Minnesota Wild Hire Former Charlotte Rush Video Coach Ray Sylvester 

By Joshua Boyd / USPHL.com

Ray Sylvester knows that his new coaching position in the NHL will be a Wild ride, and he can’t wait to get started.

Sylvester, a former Charlotte Rush video coach, was recently hired by the Minnesota Wild as a video coach. Players in the USPHL receive top-notch coaching, as shown by Sylvester’s career path.  

This is the pinnacle of a video coach career path that started in the NCAA, moved into the USPHL Premier and Elite, then on to the United States Hockey League and American Hockey League, and now sees Sylvester as a member of an NHL hockey operations staff.

“I had a couple interviews with [Wild head coach] John Hynes, who already knew about me as I was with their farm team, the Iowa Wild,” said Sylvester. 

“From talking to different people, two of the biggest changes will be working with a video coach who has already spent 15+ years in the NHL to learn from, and the challenge system,” Sylvester added.  

Sylvester, who worked as video coach for the Rush between 2020 and 2022, also talked about other details about his new position, including some of the similarities with what he did with the Iowa Wild from 2023 to 2025. 

“I would watch prescout games and create prescout packages. You break the game down into categories – time on ice, scoring chances, special teams. You also have other jobs like building practice plans, making sure Excel sheets are in line, creating a power point for the coaches,” he added. “During intermissions, you’d present to the coaches what happened the prior period, using hot buttons to mark certain events that they want to focus on before the next period.” 

Building A Career

After playing high school hockey with Canon-MacMillan High School in Canonsburg, Pa., he moved on to study at Robert Morris University in nearby Pittsburgh. There, he met current Rush co-owner Ryan Cruthers, who was an assistant coach for the NCAA Division I Colonials team. Cruthers, a former Colonials captain, became close friends with Sylvester at RMU when Sylvester was the RMU video coach as a college junior. 

That same season, 2019-20, was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the uncertainty on whether or not there would be collegiate hockey left Sylvester wondering where he could next take his career. 

“Not knowing what was going on, Ryan reached out to me and told me the USPHL was definitely going to play, so he brought me on board as their video coach for the next two seasons. This included 2020-21, when the Rush won both the USPHL Premier and USPHL Elite National Championships. 

“I keep those championship rings in a safe space,” he said. “They’re pretty big, so I don’t wear them around.” 

“Working for the Rush was well-needed. I was allowed to make mistakes, and I learned how a business and a hockey team is run. Similar to my time in the AHL, I was wearing 8-10 hats, whether it was making a practice plan, selling merchandise, making sure there was food on the bus, etc.,” said Sylvester. “You could not fit in a single article how much I learned from the Rush and Ryan Cruthers. For my two years there, we treated it like it was the NHL. Certainly, not many USPHL teams had a video coach position. 

“Ryan and Julie Cruthers really are No. 1 in terms of how they treat their players, their staff, and their billet families. They and [co-owner] Jocelyn Langlois really have it down to a science there in Charlotte. I lived two years with the Cruthers family in their home. Their children became like brothers to me, as well. I’m very close with that family, and I also keep in touch with Trevor Jewell, and Troy Schwab, who was a coach there at the time.”

When Cruthers was hired by the Sioux Falls Stampede as an assistant coach in 2022-23, he was able to help Sylvester get a job as the Stampede’s video coach that year. 

“After that season, I reached out to Keith Paulsen, who was Iowa’s former video coach. He was someone I made a connection with, seeking advice while I was still at RMU. I messaged him after I saw he was moving on from Iowa to Minnesota State-Mankato as an assistant coach, and he put my resume for Iowa at the top of the list, for which I am very grateful. I had two interviews with Brett McLean [Iowa’s former Head Coach, recently hired as an Assistant Coach with the Vancouver Canucks], and I was hired by Iowa.” 

 

Preparing For The NHL Life

He goes back to praising the Charlotte Rush culture when talking about when the news was posted by the Wild that he had been hired as their new video coach. 

“I got a ton of different texts of congratulations from Rush players, and this includes alumni who were on the team even before I got there,” said Sylvester. “That just shows you how much of a family it is. The amount of players who reached out and said ‘congrats’ was pretty cool.” 

With his time in Iowa, he got to know most of the Minnesota Wild coaching staff and hockey operations personnel. The Iowa staff would help with prospects and training camps, so Sylvester was alongside many of those he’ll be working with more regularly now in St. Paul. 

“We’ve known each other, including Patrick Dwyer, an assistant coach in Iowa who was promoted during the 2023-24 season to the Minnesota Wild,” said Sylvester. 

Expecting the almost 24-7 grind of the NHL season, Sylvester said that the organization has given him a chance to spend family and vacation time. 

“There are some different things with video from last year, and some power point materials to prepare for when we meet for the first time as a full staff,” said Sylvester. “During the off-season, many coaches spend time with their families.”

What is ahead is a great new opportunity for a young coach to put his positive stamp on an NHL franchise for the first time. 

The USPHL congratulates Ray Sylvester for his new position with the Minnesota Wild.