Ryan Craig officially introduced as Golden Knights head coach
Derek Hegna
Host · Writer
The Ryan Craig era of the Vegas Golden Knights is officially underway.
On Thursday, a day after Craig was announced as the fifth head coach in Golden Knights history, he was introduced to the media by general manager Kelly McCrimmon.
“Very proud day for the organization,” said McCrimmon during his opening statement about Craig’s hiring.
“I’ve had a long relationship with Ryan. It’s amazing the text messages I’ve got in the last day from former teammates, people who have been associated with him. Everybody knew this day was going to come for Ryan.”
Craig and McCrimmon knew each other from the former’s days of playing for the Brandon Wheat Kings in the Western Hockey League while the latter served as owner and general manager. McCrimmon would recommend Craig for an assistant coaching role for the Golden Knights, and he has served in various capacities within the organization since. After spending the past three seasons serving as head coach of Vegas’ AHL affiliate Henderson Silver Knights, McCrimmon has now decided that Craig was ready to make the jump to the big club.
“It’s a great day for myself, for my family,” said Craig during his opening statement.
“I’ve had the pleasure to be in the organization for nine years. It’s been a privilege to work with the guys I’ve been able to work with that have mentored me, starting with Gerard Gallant, Mike Kelly, Ryan McGill through Steve Spott and Peter DeBoer, Bruce Cassidy, Misha Donskov and a number of others. It’s important that I acknowledge them because they’ve helped lay the groundwork for me to get where I am today.”
The press conference to introduce Craig was well-attended, with Golden Knights president of hockey operations George McPhee and captain Mark Stone also present.
Craig talked about how the journey to becoming a head coach started even during his playing days. He played under a number of former and current head coaches, including John Tortorella, Jared Bednar and John Hynes, gradually learning what it would take to make it as a coach when his playing days were finished.
“When the journey started, I was still putting on my two knee braces and my gear,” joked Craig.
“As I decided that it was time to step away from playing and was afforded the opportunity and the privilege to come here to Vegas, I think what you learn is what goes into the day-to-day of being a coach at a high level.”
Between his time as an assistant coach in Vegas to head coach in Henderson, Craig enters his new role with pre-established relationships with many of his new players. Even though this is the first time Craig is serving as a head coach at the NHL level, he is confident that their is enough mutual respect built in between them and a shared goal that will keep them all motivated.
“I’ve used a quote over the years from [Los Angeles Rams head coach] Sean McVay is you become the thermostat. You control the temperature of the room,” mentioned Craig.
“I believe that’s one of the things you haven’t experienced until you sit in that chair. As an assistant coach, you can throw ideas around and focus on the area you’re responsible for, such as the penalty kill or power play, whatever it may be. As the head coach, you go to bed every night thinking about what the message is, and you wake up thinking about what the message is. Until you experience that, I believe that’s something you can’t fully understand.”
While Craig’s assistants are still unclear at this moment in time, McCrimmon stated that that has become the next order of business. This will be on top of reconstructing the roster for next season, which could include some call-ups from Henderson.
“I have a relationship with those guys. That would be the main thing is they know who I am and my expectations, but I do have that with a lot of guys in this locker room too,” said Craig.
“There’s a lot of good people in Henderson, a lot of good players in Henderson. We’ve built over three years continually to get better. Some of those guys that we’re talking about have been there for three years; others have been there for one or two. There are guys pushing and knocking on the door. Their job is to make our decisions hard and push and continue to grow their game.”
While the Golden Knights face one of the more unpredictable offseasons in their history, they now have their first major decision out of the way. Tortorella was able to take Vegas two wins away from their second Stanley Cup, and McCrimmon and company now hope Craig can take them to the promised land.
