Craig chronicled lessons learned, relationships formed on road to becoming Vegas coach

LAS VEGAS -- Ryan Craig pulled the journal from a drawer and opened it on his desk at the Vegas Golden Knights practice facility. The black hardcover notebook looked like something a college student would carry to class.

On the first page, Craig had written in all caps: “TAKE OWNERSHIP OF YOUR CAREER AND LIFE. ONLY YOU KNOW IF YOU PUT EVERYTHING YOU CAN INTO IT.”

Inside, he had filled it with years of handwritten notes and sketches -- drills for training camp, tips for analyzing video, quotes on culture, whatever he wanted to remember for the future.

“This is my school,” he said.

Craig started keeping the journal in 2010-11, when he played center for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League under coach John Hynes and began thinking of coaching himself someday.

He continued learning from coaches like Jared Bednar as a player through 2016-17. Then he worked with Gerard Gallant, Peter DeBoer and Bruce Cassidy as a Vegas assistant for six seasons, winning the Stanley Cup under Cassidy in 2023.

Now, after three seasons as head coach of Henderson, Vegas’ AHL affiliate, he has graduated.

The 44-year-old is in his first season as an NHL head coach and will face Hynes when the Golden Knights (4-1-0) play the Minnesota Wild at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Monday (8 p.m. ET; Wild+, MINNHL, SCRIPPS).

“He has the total package,” Hynes said. “He’s very professional, very smart, understands the game at a high level and understands the human aspect of leadership, communication and relationships.”

Bednar called Craig a “born leader.” DeBoer said he thinks Craig will be “a really good coach.” Cassidy described Craig as “a good hockey guy and a good person.”

“I enjoyed my time with him,” Cassidy said. “We’ll always be friends. I’m sure we’ll talk throughout the year, probably more along the lines of ‘How are you doing?’ and ‘How are you enjoying it?’ rather than discussing hockey specifics. I wish him well.”

Craig might have seemed a curious choice for Vegas when his hiring was announced June 17.

The Golden Knights had always hired accomplished, veteran NHL head coaches. They’re aggressive with the highest expectations. They replaced Cassidy with John Tortorella with eight games to go last season and returned to the Stanley Cup Final.

Three days after losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 6, they turned over their team to a rookie?

But Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon had known Craig since 1997, when McCrimmon was owner/GM of Brandon of the Western Hockey League and selected Craig, then 15 years old, in the second round (No. 34) of the WHL draft.

Vegas had developed Craig over nine seasons. He knew the organization and had the players’ respect. The Golden Knights felt he was going to be an NHL head coach and didn’t want to lose him to another team.

And it isn’t just that they felt he was ready. They felt he was the best person for the job.

“Every time we’ve hired a coach in Vegas, we’ve tried to hire the best coach available, and I think we did the exact same thing this time,” McCrimmon said. “I think he’s going to be fantastic.”

* * * * *

When McCrimmon led the Brandon Wheat Kings, they usually drafted players from the prairies. But they liked Craig so much they took him even though he was from Abbotsford, British Columbia, 1,250 miles west. They found out later he had prairie roots. His grandparents were from Dauphin, Manitoba, 100 miles north.

“That ended up being a real nice fit for us,” McCrimmon said.

Craig and his parents came to McCrimmon’s cottage in Manitoba to sign a WHL contract.

After playing one game for Brandon in 1997-98, Craig spent five seasons with the Wheat Kings, the last two as captain. His coach from 1997-2001 was Bob Lowes, the Golden Knights assistant director of player personnel.

“The interesting thing about junior hockey and one of the things I always found really gratifying is, you end up being a part of a young guy’s life at a really important stage of life,” McCrimmon said. “By the time he was done with the Wheat Kings, he’d spent a quarter of his life in Brandon. You know people inside and out, and I just always had a ton of respect for him.”

Craig was mature for his age.

“‘Craiger' has been 40 years old as long as I’ve known him,” McCrimmon said with a laugh. “As a young player, he was respected for the same things that he went on to be respected for as a junior and a pro: real good leadership ability.

“Before he was done in junior, you would have pegged him as a guy that was going to be involved in the game as a coach when he was done. I used to think maybe one day he’d coach the Wheat Kings -- not when he was 20 years old, but when he was 25 years old.”

Craig played pro hockey from 2003-17 -- five games in the ECHL, 711 in the AHL and 198 in the NHL. He played 184 games for Tampa Bay Lightning from 2005-10, six for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2010-11 and eight for the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2013-15.

He served as captain for nine of his 12 seasons in the AHL, wearing the “C” for Springfield (2005-06), Norfolk (2009-10), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (2010-12), Springfield again (2012-15) and Lake Erie/Cleveland (2015-17).

“He just had a great presence,” said Hynes, whose first two seasons as an AHL head coach were Craig’s two seasons with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. “He was a very thoughtful young guy. He led in two ways:

“First, he led as a player through the way he played. He was very smart, competed every night and practiced really well. That allowed him to build off that foundation.

“Second, he was great with young players. He was respected within the room and respected by the coaching staff. He could really toe the line as a captain, communicating with the coaches and understanding when the group needed to be pushed and when it didn’t.

“During those times when you do have to push a team or a group, he understood why, and he would be the first guy to work the hardest in practice, turn things around in a game or do whatever needed to be done.

“His feedback, his ability to lead the team, and the respect he had within the room allowed him to communicate effectively with the coaches. That was unique, to be honest with you.”

* * * * *

Craig reached a key point in 2010-11. After eight years with the Tampa Bay organization, he was transitioning to the Pittsburgh organization. He was 28 and thinking ahead.

“I loved the game and wanted to stay in the game,” Craig said. “For me, the closest way I could stay in the game to playing was coaching. You’re in the fight every day -- the wins, the losses, the preparation that goes into it. It’s what I’ve always enjoyed and what I wanted to stay in.”

Serving as captain put him in a good position to lead and learn.

“At that level, you’re privy to some things,” Craig said. “You’re the go-between for the coach and the players and the younger guys, and ‘Hynsie’ did a lot of that stuff with me to get me going. I started to keep a journal.”

Hynes didn’t know Craig was keeping a journal at first. He found out toward the end of their second season together.

“We didn’t necessarily talk coaching, but he was inquisitive,” Hynes said. “He’d ask, ‘What’s the philosophy behind this?’ or ‘Why do we do that?’ He was very in tune as a player. Whether he was on the bench, thinking about matchups, ice times, the flow of the game, or what needed to be said by the coaches or the leadership group during a game or between periods, he was dialed in.”

Craig kept jotting down notes as his playing career progressed.

Meanwhile, his teammates were learning from him.

Matt Calvert grew up watching Craig play in junior. He went on to play for the Wheat Kings himself from 2007-10 and skate with Craig in Brandon in the offseason, and he ended up playing with Craig for Springfield in 2012-13, when he turned 23 and Craig turned 31.

Craig would tone down and interpret coach Brad Larsen’s fiery message for the younger players.

“We always called him ‘the coach in the room,’” Calvert said. “He was a coach disguised as a player.”

Calvert would play 11 seasons in the NHL, for the Blue Jackets from 2010-18 and the Avalanche from 2018-21. He’s now a player development coach with the Nashville Predators. He lives near Craig on a Manitoba lake in the summer, and they remain friends.

“I could have been a 27-year-old in the NHL, considered myself maybe a leader, but every time I talked to ‘Craiger,’ I almost felt like a kid again, because he always has that right answer,” Calvert said. “Not in a one-up way. He’s just so calm and steady.

“I coach myself now, and when I tend to get a little fiery, I try to draw on what Ryan Craig does.”

Bednar coached Craig for four seasons. He was an assistant in Springfield from 2012-14, the head coach of Springfield in 2014-15 and the head coach of Lake Erie in 2015-16.

Craig was the captain of Bednar's Calder Cup championship team in 2016. Bednar became the coach in Colorado the following season and compared Craig to the captain of his Stanley Cup championship team in 2022, Gabriel Landeskog.

“Even-keel guy, big-picture guy, more worried about what everyone else is doing and how they’re feeling and how the team’s playing than his own personal success,” Bednar said. “But always really dialed in. Right-message, right-time kind of guy.

“And yeah, there was no question that, for me, if that’s what he wanted to pursue as a career -- like, to be able to coach after, get into management -- that he was a guy that was going to be able to do that.”

* * * * *

Craig retired as a player after the 2016-17 season.

Good timing.

The Golden Knights were entering their inaugural NHL season as an expansion team in 2017-18. McCrimmon was an assistant GM then, and coach Gerard Gallant was looking for an ex-player to be his third assistant.

“When Kelly and I first talked, it was, ‘Turk’ has to want to hire me,” Craig said. “Obviously, the opportunity that I was given to work with Gerard Gallant was huge to start out.”

Vegas went on a magical run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2018. McCrimmon was promoted to GM on May 2, 2019.

When DeBoer replaced Gallant on Jan. 15, 2020, Craig stayed on staff. The Golden Knights advanced as far as the third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2020 and 2021.

DeBoer said Craig was willing to do anything.

“That’s what I liked about him,” said DeBoer, now coach of the New York Islanders. “There was no job on my staff that he wasn’t willing to roll up his sleeves and work at.”

When Cassidy replaced DeBoer after the 2021-22 season, Craig stayed on staff again.

Cassidy didn’t know Craig. But Craig had institutional knowledge, and when Cassidy called the players, they spoke highly of him. Craig had played the game and paid his dues, and he had the right personality.

“He’s a likeable guy,” Cassidy said. “It’s his demeanor. He can get his point across, but he has a way about him that allows him to relate to players both young and old. It’s sometimes hard to describe. He was easygoing enough, but still firm enough in his beliefs that the guys knew he wasn’t going to be a pushover.”

After Vegas won the Cup in 2023, Craig had the opportunity to become the head coach in Henderson.

Again, good timing.

The feeling was that Craig needed to run his own bench in the AHL to be a head coach in the NHL someday. Henderson is a Las Vegas suburb, so Craig didn’t have to move his family. He could stay in the same organization.

“As time went on, we talked easily two or three times a week,” Cassidy said. “We’d get together occasionally, because we still lived close enough. We formed a friendship as well as a working relationship.

“If he had something he wanted to talk about, I was there for him. I’d go down to some of the games, because they were close, and then we’d talk afterward about what we saw. Sometimes he’d ask, ‘What did you think of this?’

“That was our relationship, and I thought he did a really good job down there. The young guys we called up were always prepared to play the way we wanted to play.”

The Henderson Silver Knights went 28-36-3-5 and finished eighth in the Pacific Division in 2023-24. They went 29-38-3-2 and finished 10th in the division in 2024-25. But last season, they went 39-21-7-5, finished third in the division and made the Calder Cup Playoffs.

During the Golden Knights’ run to the Cup Final, Craig observed Tortorella, whom he already knew a little bit. When Craig played for Lake Erie/Cleveland, Tortorella coached the parent club in Columbus. There are some notes on Tortorella in the journal too.

The AHL head coaching experience was invaluable for Craig.

“You make every decision,” McCrimmon said. “You run your staff. The development piece is ultra-important at that level, so he understood that part of it. I think the players had a ton of respect for him.

“The losses feel different when you’re a head coach versus an assistant coach. A three-game losing streak is much tougher. That’s just the nature of being the guy in charge.”

Craig brought up a concept he attributed to Sean McVay, coach of the NFL's Los Angeles Rams: You’re the thermostat. You decide the temperature every day through your messaging. You go to bed and wake up thinking about how to empower people.

“Until you sit in that chair, you don’t understand,” Craig said. “It’s good pressure, but it’s the pressure that goes with it to make decisions, to handle the business that needs to be handled.”

* * * * *

Of course, until you sit in that chair in the NHL, you don’t understand that, either.

“When you get to the NHL level, the biggest difference is the pace,” said Hynes, who left Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for his first NHL head coaching job with the New Jersey Devils in 2015-16. “The schedule comes at you fast. The games are coming every other day. They come at a higher rate than they do in the American League.

“Then you're dealing with superstar players and different levels of players throughout your roster. That's where the American League experience helps. Being a head coach there prepares you for that step.

“There's a reason he's been named head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights. He's been in the organization, gone through the process, and developed an identity as a coach. He's established things he truly believes in.

“The big thing is that you have to adapt to what you can't change, but you also have to be who you are as a coach. You have to believe in the process that got you there. At the same time, you need foundational principles that make Ryan who he is.

“Like all of us, he'll need to adapt, change and grow, both from season to season and within a season.”

What’s the biggest challenge Craig will face?

“The challenge will be the same one every first-time NHL head coach faces,” Cassidy said. “When it’s time to hold people accountable, how are you going to handle it?

“They have a lot of star players on that team. One of the biggest challenges for a first-time coach is determining whether players are going to try to take advantage of certain situations and how you’re going to respond. I think that’ll be the challenge for him.

“Other than that, delegating to his staff will be important. He’s familiar with most of the staff. Having honest communication with your general manager is important, too. He already has a relationship with Kelly McCrimmon, so some of those things are already baked in and will help him.

“Now it’s a matter of making the right in-game decisions: breaking up lines, getting a feel for where the team is physically and mentally, managing practice time, and all those things. He dealt with those responsibilities over the last three years at a lower level, but they’ll be much more scrutinized now at the NHL level.”

Craig and McCrimmon each said they talked hockey a lot when Craig was a player but not when Craig was a Vegas assistant, because McCrimmon respected the chain of command and spoke to the head coach.

They’re looking forward to talking hockey a lot again.

“Our relationship now is going to a different level in the sense of the head coach-GM relationship,” Craig said.

Craig faces unique pressure.

Vegas ranks fifth in wins (404) and first in playoff wins (76) since entering the NHL. The Golden Knights made the playoffs eight times in the past nine seasons. The goal remains the Cup.

If the Golden Knights struggle, critics will wonder if they should have kept Tortorella. They might say Craig got the job just because of McCrimmon.

Even if the Golden Knights succeed, who knows? Gallant, DeBoer, Cassidy and Tortorella each succeeded to a great degree. Cassidy lasted less than four seasons. DeBoer and Gallant each got less than three full seasons. Tortorella was out after two months.

That said, Craig has a unique opportunity.

Often coaches take over teams in trouble; Craig is taking over a perennial contender with which he has a background and support. He has the pieces he needs to win, and Vegas is always trying to improve the roster.

“It’s an opportunity to coach an organization that I’ve been part of for 10 years, that I know has invested in myself, an opportunity to lead a really motivated group of men to try to win the best prize in hockey,” Craig said.

“You’re focused on the day to day. I think you’re going to do that until the day you’re told you’re not allowed to do that. I don’t think anything that I’m doing is looking too far down the road. I think that as a coach is how you have to approach it.

“Things change quick in this league. We know that. But that’s one of the things that makes this chair I’m in so great. You get an opportunity to do that, and live that each and every day, and compete.”

No matter what happens, Craig has taken control of his career and life. Only he knows, but it sure seems he has put everything he can into it.

NHL.com independent correspondents Ryan Boulding and Stefen Rosner contributed