Why Ryan Craig is right head coach to succeed John Tortorella with Golden Knights

The Vegas Golden Knights fired Bruce Cassidy with just eight games left in the regular season. John Tortorella took over for the final eight regular-season games, going 7-0-1. He then led them to the Stanley Cup Final, falling to the Carolina Hurricanes. Now, the team has decided not to bring back Tortorella, and the Golden Knights have hired Ryan Craig to be the next head coach.

Craig becomes the fifth head coach in franchise history. It has also been a history of winning with each head coach. Gerard Gallant coached from 2017 to 2020, going 118-75-20 while leading them to the playoffs in each season, including a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2018. Peter DeBoer then took over for Gallant mid-way through the 2019-20 season. He went 98-50-12 with two playoff berths.

Bruce Cassidy took over in 2022-23, leading the Golden Knights to a Stanley Cup victory while going 178-99-43 overall. He would lead the team until being fired during this last season, and Tortorella took over. Now, Craig gets the key to the car and will lead the franchise into the future. He was also the best choice for the job.

Craig’s leadership is undeniable 

The leadership of Craig has long been known. He was a captain when he played junior hockey for the Brandon Wheat Kings. He was also the captain of four different AHL teams. The Wheat Kings era is when Kelly McCrimmon, the current GM of the Golden Knights, got to know Craig. At the time, McCrimmon was not only the GM of the Wheat Kings but was also the owner and coach. He was asked if he wanted to keep coaching, and McCrimmon noted that he had no interest in staying in coaching. He was then asked who should be the head coach.

“Ryan Craig, whenever he retires from playing,” answered McCrimmon.

That would happen, just not with the Wheat Kings. McCrimmon left the Wheat Kings front office when he was hired by the expansion Golden Knights as the assistant general manager. That is when an opening became available on Gallant’s first coaching staff. McCrimmon suggested Craig and brought him to Vegas. The opinion that McCrimmon has of Craig is also shared by others, according to the Vegas GM.

“Interestingly, (Tortorella) had Ryan Craig as a player,” McCrimmon said. “He’s got the same opinion of Ryan Craig that most people do. I know he was disappointed because he did want to coach our team next year, but I know also he’s got a lot of regard for Ryan and a lot of respect for him.”

Craig is a leader, and now he gets his first chance to lead an NHL team.

There is familiarity with Craig and the team

When general manager Kelly McCrimmon was introducing the coaching hire, he spoke of the longevity Craig has with the team.

“We really wanted to give this opportunity to Ryan Craig, who’s been in our organization for nine years,” McCrimmon said. “I have pretty strong feelings about where I think our organization needs to go next. Ryan has been in our organization for nine years; six years with our team, three as a head coach in Henderson. He’s ready to be an NHL head coach.”

Craig knows the system the team runs and how the franchise runs, having been with the franchise since its inception. McCrimmon not only drafted Craig at the WHL level, but those days also brought Craig a relationship with multiple current players. His WHL days are when Craig’s relationship with Mark Stone and Brayden McNabb began.

Meanwhile, multiple players on the current roster, including McNabb, Stone, Rielly Smith, Shea Theodore, and Jack Eichel, all played under Craig when he was an assistant with the Golden Knights. Further, Pavel Dorofeyev and Kaeden Korczak, who are now making an impact at the NHL level, developed under Craig at the AHL level. The players know the coach, and the coach has a relationship with them, which could lead to a winning combination.

The Golden Knights hired a winner

Ryan Craig has proven himself to be a winner. In his playing career, he was a long-time captain at the AHL level. That included when he joined the Lake Erie Monsters, leading the team in the 2015-16 season when they won the Calder Cup. When his playing career ended, he was immediately named an assistant coach in the NHL with the expansion Golden Knights.

In his time with the Golden Knights, he helped lead two teams to the Stanley Cup Final and won the Stanley Cup with the team in 2023. Craig also led the AHL Silver Knights to their best season this past year. Winning and a winning culture were important for the hire, and something that general manager Kelly McCrimmon points out when discussing the hire.

“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, and it’s interesting. We went in 2018, 2023, 2026, and what that tells you is, that’s three completely different teams. It’s not like we went three times in four years with 90 percent of our nucleus remaining over the same period of time.”

Now, Craig is tasked with continuing the winning culture, and he was the perfect hire to do so.

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