Golden Knights director of entertainment experience cherishing role in Final

LAS VEGAS -- The siren sounded. The wind howled. Lightning flashed and thunder crashed and rain poured.

The Carolina Hurricanes were coming, hoping to defeat the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday, and it was time for the latest episode of the famous pregame show at T-Mobile Arena.

As Tyler Ferraro called out the cues into his headset from his perch atop Section 14, it was a perfect storm.

The 31-year-old grew up a huge Hurricanes fan in Raleigh, North Carolina. His dad, Frank, is a Hurricanes season-ticket member and wore a Hurricanes jersey in the stands. His mom, Robin, works at the Hurricanes home arena, at an athletic performance center the Hurricanes once used and was at a Hurricanes watch party in Raleigh.

Tyler had worked for Vegas since it joined the NHL as an expansion team in 2017-18, and now his worlds were colliding in a championship series. As director of entertainment experience, his job was to help the valiant Golden Knight defeat the evil invaders.

"For me personally, I've dreamt up this open for nine years," he said. "Like, I've always wanted this to happen."

The Vegas drummers, also known as the "Knight Line," played through the rain, water splashing up as their drumsticks pounded down. Two characters shrouded in black stood on the ice holding hurricane warning flags as a Mother Nature character cackled. The Golden Knight skated out to face her.

The storm swirled as Mother Nature rose 30 feet into the air and threw her fury at the Golden Knight. But he withstood it, and he called upon the crowd to use its energy to weaken a Category 5 monster into a little drizzle before the teams took the ice for what would be a 5-4 double-overtime victory for Vegas.

Through it all, Tyler called out cues, directing everything from the characters to the drummers to the pyrotechnics. "Mother Nature up!" "Mother Nature down!" "Knight Line hop!" "Knight Line hop two!" "Go red fire!" "Go gold fire!"

And he had no mixed emotions.

"I'm 100 percent Vegas," he said. "I'm all in."

Tyler's story illustrates how the NHL has grown the game and provided opportunities for people.

He was born on Long Island, but his parents moved to Raleigh when he was little. The Hartford Whalers moved to Carolina and became the Hurricanes in 1997. His dad, who was a New York Islanders fan, introduced him to the Hurricanes.

His parents took him to Hurricanes games. His mom took him to their Stanley Cup parade in 2006 and NHL All-Star Weekend in Raleigh in 2011, when he saw the players walk down the red carpet. He had a little red memory box with confetti from the parade, a mini Stanley Cup replica and plenty of jerseys.

Among his favorite players? Rod Brind'Amour, who is now Carolina's coach, and Eric Staal, whose brother Jordan Staal is Hurricanes captain.

He eventually took his then-girlfriend, Taylor, to Hurricanes games on dates.

When the NHL awarded Las Vegas an expansion team June 22, 2016, he was intrigued. He became a Hurricanes fan by default because of his parents, and it was great. This was a chance to choose a team.

The Golden Knights announced their name Nov. 22, 2016. That Christmas, he got Vegas merch.

"I'm like, 'They're going to be my West Coast team. I'm going to root for them. I'm going to cheer for them. Watching an expansion team, as a hockey fan, this is going to be interesting. I haven't seen this,'" Tyler said. "But then I was just like, 'I don't want to just root for them. I want to be part of the reason why people root for them.'"

Tyler graduated from the University of North Carolina Wilmington with a film studies degree in May 2017 and joined the Golden Knights as a 22-year-old intern the next month, right after the expansion draft. On game nights in their inaugural season, he produced the castle stage at T-Mobile Arena.

The night before the Golden Knights hosted the Washington Capitals in Game 5 of the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, he invited Taylor to a rehearsal and surprised her with a marriage proposal at the castle -- smoke shooting up from the turrets and confetti streamers shooting into the air with help from the game presentation department.

She said yes.

An Elvis impersonator married them at Little Church of the West on June 29, 2019.

"I'm stupid lucky," Tyler said. "It's incredibly humbling, and I'm incredibly grateful. I didn't think I was going to be here this long. I just wanted to help get things off the ground, and then they made me full time, and then I'm still here."

His parents are proud, although they handle their loyalties differently.

Dad is rooting for Carolina and letting everyone know it.

"There's some good, friendly family banter going around," Frank said. "Oh, yeah. We're chirping. Big time."

Mom is outwardly neutral, but when the Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup in 2023, Tyler bought her a replica ring. The top of it comes off so it can be worn like a pendant. She had it in her pocket Saturday.

"I do love my Canes, but he's my kid, so family comes first," Robin said.

Robin works in guest services on the suite level at Lenovo Center in Raleigh. She had the suite where Carolina forward Seth Jarvis' buddies were sitting earlier in the series. From working as front office coordinator at the athletic performance center, she knows Brind'Amour, Jordan Staal and some other Hurricanes.

"She's like, 'Tyler, go to Jordan Staal. Tell him you're Robin's son,'" Tyler said. "I'm like, 'I'm not going to go to Jordan Staal.' He's warming up, playing soccer down there. I'm like, 'Not (going to) do it.'"

Mom laughed when she heard that.

"I mean, everybody in the Lenovo Center knows that my son works for the Vegas Golden Knights," she said.

Everyone in the Golden Knights entertainment department knows Tyler once loved the Hurricanes too, especially after the brainstorming process for this pregame show.

"Everyone in the office is kind of sick and tired of me now, because I'm like, 'Here's hurricane terminology. Here's the direction the hurricane should spin,'" Tyler said. "I'm so passionate about this one specifically."

Yep. Perfect storm.

"This is my home," Tyler said. "I chose this place. I chose this team.

"I will always, always, always want the best for Carolina, cheer for Carolina. I love that building. I love that franchise. I will always root for their success, and from afar I've had the best time watching them have success in the playoffs. I've wanted them to get over the hump they just got over.

"Unfortunately, they ran into my team now."