preparing?

Craig:  Well, I think obviously there's the stuff that always has to get done. Whether you've been the head coach for 10 years somewhere else, or here, you've got to prepare for training camp. You've got to prepare your video and your technical package on how your team wants to play. Those are givens. What I think is new for obviously a new coach coming in is connecting with the players, having those conversations with the players. My situation is different than a coach coming in that his team has been done since the regular season ended. They're looking for answers, and they're looking for how this is going to be done. But I'm walking into a team that was two games away from winning the Stanley Cup, whose standards and goals are to get right back to that and win two more games. I'm walking into a group that there's, I believe, eight guys here that I won with in '23 still. So, I have relationships with these guys and I've been around some of them. But there's other guys that I don't know very well, other than the time that I've been here in training camp or watched them from afar as somebody that's part of the organization. So, there's different conversations that have to be had and connected with those guys.

I also have to be conscious that when I was announced that I got the job, it was the night that Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final should have been played. So, I have to give guys their space while allowing them to make sure they recharge and get ready over the off-season while I have my excitement of, it's time to get going, it's time to get going. So, there's been conversations. I guess the biggest thing I've done that's probably, I'd say, the most important thing is connect with the players and have conversations with them as they start to get to town now and sit down and spend some time with them face-to-face, but I think all that stuff is summer stuff. Now we're getting three weeks out from getting on the ice and we're getting to work. So, my summer's been busy with building relationships would be the best way to say that, whether it's with our players, or connecting with the staff.

Lawless: Was it all over the phone? Did you travel?

Craig: No, I didn't travel. It was phone calls. I was able to connect with some guys here before I left. The summer is so short and the off-season is so short for a team that goes to the Stanley Cup Final that I know there'll be plenty of time to have those conversations. For example, some of the guys I've talked to twice on the phone and had really good conversations. The first was a kind of an introduction of myself and a personal get to know you, ask about your family. The second is a little bit more of, okay, this is, it's later in the summer. We're mid-July, the end of July. This is kind of how we see our team shaping up. Maybe throw some things at them to think about. Then now we'll get back to town here with two weeks to go or three weeks to go and you reconnect now with them on, on more so, I guess, the hockey stuff and follow up on the personal stuff.

Lawless: Are you going to change a lot about how the team plays? 

Craig: We're going to tweak some things, but no. No, we're not. I believe in what we do here. Players believe in what we do. There's certain things, habits, or details maybe that will be a little bit different, but that's every coach that was from Bruce Cassidy to John Tortorella here. So, no, we have a very good foundation. We have a basis for how we play. We're a team that values defending, can defend, can check. And then when we have the puck, we want to make sure we're attacking and getting up the ice. I think the game has become very much a support game and very much a five-man group.

Lawless: Kelly [McCrimmon] uses this expression all the time: every horse runs its own race. Every team runs its own race. Every player runs his own race. You're going to want to win. Like, that's just like automatic. But you also don't want to get into situations where you make decisions about playing a guy a little too much in November or December. Like, this is a playoff, you've been handed a playoff team, a team that was two games short. The management of the season, is that something that you'll pay attention to?

Craig: Well, I think we'll pay attention to all that stuff. I mean, there's people in, whether it's the sports science areas, my coaching staff running their areas, the players, building those relationships with the players, how do they feel? I think this year is going to feel totally different to our team and our players than last year did, with the condensed schedule, the Olympic break, and everything that goes into that. Training camp is going to be different. We have 12 days of training camp compared to 19. Players now, there's four exhibition games instead of seven, so it's going to have a different feel just in that sense, and I don't mind it with our group, the sense of urgency. But as to the management of the players, we know what our ultimate end goal is, and we have guys here that have won, whether it's a Stanley Cup, at Four Nations, Olympic gold medals, at high levels. So, they understand what goes into that, and being a part of that team. What we do in October, November, December is build our base for the dog days of January, February, and then into mid-April when you want to play. So, we're going to have to be conscious of that as a group, I say, because it's not just myself, it's the players, it's everybody on how we do it. Ultimately, it's my decision on the opportunity, the playing time, practice, all those kinds of things, but it's something that I'll look at each and every day, knowing where our team is at.

Lawless: You have a pretty veteran group, and guys that you do have a lot of experience with. You won with Sean [Burke] and John Stevens, and then Dom [Ducharme] has been a head coach in the NHL, and you and Mark [Letestu] go back quite a ways, don't you? Are you excited to work with your staff?

Craig: Yes, very much. I'm very excited that the group is coming back. I think, again, I go to the point of these guys were two wins away from the Stanley Cup, very good at what they do, the positions they're in. Joel Ward has a great opportunity now to go to Henderson and be the head coach. We filled his spot with Mark Letestu, who's a real good young coach that I think is going to fit right in with our group. I've won with, like you said, Sean Burke, John Stevens, Dave Rogowski, so there's a continuity here. Obviously, there's certain things that, as I went to Henderson the last three years, whether it's timing or meetings or certain things that I'll want, and we'll get to that, but I need to empower my staff to coach, to be themselves, and I think that's going to be real important and something that I have to make sure I continue to allow these guys to do.

Lawless: Why are you such a leader? 

Craig: I think it's the way I was raised. I give some credit to my mom and dad and my upbringing with that. I think it's what I believe in. I'm going to be myself. I like to win. I'm competitive. I think if there's something that needs to be done, it needs to get done. I've always believed the best leaders are willing to do it themselves or lead by example. I think if you're willing to do it, you can ask somebody else to do it. Then the best leaders surround themselves, and I wasn't picking the players on my team, but surround themselves with people that are like-minded and have the same goals. I think that's something we've tried to do with our staff here. That's something Kelly [McCrimmon] and George [McPhee], as they've built the team, have tried to do. Back to myself, I think it's part of who I am and what I believe in.

Lawless: You've had a relationship with Kelly McCrimmon for a long time. I have a good relationship with Kelly. I've been lucky. I know that it's hard to tell him things sometimes, but you must have a very open dialogue with him. How important is that for a coach to have that with their general manager? 

Craig: Well, I think what's been important for me, you talked about the last three years. When I left here my first six years, I saw the dynamic of the coach-general manager relationship, which I'd never seen before, because I'd never been in a coach's room. Whether it was George [McPhee] to start, and then Kelly [McCrimmon], as he took over the GM role here, with those coaches and the interaction every day. Then for myself going to Henderson, one of those things that I really benefited from was Tim Speltz being the general manager there. Each and every day he's there and having those conversations the same way that Kelly has with the head coach of the Golden Knights.

And I think my relationship with Kelly now is going to go to a whole different spot than it's ever been. I joked to him, I just said to somebody, I said, I talked to Kelly the first month since getting this job more than I did in the last nine years. That's just because of the timing of the year, getting the job, all those things, but then also the last nine years as the head coach at Henderson or the assistant coach here, it wasn't my job to talk to the general manager of the team. That was the head coach's job with that. So, I think our relationship is going to develop in a different realm that way. I'm excited about it. I'm a hockey guy. I like to talk hockey. I'm a big believer in the coach's room and the talk that goes on there. I know Kelly is the same, and then the conversations that obviously he and I have as GM and head coach will be something that I think bring value. 

Lawless: Mark Stone is your captain. Do you have a good relationship with Mark?

Craig: Yeah, Mark and I, our relationship has continued to grow. I think since, as Brandon Wheat Kings alumni, you see each other a little bit through that. You have that connection, whether it was in the summer skating when we were both still playing, when we traded for Mark here, I would say our relationship obviously took a huge step there with myself being an assistant, being responsible for the forwards and then different special teams that Mark was on. With him being named captain, I felt it grew another step with wanting to try to help somebody. I wasn't the captain of an NHL team, but I was a captain.

And then I think Mark and I have talked probably the most out of any player this summer just because I think he's a very good captain. He's somebody that we talk about a legacy, that wants to win another Stanley Cup, that wants to continue to build that. He's a good conduit for me between our team. I think he's very, very well respected in our dressing room. It meant a lot to me that he showed up on the day I was announced head coach. I think we've had some very good face-to-face conversations, some phone conversations. He's going to be somebody along with our leadership group that I lean a lot on. You talked about the grind of the season and those kinds of things that we have to make sure we're on the same page. 

Lawless: 3-2, you're on the road, you're down by one. You've got a minute and a half left and all of a sudden you have to start making those decisions. These ones end up on ESPN and, like, it's a different spotlight. How excited are you to be there, to make those calls in an NHL game?

Craig: I'm very excited about that opportunity. It's about putting players in a position where they can succeed, and our team can win hockey games. I plan to be prepared and organized for those, whether it's a timeout and it's Dom [Ducharme] running it because we're down a goal and the goalie's pulled or Johnny's [John Stevens] running it because we're protecting a lead. I think that's where the preparation comes in. That's where the trust comes in. Ultimately, it's my job to put those people in a position to succeed. But I'm excited about that. 

Lawless: This training camp, it looks like there's going to be some spots. Guys can win jobs. You're going to have a unique perspective because most of those guys that are fighting for those jobs, you've already coached them. It also adds a little juice to camp. Is that something you're enthused about? 

Craig: I'm a big believer of internal competition. I went through it as a player at different points in my career, going into training camp. I think there's something to it when there's some excitement, some unknown. We have a lot of good players, not just on our team, but in our organization. Guys that are pushing to be NHL players. Then there's the roles. How do you fit into the team or the 13 forwards or the seven defensemen or the push to be on a special team or different situations? I think the internal competition is what drives really good teams.

We have a competitive group here with good hockey players. We want somebody to knock the door down and find a way to be on our team. We'll do what we can to make room for a player that's ready. I think we saw that. Sometimes you might have to go down to start and wait your turn. We saw Braeden Bowman come up last year because of injuries, getting an opportunity. There's going to be an opportunity for somebody, whether it's when we break camp or a month in, that there's an opportunity for those guys. The organizations that have success have that and have a deep pool of competition to draw from, and we do.