The Vegas Golden Knights hired Ryan Craig as their new head coach on Wednesday, making him the fifth coach in franchise history and turning to a familiar face from inside the organization. Craig arrives after three years coaching Henderson in the American Hockey League.
The move gives the club a coach who has been around the organization from the start. He joined Gerard Gallant’s staff in 2017, served as a lead assistant under Pete DeBoer from 2020-22 and stayed on through Bruce Cassidy’s first season in 2023 before moving to Henderson. That long runway matters because the Golden Knights are not hiring a stranger; they are elevating someone who has already worked every rung below the NHL bench.
The search comes after a season that kept raising the stakes around the job. Cassidy was fired on March 29 and replaced by John Tortorella, and Tortorella was informed Tuesday that he would not be returning. The timing shows how quickly the franchise moved from one bench boss to another, even after finishing 7-0-1 to claim a fifth Pacific Division title in nine years and reaching the Stanley Cup Final for the third time in nine years. The club lost that final in six games to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Craig’s case for the promotion was built in Henderson, where he spent three years and led the Silver Knights to the Calder Cup Playoffs this past season. Henderson closed the regular season 17-3-3, won its first Calder Cup Playoff series in team history by sweeping the San Jose Barracuda and then lost to the Colorado Eagles in four games in the second round. That track record gave the organization a clean way to measure him: a coach who could steady a team, get it into the playoffs and push it through a round for the first time.
What the move does not yet answer is whether Craig plans to remake the staff or keep the structure in place. The Golden Knights have not laid out immediate changes beyond the promotion itself, which leaves the first real test in how Craig translates his AHL record to a club that has already shown it can contend deep into spring. For now, the message is simpler than the unanswered questions: the next season will open with Ryan Craig behind the bench.
