The Vegas Golden Knights made it official. Ryan Craig is the new head coach. That’s their fifth coach in franchise history, and if the pattern holds, he’ll win at an absurd rate. The Knights don’t hire people who lose.
Bruce Cassidy got fired with eight games left this past regular season. John Tortorella stepped in, went 7-0-1 down the stretch, took Vegas all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, and lost to Carolina. Then the team decided not to bring him back. That’s not a normal move, but nothing about this franchise has been normal since day one.
Craig becomes the guy tasked with keeping the machine running. And he knows the machine better than almost anyone.
A Leader, Long Before the Headset
Nobody in hockey doubts Ryan Craig’s ability to lead a room. He was a captain in junior hockey with the Brandon Wheat Kings. He then captained four different AHL teams. That includes the 2015-16 Lake Erie Monsters, the team he led to a Calder Cup title.
Kelly McCrimmon, the Golden Knights’ general manager, goes way back with Craig. McCrimmon owned, coached, and ran the Wheat Kings back when Craig was the team’s captain. Someone asked McCrimmon if he wanted to keep coaching. McCrimmon said no. Then they asked who should get the job next.
“Ryan Craig, whenever he retires from playing,” McCrimmon said then.
It didn’t happen with the Wheat Kings. McCrimmon left for the Golden Knights’ front office before the expansion season. When Gerard Gallant needed an assistant coach, McCrimmon brought Craig to Vegas. That was 2017. Craig has been in the organization ever since — six seasons as an NHL assistant, three as head coach of the AHL affiliate in Henderson.
He Already Knows the Room
That longevity matters. Craig has direct relationships with the core of this roster. Mark Stone and Brayden McNabb go back with him to their junior hockey days. Jack Eichel, Shea Theodore, Reilly Smith — all played under Craig when he was an assistant with the big club. Pavel Dorofeyev and Kaeden Korczak developed under him in the AHL before becoming NHL contributors.
Players know the coach. The coach knows the players. That doesn’t guarantee wins, but it sure beats walking into a room full of strangers.
Even Tortorella, who wanted the job himself, vouched for Craig. McCrimmon mentioned that Tortorella had Craig as a player and came away with the same impression everyone else does. Respect runs both ways there.
The Winning Habit
Craig has been part of two Stanley Cup Final runs in Vegas. He won the Cup as an assistant in 2023. He also just led Henderson to the best season in that franchise’s short history. The guy doesn’t lose often.
McCrimmon pointed out something interesting about the Knights’ run. They’ve been to three Finals in nine years — 2018, 2023, and this past season in 2026. But those were three different teams. The core changed. The coaches changed. The stars shifted. The winning didn’t stop.
“I think people have a hard time explaining why we win as much as we do,” McCrimmon said. “We’ve been in the Stanley Cup Final three times in nine years. That tells you, that’s three completely different teams.”
Now Craig is the one responsible for keeping that culture alive. He’s been around long enough to know how it works. And for the first time, the job is his.
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