The Vegas Golden Knights named Ryan Craig their head coach on June 17, 2026, Kelly McCrimmon said, with the club declaring, "Craig becomes the fifth head coach in Vegas’ history."
Craig, 44, arrives after three seasons behind the bench for the Henderson Silver Knights. Henderson’s win total rose each year under his direction — 28 wins in 2023-24, 29 in 2024-25 and 39 in 2025-26 — and the club finished the 2025-26 regular season 39-21-12 for 90 points before advancing to the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs, where it lost to the Colorado Eagles.
Craig’s promotion reunites him with the NHL roster he helped build from the start. He was an assistant coach on Vegas’ inaugural staff and served six seasons with the organization from 2017 to 2023, a stretch that included a Stanley Cup title in 2023 and playoff berths in five of those six seasons.
That organizational continuity is the immediate rationale for the hire: Craig has been part of the Golden Knights system since day one, then translated that familiarity into measurable improvement in Henderson. He played eight NHL seasons, appearing in 198 NHL games, and logged 711 AHL games across a 14-year professional career; he captained nine AHL clubs and led the 2015-16 Lake Erie Monsters to a Calder Cup.
The move is not without friction. The Golden Knights promoted Craig after John Tortorella had already been informed on Tuesday that he would not be returning. The sequence places an internal promotion on top of a recent coaching change at the NHL level and frames Craig’s hiring as both a continuity play and a directional shift for the main club.
McCrimmon’s announcement formalizes a path many inside the organization had tracked: an assistant on the NHL staff, head coach of the AHL affiliate, then elevation to the top job. Craig’s steady results in Henderson — culminating in a 39-win season and a second-round playoff appearance in 2025-26 — are the core evidence the Golden Knights cited in making their choice.
Where Craig’s record raises the most urgent question is the one the team now faces: can the coach who improved an AHL club year by year translate that progress into wins and playoff success at the NHL level? That is the test the Golden Knights have set for their fifth head coach, and it is the single issue that will shape how this hire is judged in the months ahead.
